Why did you choose Webbs Kitchens?
The simplest answer is we had a Webbs Kitchen before, in our previous house which we’d had for 10 years and we were very happy with it so I think we were always going to go for Webbs again.
We did go and have a look at other people. We looked at Lakeland Kitchens in the bottom of Booths but we found that the first design that they did for us was boring so we didn’t give them a chance to expand on it because we thought, no, you are supposed to be impressing us and it’s boring.
And then we had a little look at Atlantis, I don’t think we would have ever gone to them but having such a massive showroom they are rather good to wander around, pinch ideas from but I think we were always coming back to Webbs because we were perfectly happy with the kitchen we had before.
We had that kitchen for 10 years and obviously a few little things over the years went wrong, but considering we had two teenage boys and two massive golden retrievers it survived remarkably well so hence, we just through we’d go for it again. Plus, I have known Ben forever and I do like dealing with local people I already know and trust.
How was the design Process this time around?
We always find the design process really difficult. I remember one of the first things I said to Ben, god bless him, his face fell, the problem is we don’t know what we want, but we’ve learned over the years we do know what we don’t want so we said it tends to work better if someone does a design for us, a random design and we go oh no, we don’t like that and then we build on that, know what we don’t like and finally arrive at what we do like. I have to say that Ben was very, very patient, because it did go on a long time and as far as we were concerned that was fine because we got what we wanted in the end, we didn’t know what we wanted but we’re happy with what we’ve got and we did find him very patient.
So, with that, as you didn’t know what you wanted, how did it come about that you ended up with what you did want?
As I touched on before, he had done a design for our previous house, so we started to build a little bit on the ideas which came from that.
We had found the breakfast bar unendingly useful for homework and things like that, and we liked the mixture of materials and colours there too, so we started to incorporate that here as well. We didn’t want one bland colour or one surface, we liked in the end three different colours of units and two different surfaces, because it’s a very big room, it would have looked too much if it was all more uniform in colour so we started to build on things like that.
It is quite difficult when you start with a room this size, it really is a blank canvas it’s not like starting with a previous kitchen you have no idea where to start. We had some ideas as well that we didn’t want many top cupboards because we have a brother-in-law who is in a wheelchair who’s actually one of our most frequent visitors and with his needs in mind, we wanted to keep everything at a more accessible height. So ideas like that, bits and pieces came together, Ben very kindly and patiently grabbed any ideas we gave him and built on them.
I believe we eventually decided on a rather nice German kitchen, Ben was looking very happy because he thought we were finally there, but then the German kitchen was going to take a great deal longer than we were happy to wait, given the patience he’d already had by that stage, Ben was great in suggesting the Scottish kitchen instead because it would come very much sooner. We had to modify the plan a bit to accommodate their slightly different ideas with the units and things, and as you can see it worked very well, we are very happy with it. There isn’t anything about it that we don’t like.
how did you choose your appliances?
We have been great fans of Miele for years, their appliances just last and we would rather choose something good once and not have to choose again for a long time rather than choose something cheap and then in a few years to have to replace them, so we were aiming mainly for Miele.
I can’t actually remember how we ended up with the Neff fridge freezer, I think it just happened to fit the slot that we had and was recommended by Ben I believe.
The Quooker tap, we’ve got the Quooker tap probably for different reasons to most people. Our boiler and hot water system are at the other end of the house, which is a very long way away and the plumber was concerned that to get the hot water from the boiler to the kitchen tap was going to take ages and we’d be running the tap for ages before the hot water came through and as that’s the only hot water we need in the kitchen we thought, why bother, we’ll just have a Quooker tap instead so we don’t have to have 5 miles of copper piping through the attic and a pump to make it arrive here sometime before next week, so we are very happy with that also.
So, you have the Quooker tap for that reason, but have you found it’s come in for the reasons other people would have it too?
Absolutely, we were sceptical, possibly because we are older, that it would make a decent cup of tea as we drink tea all the time, but it does, and we are very happy with it.
How did the kitchen insallation go?
Very well. There were a couple of minor hiccups, I’m sure there always are but I have to say Jed was superb in making sure every detail was just right.
The trims round the unit, which we thought were going to work just didn’t, so we were quick to go, these absolutely don’t work, we’ll look for something else, so Ben ordered something else for us. And there were one or two things like that, I think the grill at the bottom of the freezer didn’t look quite as cosmetically appealing or pleasing as Jed thought it should, he was a very good fitter with a real eye for detail and happy to change things if we weren’t quite happy with them.
The young chap was good as well, Lewis, he was good, because he built the unit, the framing around these tall units, and at first he built it slightly proud, so that it would sit out in front of the units but even though he was probably about 70% of the way through building it we said no, it isn’t going to work, it needs to be flush to the cupboards, he still quite cheerfully agreed and redid it.
do you have a favourite part of the kitchen?
I’m not sure I can answer that. It might have to be the hob. Since I was previously the person who went out to work and now, I’m the housewife most of the time, I’m cooking loads more and I’ve got to say the hob is good fun. I’ve always had an aga before, it’s very different to that, decades different. Due to the degree of scepticism I had that it wasn’t going to be the same, I thoroughly enjoy using it. The heat is much more instantaneous, I’m very happy with it because I did think I’d miss my aga more than I have.
The down circulating works very well too, although it was a bit of a faff to install in the first place but when you are starting from scratch, and you’ve torn everything down and put it back up again then it’s ideal. It works very well so probably my favourite thing.
It looks so much better in the room, the room was modern, we wanted something quite minimalist and modern, it just wouldn’t have looked right with an extractor hood. Whoever invented these downward extractor hobs did it at just the right time with the type of house we were trying to do.
Would you recommend Webbs kitchens?
We certainly would, as I touched on in an earlier conversation , we’ve had a couple of friends round already and I have said to them what I’ve said to you, everything I’ve said is absolutely true, Ben’s patience is beyond belief, the fitters are excellent and the kitchen is great, no snagging list, nothing at all of any note, nothing wrong with it all, it does just what it says on the tin so we’re more than happy for another decade or however long.
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Steve and Anne bought their first kitchen from us back in 1983, a kitchen which stood the test of time. Seeking something more modern, after a chance meeting with their neighbour they got in touch with us again to see if we would be able to replace it. Using the same plans from 1983, Ben created a modern take on the old design, the results of which Steve and Anne are delighted with.