It’s probably the ultimate oxymoron, but I thought I’d do a bit of research on cool kitchens within some sort of reasonable budget. Alas, we’ve decided that our kitchen won’t end up being done this year so we’ll continue to cook one pot meals on camping stoves until at least 2020 but this post has been useful research for me, too, so at least we will be well informed when we do start the works.
I suppose I need to start with a bit of a disclaimer and mention that I am giving images, brands and rough prices here, however, every kitchen is different and has different requirements so it is still worth calling/visiting/emailing to see what kind of deal you can get. Some of these quotes include utilities, some worktops etc….plus I’m kind of a mix and match girl so would most likely go for cheaper cabinets but then perhaps source a more expensive worktop from somewhere else. However you want to do it: it’s good to have options. So here you go:
IKEA
Every time I walk through Ikea, I stop and look at the kitchens (just because!) and rarely find one I don’t like. The introduction of the online kitchen planner, as well as the option of mix and match means you can pretty much get a bespoke kitchen on an, erm, Ikea budget.
I would love to tell you more but when I enquired, I was simply sent a generic press release and a photo of a woman instore rather than any of the beautiful imagery they have on their site. They also gave us no info on starting prices, so you’ll have to guess it’s affordable and ogle over Kate’s beautiful Ikea kitchen instead (thanks for helping me with imagery, Kate!).
Another point to mention is that a few people have told me their Ikea kitchens are great but they found it hard to get their builder to fit it. Or sometimes, if you buy the Ikea fitted appliances and they break, the kitchen might not be in production anymore so you’re left with an Ikea-only sized hole to fill. So if you are going with Ikea, make sure you check with your builder that they are happy to fit it and research appliances first.
B&Q
I actually wouldn’t have really considered a B&Q kitchen before but looking at the prices, they look really good. This kitchen here, the Westleigh, starts from £879.
PLYKEA
I love this. Two guys, one design director and the other the owner of a furniture design studio, saw a gap in the market for custom-made plywood fronts and worktops to Ikea cabinets (other brands existed that made custom-fronts but most were still very expensive). Minimum order is £1000 and you can access a breakdown of costs here).
REFORM CPH
Again, bridging the gap between the love of joinery and traditional carpentry with more affordable pricepoints, you can send them your Ikea kitchen plan along with your preferred kitchen design for a quote. The style below is called ‘Basis’ and a small kitchen would cost around £2500 (including the Ikea units, too).
WICKES
As someone who has never actually bought a kitchen before (the one in our last flat was totally liveable and nice and well, we just don’t really have one currently), I must admit I would never really have looked at Wickes but they have some lovely ones! This one below, Esker Gloss, starts at £2086.
CUSTOM FRONTS
Another Ikea front brand, but aren’t these gorgeous? Set up by husband and wife duo, British craftsmanship but with a Scandinavian/Japanese eye for design (no wonder I love). Obviously, every kitchen is different and priced individually but for example, oiled birch plywood cabinets for a kitchen cost between £1500 and £3000.
WREN
The Shaker style is amongst Wren’s most popular kitchens, the below kitchen starts at £1852. They have a few ranges, and Vogue is the most affordable, flat-packed version.
HOLTE
Again, these are gorgeous fronts and worktops to make your Ikea cabinets feel bespoke. Prices start from £2920 including worktops (£880 for fronts only), they also sell gorgeous brass handles which can completely transform the look of your kitchen.
HUSK
Foolishly, I didn’t add this one originally as I felt the whole post was going a bit ‘Ikea Fronts’ but, after someone mentioned on Twitter and I took a look properly, I was really impressed by Husk. What I like is that they give a clear breakdown on their site of costs, here is an example on their site:
Ikea Cabinets: £115.00 (£23.00 per cabinet)
Husk Fronts: £928.00 (£110.00 per door + end panels and plinth)
Oak Worktop made in house: £580.00
Sink: £321.00
Tap: £350.50
Handles: £47.50 (£9.50 per handle)
Total: £2342.00 inc VAT
I would also like to add that it is worth not completely writing off more made to measure, seemingly ‘expensive’ brands. For instance, British Standard (the sister company of Plain English – pretty much the last word in luxury kitchens) was launched to address the gap in the market for more affordable yet luxury, hand-made kitchens. Prices vary but some can cost around £6,000 which is excellent value for solid wood drawers etc….so it is worth getting in touch to see what you can get if your budget stretches.
Another brand to look into are 80/20, a range that came about after the team behind Naked Kitchens discovered that some of their customers wanted all the look of their kitchens but on a tighter budget. 80/20 kitchens are from around £7,000, but they also offer the option of using Naked doors on your pre-existing carcasses and cabinets from around £2000.
