kitchens

365 Developments can offer you a FREE design service for your kitchen and a high quality supply and fit service. We source our kitchens at a trade rate from a national supplier and do not charge the high margins of high street retailers. Before embarking your kitchen design please consider the following tips:

1. The Good News

If you want the very best in kitchens then most people choose kitchens manufactured by German companies which can cost tens of thousands of pounds. For those of you with less generous budgets the good news is that excellent kitchens needn't be expensive. Germans produce quality kitchens as the population only change their kitchens every 20 years. We in the UK move house and makeover our interiors far more and as a result the UK kitchen industry produces a lower specification and cheaper product. Kitchens are made up of carcasses and doors. Our recommendation is that you should spend your money on a quality door and downgrade the carcass specification to a grade suitable for the expected lifetime of the kitchen. This could save you enough to decorate the rest of the house!

2. The Timeless Classic

If you want a kitchen that will fashionable every year then choose a white, beech or oak kitchen. The classic door styles are shaker and slab.

3. Kitchen Design Takes Time

It is our experience that completing the design of a kitchen takes as long as the design for the rest of the project. Our recommendation is to not start your project till you have a finalised kitchen design. The lead times on kitchens can be long so leaving the design till the last minute can create major problems with your timetabling.

4. Tiles Are Important Too

Don't leave your choice of tiles and floor coverings till the last minute. Really you should be incorporating the choice of tiling, grout, wall colour and floor covering with the choice of your doors. You needn't be restricted to tiles nowadays as large sheets of Formica are now available for an alternative wallcovering (and they look very nice).

5. Plans Don't Tell The Whole Story

Be aware that plans can be very deceiving and you should do is always measure distances out in the proposed kitchen area. Kitchens that look generous on an A4 plan can seem cramped when actually marked out on the floor of an empty kitchen.

6. Investors Love Affair With Flat Pack

A lot of investors believe that flat pack is a better business decision than ready made units. Our recommendation is that any saving you make in material costs is outweighed by the cost of the labour to assemble the units. Ready made units also last longer so also consider lifetime costs.

7. Centre Islands

Our most common request in the design of larger kitchens is for a centre island feature. People who cook want to socialise whilst cooking and a centre island is an excellent solution. Our recommendation is to have a centre island but only when there is sufficient space. An island feature is very space hungry and can dwarf a kitchen.

8. 400, 500 & 600 Doors

These size cupboard doors are your door palette, do not use any smaller doors. It is far better to have fewer doors that are well balanced and proportioned rather than a mass of uneven size doors. Also pay attention to how the doors are hinged.