Share your kitchen renovation experience. Looking at Freedom versus more custom

[Amity]

Go local tradesman with word of mouth referrals every time.

I got quotes from kitset, freedom (!!$$$$!!$$$$$$!), ikea and zesta. Ended up going with zesta but wouldn't do it again with them.

I'd go local.

[Arcadia]

We are in east Brunswick.

The freedom woman basically laughed at my budget of $10k and said she wasn't a magician. Seriously it's a small kitchen. I don't know where she gets her figures.

I'm liking the look of another company but their showroom is in whoop whoop. It's such a big investment but I don't really have the time to shop around. Any recommendations are welcome.

[Astrid]

Custom kitchen all the way. No way would we ever go flat pack.

We had an odd size kitchen. Custom meant that everything could be tweeked to fit. We had half depth cabinets on one side, which the kit/flat pack style of companies thought was strange, but it was the only way to work the kitchen at its size.
Custom means if 3 doors are need across the space, the 3 doors take up the space. Not 3 doors and a filler piece.

We found it great to work with the designer and also with the fit and measures guy. Really the measures guy was awesome, he dealt with getting it in and what it looked like afterwards, so was able to off practical suggestions to improve on what the designer had done with us.

[Cassius2]

how arrogant of the woman to laugh at that budget. it was way more than our budget you should tell her that she doesnt need to perform a miracle, just offer a better price

[BellyBelly]

Sorry to hijack - do Ikea do custom benchtops? We need one, but the quote we got from the local joiner was HIDEOUS! We just was a decent cheapie, as we'll be moving in August, hopefully sooner. We need to go custom, as we have a long l-shaped bench.

[Cassius2]

BB: just a thought...we went with stainless steel for our benches and it came at a pretty good price. well below stone. but i do know that it's not for everyone.

Here is our kitchen... https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...8&d=1361522002

[BellyBelly]

Do you have an idea how much it cost? We weren't going to go for stone - gosh I would want to enjoy it if I did!

[feeb]

We are in east Brunswick.

The freedom woman basically laughed at my budget of $10k and said she wasn't a magician. Seriously it's a small kitchen. I don't know where she gets her figures.

I'm liking the look of another company but their showroom is in whoop whoop. It's such a big investment but I don't really have the time to shop around. Any recommendations are welcome.

We had same issue!! We have a small kitchen and the pushy woman was here from 1830 till 2330 I was so so so annoyed as she was pushy and annoying and did all the crap off i will call my manager and see what i can do!! I said umm its 2300 on a friday night do you really think there is a point! Her reply was he may answer or may be getting drunk!!

When DH said no matter what price we got to that night he would still want a week to think about it etc and she LOL and said you have to be kiding! She also thought our budget of 10k was way too low! We were not replacing any appliances.