Ordering a bespoke kitchen is one of the larger things most people do to their home, and it is often the least familiar. Clients frequently tell us the hardest part at the start was simply not knowing what was going to happen, or when.
So here is the whole process, honestly, including the parts that take longer than people expect.
1. The first conversation
Usually a visit to the showroom. There is no obligation and nothing to prepare, though photographs of your room and rough measurements help enormously.
What we are really doing is listening. How many people cook at once? Do you bake? Is the kitchen where homework happens? Does anyone need to sit while they prep? The answers shape the design far more than any style preference.
This is also the right moment to talk about budget. It is not an awkward conversation — it is the one that makes every later decision easier. Our guide on what a bespoke kitchen costs covers the ground beforehand.
2. Design and drawings
We produce plans and visuals so you can see the room before committing to it. Expect to go round two or three times — the first design is a proposal, not a verdict, and the best results come from clients who say what they do not like.
Allow a couple of weeks for this stage, more if you are still deciding on finishes. It is time well spent: changing a drawing costs nothing, changing a made cabinet costs a great deal.
3. The technical survey
Once the design is agreed and before anything is manufactured, we survey the room properly — every wall, every service, every out-of-square corner.
In older Essex properties this stage regularly throws something up: a wall that leans 30mm over its height, a floor that falls away towards the garden, a soil pipe in an inconvenient place. Finding these now is the entire point. It is why bespoke cabinetry fits and standard units leave gaps.
4. Manufacture
This is the long wait, and the one people underestimate. Lead times vary with the maker and the specification, but it is normally several weeks and can be longer for hand-painted in-frame work, where each piece is finished individually.
Worktops are usually templated after the cabinetry is installed, not before — which is why they arrive a week or two later rather than on the same day. Templating from the real, fitted carcasses is what produces a worktop that fits exactly.
5. Installation
The old kitchen comes out, any building work and first-fix services happen, then the cabinetry goes in. A typical installation runs one to two weeks, plus the gap while worktops are made.
You will be without a kitchen for that period. Plan for it — a kettle, a microwave and a temporary table somewhere else in the house makes an enormous difference to morale. It is worth asking about the sequence early so you know exactly which days are the difficult ones.
6. Snagging and handover
No project of this size finishes perfectly on the final day. A drawer that needs adjusting, a handle to realign, a touch-up to the paint. A good installer expects this and comes back to put it right.
Keep hold of the paint codes and any spare door — in five years, when something gets chipped, you will be glad you did.
How long, overall?
From first conversation to finished kitchen, most projects run somewhere around three to four months, the bulk of which is design and manufacture rather than disruption in your home.
If you are working to a date — a new baby, a wedding, Christmas — tell us at the outset. It is almost always achievable with enough notice and almost never achievable in a fortnight.
Come and talk it through at our Basildon showroom, or book a design consultation and we will give you a realistic timeline for your project.
