Kitchens - Can you tell the difference?.?.?

Yes, of course you could! So could I. Between £30,000 and £50,000 and I’d be struggling (because the differences then are all to do with big name designers, advertising budgets and flagship showrooms) but between £5,000 and £30,000, it would be easy.

There’s a bit of a stir in the industry, at the moment because Kevin McCloud, from the Channel 4 tv show Grand Designs, has suggested that there’s not much difference, between the actual units, in kitchens at the two price extremes in the title.

To be precise, the comments came in a book “43 Principles of Home” written by Kevin McCloud. He doesn’t think it’s worth spending a lot of money on a kitchen because, when you sell the house, the new owners will “invariably rip out and replace” it. He also thinks that: “Structurally, there’s a negligible difference in quality between the £5,000 kitchen and it’s £50,000 equivalent“.

Technically, there is a little bit of truth in that – but only as far as the kitchen carcasses are concerned – and the strength of the carcasse is only part of the overall quality of a kitchen. I would argue, very strongly, that there’s a huge difference in other aspects of kitchen quality. The doors, for instance. Anyone who’s bought a kitchen with poor quality vinyl doors and had the vinyl bubble, or peel at the edges; or a foil wrapped door that’s become scuffed on the corners; will know that all doors are not equal.

Foil wrapped doors are inexpensive and they look good, but they're prone to damage on the corners

And what about the range of sizes available? I’d expect Kevin, as a designer (he used to design lighting and pieces of furniture) to realise that a range of kitchen units with lots of different sizes available, is going to make for a much better design for the kitchen, especially in smaller rooms. Having bespoke units, where the size of the units and doors, the curve of the doors (if any) and even the type, size and number of panels in each door, can be specified, is better still … when it comes to having a great looking kitchen.

A bespoke kitchen is designed specifically for the room and the client - and it's always going to cost a whole lot more than £5,000

Apart from anything else, it’s not just the quality of the units that makes for the difference in price between kitchens. What about having a good designer, and good customer service, and providing project management? None of those are cost free. I’m surprised and a little bit shocked that Kevin holds those things in such low regard.

Shouldn’t he be encouraging people to buy good quality, long lasting kitchens, that very certainly cost more than £5,000 but which would encourage new owners to buy a house, in the first place, and which they’d want to keep? Isn’t that the environmentally sensible option?

There were further disparaging comments from Kevin, in the book, about fancy appliances. If you want to read a much lengthier rant discussion, about both kitchens and appliances, then have a look at my blog Does Kevin McCloud Know Anything About Kitchens? over at Advanced Kitchen Design. Or, tell us what you think …