How to Get That Dream Handmade Bespoke Kitchen for Less

How to Get That Dream Handmade Bespoke Kitchen for Less

As the suppliers of high-end handmade bespoke kitchens at affordable prices, we find that our customers tend to be people who visit the stunning high street shops, fall deeply in love with the kitchens, only to look at the price and have a heart attack.

The next step for them tends to be Google and searches such as “affordable handmade kitchens” or “Bespoke handmade kitchens direct” and that’s where they find Classic Kitchens Direct.

We see quotes from these high end suppliers all the time and often ourselves we baulk at the prices they want for them.

But either way a kitchen is an expensive investment, and in our view there are four distinct cost areas to consider, and each can change the overall price by a little or a lot with just a few choices.

Cost of a Kitchen

The first cost to look at are the cabinets themselves – these like everything else in life come as good quality ones, average ones and not so good ones, you also have brand names and non-brand names to consider.

Kitchen Cabinet Prices

On an average size kitchen quote we see the prices range between the lowest (standard off the shelf kitchens) to our handmade kitchens and can be anywhere from £5,000 for an average size kitchen in the cheapest range to £7,500 for a handmade kitchen, this can mean £2500 extra or £2500 less depending on your final choice.

What You Need to Look at in Cabinets

The most important factor in cost of a kitchen is what cabinets are made of (doors and panels), the cabinet itself (the insides) and drawers.

The door fronts can be “Vinyl Wrap” also known as “Foil Wrapped” and, to be honest, this has a really bad name in the kitchen world as it is fraught with problems, coming unwrapped easily or melting when close to ovens, kettles, sinks or toasters.  Not good for a kitchen!  But I would estimate that probably around 70% of kitchens in the UK are actually made from this vinyl wrap, primarily as it is cheap and available in a lot of colours and styles.

You then move up to Acrylic faced doors, which tend to be slab shape in various colours but don’t have the delamination issues, then up to enamelled doors, again in various styles and shapes and lots of colours and finally up to wooden doors, which can be either natural or painted.

If you’re looking for bespoke kitchen for less, remember that the price difference between a basic cabinet and the top end with us can be around 50%.

But when we see quotes from other branded high end kitchens we are often more than 50% cheaper.

Worktops

Worktops in our opinion is one of the places that can really add or subtract from the overall cost of a kitchen.

A standard laminate worktop for a kitchen will be around £750 for a standard size kitchen.

Whereas something like Dekton (a combination of glass and ceramic) could be around £4,000.

In between you get solid wood worktops and composites worktops.

Each will have its benefits and drawbacks, which we will explore more in future blogs.

Appliances

Again, branding has a lot to do with the cost of appliances – but I am a true believer that “You get what you pay for” with appliances.

Top quality brands for a standard Kitchen could end up costing £5,000+ whereas “home” branded items may be £2,000

If you buy a Miele or Siemens appliance you wouldn’t be surprised if they are still going strong 15 years later, but if you buy a “home branded” appliance unfortunate the same probably won’t be true.

In between there are lots of middle range brands, some with brand names others without. One important factor is the warranty they offer, many of the middle/higher end ones have a two-year warranty but it is easily possible to also find lower/middle appliances with a 5-year warranty.

Fitting

Unless you are planning to fit the kitchen yourself, you will need help and help costs money.

This is one area we would suggest not scrimping on when planning on cost of a kitchen.

We often see “builders” who say they can fit a kitchen, but in our opinion should really stick to building and not kitchen fitting!

A good fitter is worth the cost, and can take a cheap kitchen and make it look a million dollars, whereas a bad fitter can take a great kitchen and make it look awful.

Overall we feel that whatever the first quote you get for your kitchen cost isn’t set in stone, a few tweaks here and there can make what seems unaffordable into a reality.

Whoever you get your kitchen quote from, our advice would be “Don’t just go by the price” if its too high, tell them and they will be able to make suggestions where you can save money on.