sensible budget for small galley kitchen?

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GeX

GeX

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Our kitchen is long over due being ripped out and redone.

It's a galley kitchen, 4.4m by 2.0m like so;



We've got someone from a local kitchen company coming round next week to have a look, but one of the questions they asked was that we set a budget for them to work to. Never bought a kitchen before, so I've no real ballpark for what it should cost and so no scope to set a budget.

There's plenty of money to use for it - it just comes down to do we want/need to spend it on the kitchen.

There's an amount of building work we'd like done, the end of the kitchen is quite dark so a skylight down there would be good - as would adding some insulatiion above the ceiling as it's an old (1900) house and the kitchen sticks out the back and gets cold.

Another consideration is that we will sell this house in the short to medium term as it's not really big enough for us anymore.
 
Anywhere from £5k for a bargain basement kitchen up to about £15k for proper worktops, new appliances, fancy lighting, new flooring, adding a skylight and insulation.

It's a very narrow space to have a skylight. Generally the smallest you'd want to get is 2m x 1m and you need to factor in the roof being adapted to allow that so with that in your roof you'll struggle to get suitable lighting I think unless you put lights on the walls.
 
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Fair point re the skylight. The answer might just be better lighting down there rather than a skylight - but something does need to be done.

I had about £10k in my head, which is bang in the middle - so I guess I'm not far off and of course the devil is in the detail
 
Ours is broadly the same size, just had 2 quotes (Wren and Magnet) for units/worktops/sink/fridge/dishwasher/oven/hob/extractor

Both came in about £8,000 - excluding fitting etc
 
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Fair point re the skylight. The answer might just be better lighting down there rather than a skylight - but something does need to be done.

I had about £10k in my head, which is bang in the middle - so I guess I'm not far off and of course the devil is in the detail

Downlights will be much more effective in providing light than a skylight (especially at the size you're looking at and with the British weather). Remember - if you put a 2mx1m skylight that's an area you can't have a really bright downlight.

Our last house had a kitchen almost exactly the same dimensions as yours and that was very bright with 4 downlights and white paint. With darker units and paint 6 downlights would have been fine.
 
What doesn't help is that the downlights finish before the ceiling begins to slope at the end, and then at the end there's the floor to ceiling cupboard - it does make the whole end of the kitchen feel dark. There are lights on the cooker extractor but they don't light the whole area.

I am leaning more towards it being a bad idea to have a skylight installed tho
 
One thing I would say is i see you've gone for a slimline dishwasher. There is only 2 of us here and we inherited a slimline and it is a nuisance, go for a full size.

We haven't gone for it, it's what came with the house. I'd probably not have picked it - but now wouldn't get a larger one. Family of 4 here, and it's good as it gets full quickly and just get put on most nights. Don't need / want a bigger one - like @Rob_B I'd rather have the cupboard space
 
oh one more thing. you do not want the cooker to be right in the corner
also 2m width + 64cm counters = a very tight fit

where the cooker and cupboard is...is that a wall at the end?
(i'm assuming your property is one of those victorian style semis/terraces with the kitchen at the rear?)
 
where the cooker and cupboard is...is that a wall at the end?
(i'm assuming your property is one of those victorian style semis/terraces with the kitchen at the rear?)

correct on both counts, but also in case it's not clear, the drawing I've done is how it currently is.
 
have a look at this website:
 
I don't quite understand your insulation idea, but it sounds unnecessary.

There's a large, pitched, slate roof above the kitchen and based on the (lack of) insulation in the main loft I don't think there's much / any in the kitchen. There's no access into that space to see tho. That ceiling will need more holes put in it anyway as the downlights stop around where the tumble dryer is
 
honestly though, if you're going to move in the next couple of years, i'd strongly consider that putting up with the current kitchen may be the best idea, £8000 (or more if you're redoing the insulation) now for a new kitchen may not reflect in the house price in a couple of years
also would need to be prepared that your current home will be a building site, especially if you're redoing the structure and not solely the kitchen
caveat is that we cannot see pics of the current kitchen...so...
 
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