How We Work
Estate cabinetry is the art of designing and making working rooms which belong to their house, serve daily life beautifully, and endure for generations. Our principal role is therefore to act as careful stewards of period houses, creating interiors that add long-term value.
We do not sell a product. We offer an approach in how to design and make kitchens and rooms of utility for houses where architecture matters.
Before any design decisions are made, we take time to understand how your household works, and how your house is lived in or will be. Our role is not to impose ideas, but to collaborate with you and your team to arrive at the right ones.
While every project is unique, each project follows the pathway below, mirroring the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Plan of Work which lists the schedule of services on offer at each stage of the project.
Initial contact
We’ll first discuss your kitchen design project to establish whether we’re the right company for you. At this stage, we are most interested in your project’s location, its timescale and the team you are building. Budget is also worth discussing. As a guide, Smaller kitchens typically cost between £80,000 and £150,000 with larger kitchens costing between £150,000 and £200,000. These figures allow for all key elements and VAT.
First meeting
It is then sensible to meet in person to discuss the project further. This initial consultation design meeting typically takes two hours, after which we will spend time analysing the space, researching the best appliances to suit the brief, planning out the room to scale and producing a detailed quotation to deliver the room as per your brief. We ask for a fee of £1500 (which includes VAT) to undertake this initial work, with this fee being removed from the cost of the kitchen when commissioned.
Initial kitchen plan
Ideally we start work from your architect’s drawings, and using the humble pencil, we then explore and sketch out various options for your bespoke kitchen’s layout before reaching an option which we think best meets the brief we have been given. Our proposed kitchen design plan is then presented to you either via Zoom or in person along with a detailed quotation for the work.
Commissioning us
If you are happy with our design proposals and the budgets, we ask to be commissioned. We will then meet again to run through the kitchen design aesthetics and proportion in more detail, eventually working kitchen design elevations up to the point that they are presentable as a 3D model. Once engaged, we can also then provide drawings and services plans to your general contractor and other specialists to assist with their areas of the project.
Kitchen colours and ironmongery
There are several decisions for us to work through with you at this stage, such as colours, timber finishes, flooring types, worktop material and hardware style. This can be daunting, so included in the cost of your bespoke kitchen is a colour consultation with Hannah Anderson, at our design studio in Wiltshire, to help bring your scheme together.
Communication
Personal service is a cornerstone of how we operate, and the design process will be overseen by a dedicated designer. You will also spend more time with Sam Willis, our contracts manager who will coordinate all the practical aspects of delivering the project. Sam will remain in close communication with you, your general contractor or project manager at all stages.
Installation
Once the work is completed in our workshop, we will deliver, install and hand-paint your bespoke cabinetry. We use a trusted team of fitters and painters to undertake this work for us.
Finishing
We work very hard to minimise snags in our furniture, and generally install with very few or none. However, if they do happen, we have a dedicated team to address this as quickly as possible.
Aftercare
We are a team that believes in good old fashioned personal service. We take a very down to earth and pragmatic approach to how we deal with issues, and if there are any problems caused by our cabinet making, we will resolve them.