And I can’t not mention DEVOL, a brand I discovered after seeing Pearl Lowe’s kitchen a few years ago – their Instagram account is one of my favourites (even just for inspiration to see how you can adapt your own in terms of space!) and usually their kitchens start at £12,000. But the kitchen below came in at £5,000 so it is worth going to them with your budget and perhaps working backwards to achieve what you want. After all, a kitchen is (usually) for life.
EDIT July 2020 – we have a kitchen! We ended up going with DIY Kitchens (although it was very close between Ikea or Husk custom fronts) but we are very happy with the results/costs. I will do an updated post on affordable kitchens soon, and then a renovation post on the new kitchen – stay tuned!
Thanks Alex for the round up. We are having a small extension done at the moment which will create a dining and living area onto our existing kitchen which will need to be redone. I’ve had British Standard and Naked on my list but also DIY KITCHENS who are a scandi brand and have a showroom up north. They got a top Which report rating. Also a German kitchen company called Das Kuchen are another one on my list after I saw my friends kitchen. Mid price point but very good quality. I’m sure your eventual kitchen will look fab. And even more enjoyable cos you’ve had to wait for it. We’ve been planning our extension for years!
Love this post – I also have to give a shout out to DIY Kitchens. We have just ordered ours and it came in at HALF the price of Howdens. It’s all online, except for a showroom near York (I think), but you can order door samples to test in the light at home. You have to plan your own kitchen (we used the plan we had made up from Howdens!), but they check your plans over before putting through your order. Lead time was a little long, but highly recommend.
The units come fully built – my husband is a carpenter, he said it’s the easiest kitchen he’s ever fitted and he was really impressed with the quality. It should save on labour too if it takes half the time to fit!
We are just in the process of fitting our IKEA kitchen with fronts from Reform and it is absolutely stunning – we couldn’t be happier. That being said, with the Reform fronts (which came in around £4000 incl. shipping) and a silestone countertop (around £2000) our kitchen is no longer “IKEA priced”. However, the quotes we received from other companies that did similar styles were at least twice as expensive. Also, the Reform fronts feel of a much higher quality than IKEA’s own fronts.
Initially, we were worried that the logistics of buying the fronts, countertop, cabinets and appliances from different suppliers would be tricky, but as we had room to store them and have them ready by the time we would install it actually went surprisingly smoothly.
Although mixing and matching like this takes a lot of time and effort – I’d say it’s worth it if your budget is limited but you still want your dream kitchen!
We were going to have an Ikea kitchen. We’d already decided on a non Ikea bathroom (Ikea didn’t do anything suitable, So we went for a local Danish brand), and we decided to see how much it would cost to get the same units in the kitchen and utility. The difference wasn’t huge, we had the advantage of getting them locally (Ikea is 90 mins away), and their service was second to none!
Our kitchen is ten years old, and still in production – it doesn’t feel dated. And the best bit, pan drawers – I’d certainly recommend getting as many as possible (we’ve only got three base cupboards – corner, under sink, and one for those appliances we don’t want on the work tops).
Oh and btw, I heard someone say that you’d lose the top drawer if you go for an induction hob – we have both induction and fully functioning top drawer. An induction hob does need a little extra ventilation, but it’s not a problem (husband’s an electrician, so he knows what he’s talking about). In fact no-one buys non induction electric hobs in Denmark anymore!
We put an ikea kitchen into our old house and it was brilliant. Love all the drawer organisers and stuff they do too. The quality of the carcasses etc was really good and it looked like new when we sold the house 18 months later!
In our new house we used DIY kitchens and they were an absolute nightmare to deal with. The quality of the fittings etc is good and they do a brilliant range of different size cabinets and pull outs etc, but the whole process is VERY DIY and we had so many wrong / missing parts on our order that fitting took forever. Not impressed with the finish either, we got it custom painted in Farrow & Ball Hague Green and we already have a few chips on the doors ?
Really don’t understand why they are so highly rated tbh. It wasn’t especially cheap either, once you add end panels and soft close hinges etc it is no cheaper than any other high St kitchen company. Certainly a lot more expensive than IKEA!
I reckon ikea cabinets with custom fronts is the way to go! Definitely worth splashing out on decent worktops if you can too. We have got Silestone in our new kitchen and I absolutely love them!
Also you can save so much by buying everything yourself rather than from a kitchen company! We bought our own appliances, sink, worktops, handles, open shelving etc and got a fitter to put it all in (and my husband did some of it himself). Saved £1000s!
