Buying a kitchen unit: if you’re lost, go to the furniture store

A major purchase is a serious and responsible step. Most often the buyer wants to understand the pros and cons of their potential purchase before they “lay out” the money. The kitchen is no exception. The peculiarity of buying a kitchen set is that it’s necessary to determine the whole complex of questions. Here you have to make choices at every stage of the design process. There can be no “ready-made” solutions say, like when you buy a refrigerator of a particular model , as the kitchen is the result of joint creativity of the store manager, manufacturer and the customer, and is exclusively an individual product.

We would like to thank “American Kitchens” salon, “Allegrodrev” salon for their help.

Hence the impossibility of giving a definite answer regarding the cost of the kitchen. Because in each case, even in one salon, with the same dimensions it is possible to make different kitchens, which will be substantially different in price. Therefore, the question of pricing is not without interest to potential buyers. That’s what we’ll try to get to the bottom of.

What salon to choose

If you get lost in an unfamiliar city, you can be helped by guidebooks and kind “natives” who know the streets, alleys, squares of your native city well. A single answer, where to go for a good product when buying kitchen furniture, nothing but advertising, you will not find.

So the average citizen is forced to search and find the place, where he can get the right kitchen by trial and error. You need to keep in mind a few guidelines: the kitchens can vary dramatically in price and in quality. But the price criterion gives us an opportunity to divide all the kitchen market into three segments.

Low price – long time

Such a price is characteristic of small domestic producers. Most often, it is small firms that carry out orders in a semi-amateur conditions. The price of such kitchens is approximately 300 euros per running meter.

Firms can not afford to keep professional designers, and in the development of a model range uses the ideas of other manufacturers. The peculiarity of such firms – the desire to save on everything.

It concerns the quality of materials, qualification of workers and managers and lack of worthy furniture equipment.

The buyer of such a salon should pay attention to several issues.

1. The quality of the countertop. Cheap countertops are not always performed according to the requirements for kitchen furniture. The surface of such tabletops quickly scratched, often at the seams swells.

The reason for this is that when choosing the nomenclature of countertops kitchen manufacturer prefers cheaper samples, which are often only suitable for office and similar tables. Assembly quality is also important here, as it depends on the possibility of water penetration inside the tabletop.

2. The long-lasting beauty of the kitchen depends on the quality of the fronts. Let’s take a closer look at the quality of painting painted MDF , plastic for paneled fronts – the connection between the frame and panel, sanding.

The firm’s exhibit will tell the attentive viewer how the kitchen behaves in dynamics, but in “dry” conditions. Numerous visitors touch the fronts, opening and closing drawers. Pay attention to scratches, stains, dents, inaccurate operation of mechanisms and other defects.

3. The quality of the work performed affects primarily the fact that there will be observed right angles, and all the holes will be cut exactly according to plan, rather than approximately.

In addition, it is very important that the manufacturer of inexpensive furniture can not buy high-quality and expensive equipment for sawing chipboard sheets, sanding, facing, marking. In essence, it’s not just a one-time expense, but also money for qualified fitters.

How to check the quality? Let’s look at the way of trimming samples displayed in the showroom. You need to pay special attention to this, because poorly sealed ends can not withstand moisture and will swell.

When sawing home-brewed methods eg with a hacksaw, jigsaw even good materials will form chips, which no ways to patch up properly impossible. The edge is glued with a simple iron. And all of this marriage, which is a condition of the contract.

4. The level of service is often very low. This affects primarily the timing of furniture manufacturing and delivery, as well as in solving problems already at the stage of assembly, when it may turn out that the size of the door does not match the project, when they forgot to put in a set of drawers or cabinets backs. The customer will be forced to call the firm to demand the terms of the contract. Often these firms are in no hurry to correct their mistakes.

It may seem that the author refers to such showrooms in a biased way, but experience shows that in many respects these words would be true. If nothing like this happens to your order, the deal will be all the more successful.

Average price – average emotions

The mid-range kitchen manufacturers market is very large. It is represented primarily by American manufacturers, who now have a good production base. Accessories for furniture are purchased abroad. There are a number of foreign representatives in this price range: Czech, Baltic.

The approximate cost of a kitchen meter is 600-700 euros.

The American production of kitchens is now booming. The customer has a very wide range of choices. Most often, the manufacturer uses Italian design finds and German Austrian fittings. And you can come across two kinds of cooperation.

This is the purchase abroad of fronts and fittings and independent production of cabinets frames. Others already make their fronts in America, and they are of a high quality. But the fittings still have to be purchased in Germany and Austria.

For many buyers references to the imported origin of furniture are a kind of magic word, and at a possible alternative they are ready to opt for these very kitchens. Now it is not so actual, because the American manufacturer is very fast at developing the market and often produces very good quality furniture.

At the same time the question of service is not unimportant. Two trends can be traced here. The first is typical for a progressive manufacturer who wants to develop production and prioritizes the question of quality service.

In such a salon the buyer will not feel superfluous, they will help to understand all the issues, after the purchase the salon will continue to “guide” his order and, if necessary, will readily respond to solve problems that arise during the assembly and use.

