Schueller kitchen

leveller2911

CKdesigner wrote: »

Hi All

I think the confusion is in the term 'Handmade' and different peoples perception of this.

To me 'handmade' is a kitchen from a proper joinery shop, big players in this market would be Mark Wilkinson, Smallbone and the like, typically we are talking £100k kitchens. Then middle ground makes would be Underwoods or Edwin Loxley and then you would hove local joinery shop business dotted all over the country. Typically these companies would make veneered ply carcases and would make all the doors and visible components themselves, buying in drawer runners from Blum or Grass, but you wouldn't see these as they would be supporting a beautifully made solid timber drawer box with dovetail joints.

The problem is to me there are too many people with workshops that as previously mentioned buy in doors from a door supplier and flat pack carcases to screw together in their workshop and then say to their customers these are handmade kitchens.


CK

Great explaination CK, re Smallbone, its surprising how much MDF they use in their painted kitchens, generally Tulipwwod faceframes which personally I like although I know a few guys who have gone over to using steamed beech.It goes to show how image and marketing is key to premium kitchens as they use the same materials as the rest of us.

I knew a chap years ago who use to handpaint some of the Smallbone kitchens and it was not uncommon for him to spend over a day painting 1 kitchen door.He would even use feathers to paint with..

ryder72

I have to second what CK has to say here. The words bespoke and handmade are too loosely used in the kitchen industry.

What constitutes bespoke? An arrangement of units in a room to bet suit the users requirements? By this definition every kitchen from Ikea & Howdens upwards is bespoke. Yet ask for customising a 60cm cabinet to a 55cm one or ask for a special colour and the answer in inevitably - not possible. Is it still bespoke then?

A bespoke kitchen is one that can be made to style, any size, any shape and any material that the buyer desires and the reality is that 99.9% of buyers cant afford this type of kitchen. Its quite simply too expensive with prices upwards of £30k for a decent size kitchen.

abankerbutnotafatcat

I'm glad that Furls is happy with his kitchen but I'm also very relieved to hear some of the later clarification as having recently bought a Wickes (Benchmarx Tiverton) kitchen I was wondering if I'd been ripped off. A very interesting dialogue.