We have a DIY kitchens kitchen and its amazing quality! You can have the units custom coloured (they even do Farrow and Ball) and there are no pushy sales, definitely worth a look.
Oh this is so good to know, not heard of them before! xx
This post is exactly what I need as planning my kitchen renovation at the moment. Keep us updated on your plans Alex. Xx
We have done 2 kitchens. The first B and Q. Wonderful design (although we did a lot ourself) and great quality. Brilliant fitters, but dreadful delivery issues from B and Q. But it turned out wonderful and everything was perfect. The second, expensive and highly recommended kitchen fitter. Independent and hopefully now retired. He didn’t listen to what we wanted, tried to overrule our decisions, didn’t resubmit plans before starting work and was generally difficult and arrogant to deal with. Good quality fittings but 10 years on lots of little niggles (liveable with but shouldn’t be for the price) and not enough plugs!
So, it isn’t always getting what you pay for and don’t overlook B and Q – but do keep a good eye on them!
We bought an Ikea kitchen 3.5 years ago cannot fault the quality of it a few years later, our Ikea kitchen came in 2k cheaper than other places we looked we sourced everything else work tops, taps appliances and it was most cost effective option for us. Although our joiner did say that he would never fit an Ikea kitchen again our house is an old cottage so nothing is level so lots of adjustments had to be made !
We made a special trip from Cheshire to Norfolk to see Naked Kitchens and were so impressed that we’re now planning an extension to include a boot room, utility and pantry as well as an extended kitchen-diner and an adjoining reading room/study. Great to see the kitchens and joinery actually being made in their workshops and can’t wait to see the end resulton site. Friendly, helpful and pragmatic staff who understand that people actually need to use their kitchens as well as making them look good ( which they do!). Very competitive on price and really good finish.
We also went for a DIY kitchens kitchen. And it is beautiful. The saving meant we could afford the most expensive solid wood painted shaker doors. We used a kitchen designer so that I didn’t have to plan the kitchen myself but the company do check your order for you before you finalise and point out any obvious errors. You need to make sure you add enough plinth and side panels because there is a bit of a wait if you need to make a second order. The quality of the doors feels amazing compared to others at a comparable price and the kitchen fitters commented on how impressed they were with the sturdiness of the cupboards. They come ready built too, so a think a really good buy if you want to try fitting it yourself.
I added knurled brass handles from dowsing and Reynolds, marble quartz tops and ivory zellige tiles as a hob backsplash. They were an absolute splurge but I saved quite a bit on the cupboards and appliances so I went for it. I’m not one for much colour or pattern but the mix of different textures and materials looks amazing. I often run my hands over the tiles because they are so shiny and bumpy at the same time and it feels GREAT ?
Yes, I find that, in general, Ikea is made for square shaped houses – most units are 100cm etc whereas our coves are 98cm….! But as much as it is a bit more effort, it pays off in the end. Our builder didn’t love doing herringbone metro tiles in our ensuite, but he persevered and even agreed it looked great in the end! x
Yes I do think, with most things, although cheaper is a bit more complicated and effort, it’s worth it in the long-run! x
So pleased, ours will be awhile…so we’ve booked an exciting trip to keep our mind off of it instead! xx
I love Ikea and all the extra storage solutions: they are so clever. And we’d definitely search our own worktops, I think -that’s the fun part anyway (isn’t it?!) x
this is a brilliant post. just thinking I could change the fronts to my ikea kitchen as the options you’ve given are amazing, will come back and look through properly. also we use ikea wardrobes in our bedrooms so some of these options would look great as we went shiny white 8 years ago and now I’d really like something like the ply or painted fronts. THANK YOU! ps, we also used ikea insides to make out bathoom with mirrored fronts…
We’re midst kitchen renovation and have gone with the classic mix of Ikea with custom doors (Naked Doors) & a Ceasarstone worktop. So far so good but A LOT of extra hassle getting three different suppliers. Fingers crossed it’ll all be worth it in the end…
I always think, in the big scheme of things: a few months of hassle for a lifetime kitchen! I remember our en suite was a nightmare finding a door the right size with gold hinges but barely think about it now! xx
Such a clever idea re: bathroom! Yes, I think this will be a post even I come back to in the future! x
We had an ikea kitchen put in just over a year ago and would highly recommend it. We were on a tight budget and saved money by building all the carcasses ourselves, we have a builder fit them and then we fitted all the drawers and front’s ourselves. It was fairly easy to do once we had got the hang of it – I managed to fit all the drawers, hidden drawers and fronts having never picked up a drill before!
We got a minerva worktop as I felt it was really worth investing in the worktop and it’s been fantastic.
