Book a design consultation

What the fee is for

Designing a kitchen properly takes one of us the better part of a working week. Free design exists in this trade, and it is paid for somewhere: in the price of the kitchen, in the pressure to sign on the night, or in a drawing thin enough to be re-drawn later at your cost.

We charge £500. It is credited in full against the commission if you go ahead. If you do not, we have been paid for the work and you owe us nothing further.

It also filters. People who pay £500 have a real room, a real date and a real budget, and we can give the drawing the time it needs rather than an evening.

What happens on the day

Two to three hours at your house, or at the workshop if the room does not exist yet. Oliver Manning usually leads it and Torben comes to anything listed or structurally awkward.

We survey. Laser and tape, both, because lasers lie about out-of-square rooms. We record wall lengths at low, middle and high level, floor levels across the room, ceiling height in each corner, window head and sill heights, the position of every service, and the swing of every door. In an old house we also record how much the walls lean, because that number decides how deep the scribes have to be.

Then we talk, with a pad. How you cook. Whether the room is where the family sits or where the food is made. Who does the washing up and whether they want to face the window or the room. Where the shopping comes in. Where the dog sleeps. What you own and have to store. Which of your existing habits are worth designing around and which you have only adopted because your current kitchen forced them on you.

You do not have to have decided a range, a colour or a worktop. Most people decide those after the first drawing, not before.

What arrives afterwards

Within fifteen working days, by post and by email:

A general arrangement plan at 1:20, showing every cabinet, every appliance and the working clearances.

Elevations of every run at 1:20, drawn with the doors, the drawer graduation, the cornice and plinth heights and the ironmongery in place.

One hand-drawn perspective of the principal elevation. It is drawn by hand because a hand drawing shows proportion and refuses to pretend about lighting.

An itemised specification: every cabinet listed with its size and construction, the timber, the finish and its coats, the ironmongery by manufacturer and reference, the drawer runners, the hinges, the worktop material and thickness.

A fixed price, broken into cabinetry, finishing, worktops, ironmongery, appliances if we are supplying them, and installation. It is valid for ninety days and it does not move afterwards unless you change something.

A programme with dates: order, machining, finishing, template, delivery, installation.

What happens next

We talk the drawings through, usually at the workshop, and we expect to change them. Two rounds of revisions are included; almost nobody needs a third.

When the design is agreed we take a deposit and enter you in the making diary. From that point the programme is 14 to 20 weeks to installation, and installation itself is three to seven days on site.

If you decide not to proceed, keep the drawings. They are yours to look at and to think with. They remain our copyright and are not to be handed to another maker to build from, which we mention plainly because it happens and it is the only thing about this arrangement we would ever fall out over.

Before you book

Have a room, or a plan of a room, and a date. We cannot survey an intention.

Have a budget band in mind. Our kitchens start at £45,000, and most land between £65,000 and £120,000 before appliances and stone.

If a builder or architect is involved, tell them the survey is happening. Ten minutes with the person who is moving the wall saves a fortnight later.