The five things that make a showroom visit actually useful
1. Rough measurements
You don’t need exact millimetres — we’ll laser-measure properly at the free home visit. But coming in with a 10cm-accurate sketch of the room, window positions, door positions and ceiling height lets the designer show you layouts that actually fit. Without it, everything is hypothetical.
2. Phone photos of every wall
Five or six photos covering every wall, corners, the ceiling, the floor, any chimney breasts, pipework or boilers. Photos show us things you’d never think to mention — a radiator where you want the hob, a window where you want a wall unit, a floor level that drops 40mm across the room.
3. A budget ballpark
Kitchens at Deelux start at £7,500 (compact Bowden) and run to £30,000+ (bespoke in-frame Falconbrook). Most Chester customers sit between £11,000 and £20,000 for a medium L-shape or island layout, supplied and fitted. Telling us your range isn’t a commitment — it’s what lets us show you ranges you can actually afford rather than ones that waste your time. See our full kitchen pricing for range-by-range starting prices.
4. Your appliance wishlist (or what you’re keeping)
The biggest design decisions happen around appliances. A range cooker needs a different cabinet plan than a standard oven. An American fridge-freezer eats a metre of wall. A wine cooler, boiling-water tap or induction hob with integrated extraction all change the layout. Bring brand and model numbers if you’ve chosen them, or just a general idea (“we want a range cooker, a wine fridge, probably a Quooker”).
5. How you actually use the kitchen
The best Chester kitchens we’ve designed were shaped by how the family actually lives — not by a magazine layout. Who cooks? Who does the washing-up? Where does homework happen? Is the kitchen table the family hub or is there a separate dining room? Do you entertain in it or retreat to a snug? These are the questions Jennifer and our showroom designers will ask, and the answers change which cabinets, heights, lighting and layout we put in front of you.
