Harrogate Kitchen Designers – Kitchen Showroom Harrogate

Our Harrogate Kitchen Showroom provides you with beautiful examples of our superb quality handmade kitchens. For many people, the lock downs of the previous years highlighted the importance of having a good working kitchen. Eating, Cooking, Baking and Dining suddenly became more important when we were all stuck indoors. A new kitchen is a great investment for any home.  As well as wanting it to look great, it takes careful planning.  It takes serious thinking about your current kitchen, and how it works or does not as the case may be! The kitchen is the hub of the home. Many Inglish Design kitchens are muti purpose rooms. In the Harrogate homes we work on, if you are lucky enough to have the space, the kitchen will provide the place to cook, dine, relax and also entertain. The kitchen can be one of the most expensive spaces in your home to renovate.  However, a well-planned kitchen not only make it an enjoyable space to use, but it will in turn help to sell your home should you put in on the market. In general, with a new kitchen, you get what you pay for. Of key importance is cabinet build and materials, as these are the aspects which need to provide longevity. Here is a guide to planning your kitchen so you can create the very best kitchen design. It will hopefully also make the process easier and less stressful for you!

Building Work

You may be building an extension or simply removing an old kitchen and redesigning the space. It is likely that you will need a builder. Often 40-50 per cent of your budget will go on building and labour costs. Being realistic about affordability at the outset, you will avoid costly mistakes (not to mention disappointment) later on.  By employing a builder this often means that the building, plumbing, electrical, tiling and decorative work will be provided under the one umbrella. This is useful in terms of managing the project.  Your builder effectively controls the project roll out for you. Some kitchens companies will offer all trades as part of their kitchen supply, however, beware of this. In general, when a kitchen company does this, the trades will not be directly employed by them. This means you are at the mercy of sub-contractors. These may be self-employed and therefore with other jobs to work on as well as yours. This can cause problems with reliability and control.

Planning your kitchen Project

Of key importance when planning a new kitchen is to meet with the builder your kitchen design and explain  in place what is required. Always get a written quote from your builder, and always follow any meetings up with an email which confirms in writing what you have discussed. Decide on a date which he can work to. Establish a completion date and work back from this realistically with the time he suggests is required to undertake the works. You should always allow at least one extra week than your builder suggests. Most times this week will be absorbed by something, whether this be a supplier issue or an installation issue. A spreadsheet is an ideal way to block in each week and understand what will be happening and who will be due to do it. If you can its often good to take some time away whilst you are without a working kitchen. If you do this make sure there is someone managing the project in your absence. At Inglish Design we can offer project management services. To an extent we do this as part of your kitchen order. It is in our interest to make sure your property is ready for the installation date that we have given you. Allow within your budget for a contingency fund, as big builds tend to include unforeseen spends. Try not to get in a situation with any supplier where they provide you with only estimated costs, as additional charges can escalate out of control, and you may also be taken advantage of. Try to understand lead times for any goods that need purchased. In particular new windows and doors need to be ordered ASAP as these are often the items that delay projects. Similarly, if you are ordering flooring get this ordered as soon as you can. Appliances have been subject to long delays recently and can also cause issues. At Inglish Design we like to order your kitchen appliances as soon as possible so that we can check them as soon as possible.