Beautiful kitchen, great people
We had a new kitchen installed last June. I spent 6 months looking for the optimal designer, materials, manufacturer and installer. I probably spent more time thinking about the kitchen than the rest of the house. We have an open plan with adjacent living room and dining rooms. It is a relatively easy space to design in although it’s an old house so the dimension are wonky on three dimensions.
I met with every premium installer in the South of England. From Humphrey Muson to Ikea. I spoke to small independents specializing in traditional shaker kitchens to engineered German installers. I wanted to get the right balance between design, materials, finish and cost. On one side of the spectrum you get lifetime warranties and something that looks like it came out of a Surrey marble mansion. On the other end you have the mass market discount kitchens.
A few observations:
- installation is everything. A good kitchen installer can make something cheap look spectacular. And the opposite is obviously also true
- The more custom the kitchen, the more important the installation
- Getting your main contractor on side matters. Any custom kitchen is going to require accurate dimensions
- Experienced designers that listen, are creative, and practical are rare
I had a good idea on the direction of design so I wanted a kitchen maker/installer that could run with that rather than stuff me into one of the ranges. The really premium brands try to stuff you into a limited number of standard kitchens. I get it. If you are offering a lifetime warranty, and you emphasize quality, reducing the number of variables makes sense.
I was more interested getting the specific look I wanted. Modern English - a little shaker but with modern materials and pinch of scandi.
I had no idea what I was doing and I needed a firm hand to stop me making stupid decisions.
Langstaff was the perfect fit.
Lucy is an extremely experienced designer. Intellectually capable of understanding our needs quickly and creative enough to take it to the next level. She’s busy so don’t expect a 24hr response but it was worth the wait. Lucy saved us thousands of pounds by finding the perfect appliances. I really really like our kitchen.
Langstaff doesn’t (or at least didn’t) have expensive London show rooms. We found them through word of mouth. Showrooms in expensive locations cost money and you end up paying for it.
The installation was complicated and painful. Timings weren’t ideal. Mistakes were made and communication with the main contractor was challenging. But it’s not obvious to me it would have been any different with any other kitchen installer.
What matters more than mistakes is how they are handled. Rather than point fingers at the main contractor, Fergus and John found solutions. This is what makes for a good partner. There will always be problems. Langstaff Ellis has a solution centric culture. They just want to get it right. That was enormously appreciated.
The quality of the kitchen is second to none. We didn’t spend on expensive veneers but you’d think we did. Incredible detailing. And it just works. Of Course we’ve had some snagging but they dropped in the other day (a year later) to make sure everything was perfect.
Typically I don’t provide reviews. We had something like 30 subcontractors and suppliers. That said, I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending and using Langstaff again. Every single person on the design, project management and installation team was a joy to work with.