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

Just looking for some collective wisdom on kitchen renovation. We have an ok kitchen, but it could be better with more clever use of space. I just had an initial design appointment with Freedom kitchens and after reading about them on the net, I was prepared for the pushy sales talk and the "ring the manager" tactics.

Anyway, I managed to get rid of them with an idea of colours and possibilities and an estimate of $13 000. Has anyone actually used freedom? What is their process like and what do you think of the quality?

Any other experiences are welcome too. I'm a complete novice.
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what area are you in, i can recommend a company....

we have just had our kitchen done, and while its a big job and its a pain having no kitchen for a month or so it was totally worth it.

we didnt use freedom kitchens, my DH is a carpenter so he did ours BUT we got quotes and ideas through a company near us and if DH wasnt a tradie would have gone with them for sure!

Ikea all the way!!! We got the cabinetry and then got custom timber benches!!! At work but will post some photos and bbl with more info. Love them and miss home heaps.

we got ours through freedom and TBH....i wouldnt go there. they quoted us around $12000. I literally LOLd. she asked me to name my price and i said $5500. we signed on $6000.

I thought that would be the end of it, but i was really disappointed with the quality. it is afterall flatpack and i should of seen through the hype (thanks 'the block' lol) and gone with a similar product from ikea or kitset...OR actually gotten off my lazy bum and sought out cabinet makers.

there is a fantastic mob in brunswick apparently...i'll try to remember the name...they are local and eco and the kitchens look fab.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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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.

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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.

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

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!

it was still exxy...in that I didnt realise how much benches cost lol. it was $2200. BUT it has to be taken into consideration that it includes the sink (made into the bench itself) AND the splashbacks :) (oh and that included the install too)

...i had NO idea how much splashbacks cost either! i was horrified lol...hence our decision for stainless steel. that and it is super awesome as you can put your super hot pots etc right on it without fear of damage...especially handy in a small kitchen that doesnt have stacks of space.

Just wish i had of gone a custom kitchen along with my custom benches :(

the other thing that irked me with freedom kitchens was that they were super pushy in having us use their contractors to do the install and demolishing of the old kitchen...for a hefty sum! i refused and had to sign a waiver...

Just popping in to say I love the stainless steel Cassius! We were going to put in stone to match our bathrooms but your bench looks fantastic!

Love your kitchen Cassius! I love the handle-free finish too. Our kitchen is smaller than yours and the freedom designer said a minimum of 13k just to get basic finishes. I smell a dodgy designer!

I am going to hold off for a bit and see what other quotes I can get. Our hot water service died today too, so the budget is now closer to 8.5k :(

We did a Bunnings kitchen in my parents house for around $13k complete with an engineered stone bench top and a beautiful 900mm cooktop and oven. Dad and DH installed it al themselves though. Will see if I can find a pic in the morning.

Laminex Group offer Essa Stone now which is a lovely engineered stone at a reasonable price. We used Laminex Freestyle in the first house we built (in our kitchen and bathrooms) and it looked fantastic. We had a glass splash back in our kitchen which was so expensive so in the house we are building at the moment, we are using rectified tiles for our splash back instead. Much cheaper and still a lovely, contemporary look. Dad tiled the splash back in their kitchen too.

A friend from my mums group has just renovated their kitchen and they did granite overlay bench tops. Looks fab and is well priced for a 'stone' bench top.

I thought I would pop in here because we are just about to do ours in the house we are rennovating. We are doing an Ikea kitchen and went in and had everything costed the other day. Below is details of ours:

Our kitchen is quite large so keep this in mind with pricing.
It is 3.68m wide and 4.11m long.

It is a large L shape with an island bench in the middle. We have 5x 60cm draw units each with 3 draws in it, 2x 80cm draw units with 3 draws in it, a large draw under the sink for waste, high cabinet (pantry) with pull out baskets and draws, sink, taps, corner cupboard with pull out swivel thing (dont know the technical name hahaha), a cabinet with 2x large pot draw and then the over and microwave are above that and then a high cupboard above that, doors handles, kickboards etc as well. We also have 2x 80cm and 2x 60cm wall cupboards. The island bench is double sided so both sides on it have draws for storing tupperware etc. All of this is done in gloss grey and costing $7993.

