By Tomas P Hinton, Founder and Head Designer of Tomas Kitchen Living
WHEN DO I NEED TO DECIDE THE KITCHEN?
If you are undertaking an extension or new build project, you may well be wondering what stage the kitchen will be required on site?
Well, the quick answer to that is ‘right at the end’!
That said, decisions around the kitchen layout will be required at a very early stage. Ideally, the kitchen should be decided even before work starts… especially if ducting is required under a new floor to an island hob.
In addition to being able to provide your builder with plans showing where all the services will be needed, there may be a chance to tweak the position of windows/doors etc to optimise the perfect layout for the kitchen.
HOW IT WORKS
For us here at TOMAS KITCHEN LIVING the order of play usually goes something like this:
Initial contact and then an appointment at our London, St Albans or Cambridge showroom. You get to see what we do, discuss general layout and I can give you price steer.
Architectural plans (PDF) are emailed to us. We convert these into a drawing file and get your plan set up in our drawing system.
A liveDESIGN session is arranged – this is where we sit together around a shared screen (in a showroom or via Zoom) and we work up the perfect layout for you and your space.
A few days later you will receive an initial quotation. This will be detailed, but will usually contain quite a few place-holders such as the dishwasher model or the colour of the quartz etc.
Once you have reviewed this and give or take some details you feel ready to move forward, we will send you an invoice for a £500 deposit.
Payment of this invoice will trigger interim drawings to be sent to you for review.
A second meeting is then arranged to make amendments and discuss finalise details and spec.
Once the layout is settled, working drawings are issued – which can be shared with your builder.
As soon as it is viable, a site visit is required to check dimensions and first fix electrical positions etc – ideally before plastering.
When we are 12 weeks away from the required delivery date, everything should be decided and finalised.
By paying down the £500 deposit, you are intending to go through with whole shebang, but I understand that building projects and life in general can be unpredictable sometimes!
So, if for any reason at all you decided not to proceed, you would not be contractually obliged to buy the whole kitchen – but we would hold onto the £500, which you’d perhaps write off as a ‘design fee’.
If you are replacing a kitchen in an existing the space and there is no building work, the procedure is similar. The main difference is that we will need to measure up and create an empty space drawing – before the liveDESIGN session.
liveDESIGN
For over 20 years, I have designed kitchens and living spaces for clients with my ‘liveDESIGN’ method. It’s always good fun, and it really is super-efficient. Ideas from all directions flow freely and are followed through (or shot down in flames)! In a relatively short space of time the optimum layout will come together – right before your eyes.
And as the man from the A team used to say… I do love it when a plan comes together!