This is so useful as we are also in a full swing of getting our extention and ordering new kitchen. We have been to Wren, but found them very expensive for the size of our kitchen (aparently its a reasonable size). Ikea has definitely been and still is a firm favourite.
Another website that I love for ikea fronts and door handles is https://superfront.com/. Also will definitely be ordering from https://www.prettypegs.com cabinet legs for our bathroom cabinet.
I would also add a company called ‘David Wilson Doors’ on eBay. Provides mdf/primed/fully finished doors. Made to your measurements and the quality was perfect and the price I found couldn’t be beaten anywhere. Just search ‘mdf shaker replacement kitchen door and drawer fronts’. Amazing!
Wherever you buy from, the key is finding a skilled fitter/joiner that you trust, and don’t just ask the supplier to fit it. Particularly if your house isn’t a standard box! We have had our B&Q kitchen for 8 years now, and it still looks good as new (it seems to be very good quality). The fitter repurposed a cabinet to box in a hot water cylinder and used odd gaps to construct tray storage etc. which made all the difference. A B&Q fitter wouldn’t have done this.
Oh yes, pan drawers! And induction hobs.
This post is exactly what I need as planning my kitchen renovation at the moment. Keep us updated on your plans Alex.Thank you..!
We had tight budget and difficult space but wanted a stylish modern look to our old kitchen. we orered quotes from howdens and wren initially, as I had heard a lot about them. but their pricing was way too much than we can afford. Then we came to know about Kitch Living (its them – http://www.kitchlivingdirect.co.uk/) and then after one or two phone calls we completely forgot our worries. They had a plan to suit every budget and every space. They blew wren and howdens out of the water in terms of design, consultations and most importantly pricing. Windsor classic shaker styles are a excellent to give a shot at if you want a kitchen under £
5000
Another recommendation for DIY kitchens…. our fitter was amazed with the quality of the units and it was cheaper than howdens etc. I very nearly went with ikea units and custom front doors but I think like for like it was slightly more expensive. It IS a hassle in terms of doing the design yourself but worth it in the end. We didn’t order door samples either so it was a gamble but I love it!
I’d also like to mention Howdens Kitchens. Rated by WHICH as a best buy as well. To get their best price, find a fitter with a Howdens trade account and get the kitchen via them. Lots of choice of doors and colours but the best bit is they can resolve issues really quickly as they tend to have the stock onsite. Have used them 3 times now.
You need to consider as well how hard that kitchen needs to work. Some only get light use even by families. I had a B&Q kitchen fitted about 10 years’ ago and I asked the fitter how long he thought it’s life expectancy was. He said 8 years on average before they needed changing and he was pretty much on the money. The foil wrapped doors started to lift around 7 years. In an increasingly eco friendly age that’s pretty bad and if every kitchen you have in your lifetime lasts that length of time you may need 6 kitchens. Quite expensive when looked at like that not only to your purse but also the environment.
“I saw the first picture and wondered – that’s not such a bad kitchen, why does she feel bad about her kitchen and then read the fine print under the picture (not our kitchen!). LOL.
And about your post, great list. It’s of immense help, so thank you!”
Love the round-up of beautiful kitchens.
We loved the Ikea kitchens, but unfortunately we were being quoted around £1000+ extra by the joiner to fit an Ikea kitchen, so what you say is absolutely right!
We ended up getting ours from Howdens, as it worked out cheaper. Really recommend Worktop Express, who offer great value for money (especially for solid Oak worktops).
This is such a timely blog post! We just spent most of saturday morning with a well known kitchen trade company basically telling us our really tiny kitchen will cost around 7 k…without our builders fee on top of that! I told my husband that we should do some research and how incredible I came across this post! A wonderful blog post with some great ideas. Have followed your work on IG for sometime now but will now subscribe to your blog – full of great stuff! Thank you Sophie x
Great post Alex! Another good option is Howdens, good quality and reasonably priced. Just need to make sure you have a good fitter 😃
We also used DIY kitchens and they were excellent, quality is great, but you need to do more of the design yourself (they will check your design and run through on the phone). Can have the kitchen painted any colour, which is a top perk!
One good addition to the list will be the ballerina kitchens. Their kitchen furniture is quite the commendable collection. You should check it out.
Good to know – I actually would prefer to do the design myself! x
So pleased this has helped! Hoping it will help keep our costs down now as starting to put our own plans through for a kitchen next year! x
A minimum budget of £2k-3k will definitely give you a fine kitchen set-up, however, this budget is not that cheap. But this provided list is quality-based reassuring of your money’s worth.
