Property expert Dominic Arnold on making your kitchen work for you

Barbecue season is well and truly over. Last week we saw the last of the sunshine and warmth and our family grabbed the opportunity to flash fry our steaks and to (almost) burn the veggie sausages for probably the final time this year. What a superb summer that was. Wouldn’t it be lovely to be able to rely on the great British weather to come up with a string of sunny weeks every year?

So, autumn creeps upon us and we head back to the warmth of the kitchen for slow-cooked lamb and fragrant roast chicken dishes prepared in the comfort of our kitchen that has been a haven for the family for seven years.

Kitchens are not what they used to be. Often the smallest room in the house a Victorian kitchen did not need to be a place to entertain neither did it need to be a particularly nice space to work in. Originally all water-based activities like washing or preparing vegetables was done in the scullery so a kitchen only needed to have a range cooker to function.

How far we’ve come! When our own extension was done we took out all the walls that originally divided the kitchen, the scullery and the back loo and ‘filled in’ the side return to create a generous airy space with quad-folding doors and large Velux windows. Instead of hiding at the back of the house cooking alone, we now welcome in our guests to share the whole meal experience.

And as far as choices for kitchen designs there is now a myriad of firms bending over backwards to entice us to fit out our kitchens with the latest designer styles and finishes.

There is currently a great choice for consumers with the likes of Travis Perkins, Howdens, Magnet and Mereway competing for business. There are other manufacturers but, for various reasons, we try to encourage our clients to go with our preferred suppliers. There is a very wide range of kitchen styles to chose from, even amongst the individual suppliers, and one can spend anything from £6k up to well over £30k just on the material costs alone. Items that will ensure you’ll part with more cash than most people would be comfortable with include Corian worktops, steam ovens, downdraft extractors, boiling water delivery faucets and halogen hobs.

We provide building solutions to families living in terraced or semi-detached Victorian homes where sticking a £30k kitchen into the rear of the building, over and above the works for an extension, might seem a little indulgent. Certainly the cash laid out would not be returned in the new value of the house after installation so our approach is a little more fiscally rational.

The average cost of a kitchen fitted and installed in a typical family home in Brighton or Hove is £12k to 15k ex VAT. This would include all integrated appliances, solid wood worktops, built-in oven or free-standing range cooker and obviously the cost of fitting. Naturally, should there be the need to splash out on granite or a snazzy white ceramic sink then you may need to consider a bit more but £12k ex VAT really should be enough for something that will be practical and impressive and a solution that should last for many years. In fact, most kitchen installers guarantee their work and the manufacturers’ product is usually backed up by a long warranty so as long as it’s fitted correctly a modern kitchen should last many years.

For more ideas and links to what’s currently available please visit www.cocoonproperty.co.uk/kitchen-design-service.

Dominic Arnold
Dad to three, husband to one, MD of Cocoon Property Ltd, Brighton:
specialising in full-house refurbishments, eco-retrofit, loft conversions, kitchen extensions (side returns), interior design and condensation control.
01273 556800
Follow me on twitter: @PropDom
www.cocoonproperty.co.uk