Clever kitchen design
Discussion
We went to a 'specialist chain' - and in a straight run in a symmetric room got four different sizes of cabinets in an illogical order (just so the designer could make up the room width as closely as possible). The designer was absolutely clueless, but convinced his company produced 'quality kitchens'.
Then we went to a company that advertises on TV and sends round 'consultants'. He was only interested in telling us about the bigger and better kitchen he had installed for another client, paid absolutely no interest to what we wanted out of the room, dashed off a generic design (throwing in a few 'cool feature items' that I'm sure would impress some people) and told us it would be a flat fee regardless of what we changed or compromised on.
Finally we went to a local kitchen company that installs various brands. The designer talked through our needs and expectations, went away and came back a week later saying "I tried to design what you asked for, but it doesn't work too well - so I tried a couple of alternatives and I think this one might be better." He was right - he knew the best way to make use of the space and the units that would make it possible.
The moral of this story is go to a handful of companies and see what they come up with. It's very hard to quantify what a good designer can bring to the table - after all, anyone can juggle the layout of boxes on a floor plan. However, a well designed kitchen (or house) just 'feels right', and that's something that takes both proper training and some natural talent to achieve.
Then we went to a company that advertises on TV and sends round 'consultants'. He was only interested in telling us about the bigger and better kitchen he had installed for another client, paid absolutely no interest to what we wanted out of the room, dashed off a generic design (throwing in a few 'cool feature items' that I'm sure would impress some people) and told us it would be a flat fee regardless of what we changed or compromised on.
Finally we went to a local kitchen company that installs various brands. The designer talked through our needs and expectations, went away and came back a week later saying "I tried to design what you asked for, but it doesn't work too well - so I tried a couple of alternatives and I think this one might be better." He was right - he knew the best way to make use of the space and the units that would make it possible.
The moral of this story is go to a handful of companies and see what they come up with. It's very hard to quantify what a good designer can bring to the table - after all, anyone can juggle the layout of boxes on a floor plan. However, a well designed kitchen (or house) just 'feels right', and that's something that takes both proper training and some natural talent to achieve.
rich0411 said:
Hiya I have worked for magnet for a fair few years and my kitchen designer in branch has been doing it for a lot of years now.
I've used Magnet recently to design a very small kitchen with a large boiler that needs hiding away. They've been excellent so far, the 3D renderings they produce are very useful. They seem to have lots of unusual sizes of units and doors as well.We had Moben in to do our kitchen - the room's narrow with offset doors either end so not ideal but managed to work things so we hav much more storage and workspace plus everything's more accessible.
Getting an experienced designer in will help but we already knew what we wanted to do and he mostly confirmed our plans and added a few nice features to make more use of available space.
Getting an experienced designer in will help but we already knew what we wanted to do and he mostly confirmed our plans and added a few nice features to make more use of available space.
Ultimately there are only so many ways you can arrange a series of boxes in a room! The smaller the kitchen, the fewer the options. There's a tendency to try to cram in as many units as possible, but then you lose much needed visual space.
Edited by Simpo Two on Friday 16th July 11:47
Our kitchen is average size but messy with the standard sized units that I installed myself first time we did it.
Last time I used a local kitchen manufacturer and they make all the units and doors themselves so random widths and depths were fine.
They're in Cheshire so probably doesn't help you but I Googled and one of the first hits is this place in Kent http://www.ikd-int.co.uk/index.html which seems a similar sort of set-up (obviously I don't know anything about them). I think there are tons of similar places around but many of them probably come and go quite quickly.
Last time I used a local kitchen manufacturer and they make all the units and doors themselves so random widths and depths were fine.
They're in Cheshire so probably doesn't help you but I Googled and one of the first hits is this place in Kent http://www.ikd-int.co.uk/index.html which seems a similar sort of set-up (obviously I don't know anything about them). I think there are tons of similar places around but many of them probably come and go quite quickly.
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