Buying a 'new' kitchen.

Habbakuk

I need to buy a 'new' kitchen for the house. I'm not too sure how to go about it. Should I get somebody like Tesco's to come in and design a kitchen from the lay-out of the room and go from there? I suppose they would proved some kind of spec sheet. If they were competitive then possibly go with them but if not......

I would also like to ask about kitchens you see which are for sale on ebay; some of which are local and could be visited. What would be wrong with one of these? I mean a kitchen provided by say Tesco or B&Q wouldn't be a bespoke kitchen so why not choose one of these if it's in a good condition and just leave out an unit or two if needed or whatever? Thank you.

jamski07

Have a look round and see what you like first. No point wasting peoples and your time betting someone to measure/design and then not like any of their ranges.

As for where depends on your budget. Personally our Homebase one is great, and the reason we went there is it was in-budget and was the one we liked the best. I would try and find your own fitter though. If you're not doing it yourself. It will be a hell of a lot cheaper.

Not sure about ebay to be honest. I personally wouldn't.

cattie

Unless you are very good at measuring & planning, I'd go via one of the many long established kitchen suppliers, be it B&Q, Wickes, Homebase, Benchmarx or Magnet & have them come in to do a design that suits you. They will tailor the design to make the most of the space on offer & for the appliances you'd like to have.

You will find that for the most part, each kitchen company does their own version of the designs available. The range names will be different, but the catalogue will contain pretty much the same style of cabinets available.

Buying from somewhere like ebay could be problematic if they don't do sizes that make the best of the space in your kitchen. Plus, if there was a problem, how easy would it be to get it remedied?

My new kitchen came from Benchmarx & when it was being fitted one of the drawer fronts was found to be damaged. Benchmarx arranged for one of their drivers to drop off a replacement that same afternoon.

The other thing is that most kitchen companies give some kind of guarantee on their units etc, for instance 15yrs. Would a kitchen from ebay give you the same protection if something fell apart after a short while?