Yes completely – that’s why the term affordable kitchen is an oxymoron in itself (and why I never really use the word cheap, as things like kitchens, aren’t) x
Thanks Alex, this post is great, I read it a while back and have saved it in the back of my mind for the right moment. It’s difficult to know where to start. I hope you get your 2020 kitchen of your dreams.
Thank you – me too! xx
We have just moved into our new house and we really want a new kitchen. Planning on reusing lots of existing appliances but getting an Ikea plan and taking it from there.
This is such a useful post and I can’t wait to see your 2020 kitchen too!
xx
Yes – I’ve seen so many amazing kitchens working with what is already there – more eco friendly, too! x
I was really surprised that DIY Kitchens were on this list. Their prices are comparable to IKEA yet they have a far more extensive range than IKEA. When I used the kitchen planner for IKEA I found that I was going to have a lot of dead space because they didn’t have a range of cabinet sizes, where as with DIY Kitchens I will have no dead space as their size range is wide enough for me to pick and chose what works. Their quality is far better than IKEA as well
I would remove WREN off this list. They quoted a starting point of £10K for our small galley kitchen, when I called to cancel our appointment they couldn’t have been ruder.
did you mean ‘weren’t’ on the list? I hadn’t heard of them at the time of writing this post, but have since looked into them for my own kitchen! Their quote wasn’t as cheap as Ikea for us but will delve deeper! x
Agree Alenandra. I am in the process of having a kitchen refit, using DIY kitchen planner to design my kitchen with their units. My neice bought one of their kitchens and I visited their showroom in Yorkshire and while I agree their kitchens are beautiful, good quality and they have a large range, I would have to say that if they ‘were’ very cheap, they are not any longer and at the time of writing are about to impose a price increase.. J have now found an alternative equal quality kitchen {TKC, trade only} with a lower quote and have decided to go with them.
How interesting! We got a quote from them and it was still lower than Ikea, but hear their prices are going up on 5th March so need to get in quick! xx
Thank you so much for this post! I was looking around on Google for some recommendations on stylish kitchens and I came across this article. Our kitchen hasn’t changed in nearly 15 years so it’s probably time we thought about getting a new one. These will give me some great ideas.
Great post!! Keep sharing your thoughts it’s inspiring 🙂
Have to give another +1 for DIY Kitchens. The planning tool is so good, you should definitely check it out as you want to design it yourself.
I have to say though, I wish I’d found you sooner because I would have checked out British Standard. They look like a cut above.
Just FYI my last kitchen was DIY kitchens…. over 11 years ago. I feel it’s stood the test of time although we do have a slightly warping cupboard from a slow leek that was there for about 3 years. Also recently the soft close has started to fail. but that’s pretty easy to replace and I’d say very good going for 11 years of constant use.
Also worth noting I did the design myself and there were definitely some issues with that so I do recommend getting your kitchen fitter to review before ordering.
We’re only getting rid of it as we’re doing an extension…. we did originally talk of keeping it even then and just fitting it in the new kitchen. But I have my heart set on one of the ply options above…. they’re so beautiful
Just found your post which is brilliant to read. I will be investigating all of these options! My partner had an Ikea kitchen done last year and it was a nightmare. It was when they changed over their system which made it a nightmare to deal with IF you are currently living in the property you are changing. I think if we weren’t living there, it wouldn’t be any problem but basically the fitters they used to have who could do/supply electricians/plumbers/plasterers etc were no longer allowed to do that.
Great inspiration! I’m already looking at diy kitchen’s after seeing your Ig stories and reading comments here. I was quoted for a Wren kitchen and thought it overpriced for what I want.
How did your fitters deal with the lack of service gap, please? Seems like a nightmare unless you have services running along the floor?
Hi Alexandra,
This article is so helpful- do you have any recommendations for doing the same thing with Ikea wardrobes? Or general tips for affordable in-built bedroom wardrobes?
Yes!! We are about to do exactly that (once we’ve saved up!) – we’re going with Ikea Pax wardrobes without doors and then getting The Shaker door company to do bespoke painted doors – I’ve heard excellent things! x
The kitchen arrangements were good and looks affordable too. Thanks for sharing this informational article.
This is such a helpful post. Especially for someone like me, I have been wanting to redecorate my kitchen and I am looking for great recommendations and style inspo. Glad I found this! Thank you so much! 🙂
great
You are the only person whom I follow for Blogs and Articles. You deliver your message and positivity in such a Great manner that it is easy to understand. Thank You and Keep it up.
Great article, we we’re looking at DIY Kitchens or Better Kitchens, we opted for the Better Kitchens as they appear the same quality but came out slightly better price in the end. We would have been happy with either though!