Kitchen Extension - Recommended Architect, Builders and Kitchen Designers

[RichJ]

We have just come to the end of a fairly substantial kitchen extension and I wanted to recommended our fantastic architect, builders and kitchen designers to anyone thinking of doing anything similar.

Our architect was Joe Knight of KN Designs ([email protected]). He is based in East Dulwich and already has a number of recommendations on the EDF. He came on board right at the very beginning of the process and has been an expert guiding hand all the way through. He spent a long time with us at the outset exploring different options and working up his detailed plans, guided us through the party wall and planning permissions process and then project managed the build itself. Throughout it all he was patient, responsive, practical and proactive and always good humoured and easy to deal with. Kitchen extensions are his bread-and-butter so whatever issue we raised, he invariably had an answer or a recommendation for us. He also has a wealth of contacts, so can recommend suppliers for roofing, bi-fold doors, underfloor heating etc.

Our builders were SPN Building Services ([email protected]). They are a small family firm from Kent and, by the end of the build, felt like a part of our family. For five months, they were with us by 7.30am every day and were totally reliable and hard-working. For example, they had to dig the foundations by hand in the summer heat wave and kept going all day with great humour and patience. They were really friendly and great with our kids. They came in completely on-time and on-budget - the only extras were due to small changes that we requested. They handled all building, electrics, plumbing, carpentry and decorating. Their pricing was very reasonable and considerably cheaper than other quotes we received - and, at least to our eyes, with no reduction in quality. Our architect had not worked with them before but was really impressed with the quality of their work and will now be asking them to quote on all his jobs.

Our kitchen designer was Svaja from Dulwich Design Kitchens on Grove Vale (http://www.dulwichdesignkitchens.com). Again, we were really impressed by the amount of time she gave to us and her attention to detail. She and my wife spent many hours together getting the design of the kitchen just right and she was full of practical ideas as to how to make the best use of the space. She was also able to source the appliances we wanted at very competitive process. It was also very useful that she was local - we could often just pop into the showroom and ask her a quick question or see something she wanted to show us. It would have been much less convenient using someone outside the area.

All three were excellent and worked together to deliver a project that we are really pleased with. If you have any questions or would like any further details about any of them, just drop me a PM.

Thanks