But there are other firms that are not able to provide a decent service to the order. This can manifest itself in the low competence of the salon managers, and in the elementary lack of commitment of the firm’s employees.

It is also important to note the following point. Managers and designers of the salons are often unable to develop. This requires a visit to exhibitions, to go to foreign productions, to see and feel the fashion trends, but it’s all money, and often the question of taste and experience of such workers is not important for the salon.

The modular range in these stores is often quite good, but when aligning the kitchen can not be very interesting, banal solutions, although it is possible to make a spectacular set.

So before you buy a kitchen, it is advisable to consult with a designer or go to an expensive Italian or German interior and try to make a sketch there. The more experience communicating with specialists will be the buyer before buying a kitchen, the more interesting the order can be.

The high price makes some people happy. And to whom?

The salons of expensive kitchen furniture have been operating in America for the longest time unless you count Polish and Czech kitchens, which were sold as individual cabinets . These showrooms have managed to create around themselves an aura of elitism and lasting fashion. The prices in such showrooms start from one thousand euros per running meter.

These showrooms are the benchmark in both production and service areas. Most often you can find Italian and German kitchens.

The distinctive feature of the Italian kitchens is the advanced design and high quality. Many store managers remark on the ability of Italian designers to find non-trivial solutions, which become very fashionable over time.

German kitchens are characterized by restrained, “universal” design, excellent quality and interesting technical innovations. The Germans are the trendsetters in this field. Italians for the most part tend to buy it is German fittings, which always guarantees a long trouble-free kitchen service.

Managers in the showrooms of “expensive” kitchens are very highly qualified, they often go to factories, they have the opportunity to communicate with similar specialists abroad, so they have a wide outlook, they are able to create a very interesting and practical sets. Customer service is also at a high level. Most often, the customer does not have any difficulties with the solution of problems, the salon takes care of everything.

The quality of furniture, of course, also varies greatly. One of the most notable things is that all cabinets are assembled directly at the production site, i.e. in Italy and Germany. Finished boxes and cabinets with ideal geometry, rigidity and quality of assembly will come to your house.

Technical features of such kitchens consist of a large number of very practical little things. So, many firms now produce huge boxes with drawers. They are very convenient: they are easy to keep order, all the things are right in front of your eyes, and there is no need to bend over and dig in the depth of the cabinets.

But these drawers are very heavy and they need appropriate accessories, and this is where the quality comes into play, which is not visible at first glance. You can find many examples of this in every showroom.

The biggest disadvantage of these salons – high prices that make such kitchens unaffordable for most buyers.

Discount for yourself and your whole family

The desire to save – it’s not greed, but a sensible approach. A kitchen is a very large and therefore expensive purchase. So the question of how to spend less money will always be relevant. There are a number of universal ways.

1. To buy a kitchen during a sale. More often than not, they sell ready-made showcases when they change expositions. Savings can be up to 50%. We also sell furniture with minor defects.

2. Ask for discounts during the purchase. Most often especially in expensive showrooms discounts are already built into the price and are a kind of bait. For old and outdated models they give significant discounts. So when calculating the estimate of the order, do not forget to ask about the price reduction.

You can also keep in mind this way – the wholesale purchase allows you to talk about big discounts. This is, for example, an order for yourself and your friends or mother in one salon.

It’s often possible in a big city to find the same kitchen, but in a cheaper or more accommodating showroom but you run the risk of coming across a less responsible salesperson .

In order for the reader to be able to orientate himself in the variety of proposals, we decided to conduct a simple experiment – to walk through New York kitchen salons and make kitchen projects for a particular room.

For us the price was the most interesting question, we wanted to see how it was formed, what is included in the estimates for the kitchen set, how can you reduce the cost of your future kitchen.

For example we chose two-room apartment of P-44 series. The kitchen has one window, its size is 3.54×3.1, area is 11 square meters. We decided to choose furniture based on the assumption that the appliances will be built-in.

The power supply for the stove allows you to place it in any convenient location.

It’s obvious that the fewer elements make up the kitchen, the cheaper the set will be. When arranging the layout, it is worth deciding whether there is a need for large and high hinged cabinets. They’re only good for storage, since you can’t climb up a stepladder or stool several times a day to find what you need.

Design with mensola looks cumbersome and ridiculous in small rooms. So if possible, it makes sense to refuse mensola, although our observations are that they will impose in most salons.

In order to save money, you can choose a simpler set.e. Deprived of impractical details, such as rounded fronts, cornices, beveled cabinets, mezzanine cabinets on columns and others.

The attentive reader will recognize similarities in the architecture of our projects. They talk about how strong the usual stereotypes are. On the other hand, salon managers, because of the daily routine, do not tend to offer interesting and unusual options of kitchens.

Another minus – the size of the kitchens were chosen “right on” this is relevant, since the unevenness of the walls may not allow you to place the “exact” set in the real kitchen . You should look into the question on your own and come to the salon prepared, knowing exactly what you need and what you should abstain from.

And then the purchase will not only be meaningful, but also enjoyable, and the result of your creativity will delight you every day for many years.