We are choosing to put stone bench tops in which Ikea make to size. The 20cm depth one is $4095 or the 40cm depth is $4755.

Ikea have 2 different types of splashbacks to choose from either glass which in our case is $3006 (it is huge though!) or another sort of Metal material which is $1382.

If you decide that you want to do an ikea kitchen then make sure you go in on a week day not a weekend! That way its not as busy and you cant speak to someone about what you want.

I hope this helps x


We then have the choice between a

We installed an Ikea kitchen, it was easy and looked really nice. We were converting from a bad lay out to a galley one though, so nothing fancy needed doing - just lining cabinets along two walls. We did it in a weekend and I was 8.5 months pregnant at the time so it must not have been too hard. I think it was around 3K, including electrical because we needed to move the oven.

Kelly, ikea do a laminate bench top in two different lengths. You can do your own angled join to make them into an L if you or your partner is even reasonably handy. Or I think you can pay for them to install the bench top, it still works out cheaper than a joiner.

Thanks for the replies everyone. It's very helpful.

Hey Taurean what is/are rectified tiles? We are finalising our new kitchen design at present and are leaning towards tiles rather than glass spashbacks. Because of the shape of our kitchen I think glass will work out to be horrendously expensive and would need to go from worktop/hob to ceiling so would be large area to have as glass.

Arcadia we are going custom. Love the fact that is will be made to fit and being honest has come in quoted as less than the Freedom type quotes. We didn't get them to quote but had used a kitchen wholesale who operate in the same way .......... will see what my boss can do let me phone him, offer only good for tonight blah blah blah. Just felt as though she was quoting towards the $ amount we had said we had in our budget rather than asking us what we wanted giving quote for that and then negotiating as to what we need to drop or change to meet our price. Would totally recommend the guy we are dealing with but we're in Sydney so wouldn't work for you.

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Hey Taurean what is/are rectified tiles? We are finalising our new kitchen design at present and are leaning towards tiles rather than glass spashbacks. Because of the shape of our kitchen I think glass will work out to be horrendously expensive and would need to go from worktop/hob to ceiling so would be large area to have as glass.

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Hi hon! Firstly, how exciting! New kitchen!! Be sure to share the before and after pics!

Rectified tiles have a really sharp edge allowing them to be laid very closely together, often giving the illusion they are one big tile - kinda ;) That's why they make a good alternative for a splash back. They look amazing in bathrooms too. They do cost a fair bit more than normal tiles (to buy and lay) but they are cheaper than glass so it's well worth a look.

We just did an ikea kitchen for about $6k. We were lucky it squeezed in, and we had a carpenter friend help us put it together. He even customised a couple of cupboards. We paid him about $3k but it was worth every cent.

Instead of expensive splash back, we used those huge floor porcelain tiles, which cost us $200 as opposed to $2k for a splashback.

BB - ikea bench tops come in sized lengths and widths so you'd have to measure up and see their sizes.

We just bought our Ikea kitchen today. It cost about $6K. DH is putting it in himself but he is very handy.

Hopefully this pic works. This is a Bunnings kit kitchen, installed by my dad and DH. The benchtop was ordered through Bunnings too but installed by professionals. It a very similar product to Freestyle (by Laminex, a resin based, stone look-alike) and it looks brilliant.

Unfortunately the batch of white cabinets we got have an issue with discolouration but Bunnings are aware of it and we're currently in the process of getting it replaced, at no charge of course. I wouldn't not recommend them based on that though, especially as they have many other colours to choose from too.

Dad did the tiling for the splash back. It was a cheap and effective alternative to glass. We are putting tiles (rectified tiles) in as our splash back in the house we are currently building too. We had glass in the last house we built which looked lovely but it is pricey.

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Tauren what brand of rangehood is that?I need an Island one like that for our current Renno :)

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Tauren what brand of rangehood is that?I need an Island one like that for our current Renno :)

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Will find out for you. It's funky, isn't it :D

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Tauren what brand of rangehood is that?I need an Island one like that for our current Renno :)

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Sorry for the delay, it's a Baumatic range hood from Harvey Norman and ironically, I've just found it in the Good Guys catalogue I'm flipping through!!

Awesome thanks heaps love!