Kitchen design

Hi there

I'm a newbie here - this is my first post, so excuse me if this has already been covered (I did do a search but didn't find the info i was looking for).

Anyway............we're getting a new kitchen put in soon and I'm still in the design stage.
Storage in the house is not great so we want to maximise this, and also not have too many open displays of our posessions (currently we have lots of bookcases etc and the house looks messy even when it's tidy IYKWIM).

So for the kitchen, I'm looking at putting in different sized cupboards and drawers etc to house big things like ironing board/brushes etc; plus lots of good storage for knick-knacks that dont really have a home (lots of tiny little box-type drawer for keys/pens/odds and ends etc)

We have a budget of about 8k (not inc' appliances) so I was veering towards using the services of someone who will come out to the house to see what we need and then custom-design a kitchen to our needs (rather than say a cash and carry kitchen which seems to have limitations on cupboard sizes etc).

Has anyone dealt with the following, and how do you rate them??...

www.mynewkitchen.ie
www.thekitchenshop.ie (actually, the "finished work" on this site shows a kitchen which is exactly the same size and structure as ours).
www.qkliving.ie


Really appreciate your help as I'm nervous about spending a fortune and not getting what I want/need.

Many thanks

try [broken link removed]
I know them and they will look after you, hand made and will therefore make what you want as opposed to whats handy for them. Well worth a phone call.
james

I went to qk living, and the quality seemed very good, but prices were very high, was quoted as a starting point 17k for unis&doors, 3k for wooden worktop, 4/5k for an island unit and extras (enhancements etc.) 3/4k so in totlal 25-30k for kitchen area 15ft long and 8ft wide.

Has anyone bought from qk, and what were the price ranges ?

We used QK and were generally happy with the service. They were very patient with the ever-changing requirements of SWMBO during the planning stages. We avoided any of the hugely expensive built-in gimmicks (e.g. €500 for a built-in waste bin). They weren't cheap, but it certainly wasn't in the same league as Cloughy. We didn't want an island, so it was around €14k for the kitchen plus €2.5k for the granite worktop (they matched the best price we were quoted for granite from ringing round all the suppliers mentioned in another AAM thread).

The service was generally good, though I was nearly apoplectic when the nice man in the warehouse wanted to explain their ordering system to me to justify their planned 3 week delay. This was on the morning I had taken off work to await their arrival and about 10 minutes after the girl from sales has told me they were stuck in traffic. After my apoplectic fit, they delivered the following day.

I was horrified at the amount of wastage during installation. The granite installers damaged 5 kitchen unit doors, but no-one seems surprised or bother ed at having to replace these.

If you go with QK, haggle over payment schedule up front. They wanted 10% on order (no problem there) and 80% on delivery of main units. Given that the granite wasn't coming for a couple of weeks, this meant that would have effectively overpaid them on the day the main units were delivered. Make sure you pay for granite when it is delivered.

I have been to the panelling centre recently and was surprised byut he vast range of different size and shapes available. THis would probably be a better value option than a kitchen designer.

I have found panelling centre brillant for helping with the design and the price is really good. The designer has spent about 8 hours with me I'd say!