Hi Claire, You may find this useful. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/the-shaker-kitchen-company-dsvw-vd~3712506 Thanks, Gina

No image or company name has come up ? We design for clients in a freelance basis so they can shop around with one design ( tailored to them specifically ) and then easily compare like for like. You might find doing that useful - and of course you can ask as many people as you like to quote !

In the interests of fairness I thought I should follow up on my previous posts on this subject. We now have a stunning kitchen, perfect for our family and the culmination of 3+ years of meticulous planning. The Shaker Kitchen Co product is very well built and of high quality. Although aspects of the product are simplistic (roller catches, shelf supports etc) this IMO only adds to the appeal and takes nothing away from the well crafted product. BUT... I would find it very hard to recommend others using them unless you have a very high threshold for pain and a bucket load of patience. For us the gamble (which we always knew that it was) paid off though. We walked into their Fulham showroom in July very clear about what we wanted and armed with our credit card to sign on the dotted line there and then. We weren’t browsing, we meant business. It was many weeks later, and 6+ iterations of the same design before they finally managed to (just about) draw what we wanted. Each subsequent iteration of the design rectified one mistake but bizarrely introduced several new ones each time. Their emphasis on you fully owning and signing-off their production drawings suited me fine as I know every millimetre of our kitchen and am famiilar with working drawings), but watch out if you are not technically minded and are reliant upon their design expertise – attention to detail is certainly not their specialism (nor is returning phone calls). You need to re-check the same dimensions/production notes each time you receive a revised design and watch out for the unexpected/unrequested little changes. In the end I reluctantly signed off a drawing which was strictly correct but badly annotated and which would inevitably lead to the eventual production mistakes which I knew were coming 14 weeks later. We never did receive all the promised colour samples, but again this was no great concern as we were pretty clear what we wanted. Delivery team were professional and efficient (I’ve met them twice now as they’ve been back to deliver the wrong size products more than once!) Mistakes in the units were pointed out to them promptly (predominantly items manufactured to incorrect dimensions). Again not a problem if you are confident enough in your knowledge of joinery to dismantle units and rectify mistakes yourself. Excuses provided were polite but laughable. If we waited for them to resolve themselves we definitely wouldn’t be using the kitchen this Christmas. Apparently if we had used their fitters they would have fixed these mistakes themselves at no extra fitting cost (err, yes). Have had a couple of attempts to get the pantry slate shelf the correct size. Not a problem if you work from home and are happy to take the ‘will they turn up when promised’ gamble. Have finally cut this to size myself now. Am no geologist but suspect the slate itself originally formed in the ground faster than their customer service. They have however, reimbursed all additional costs incurred (I think). So in summary, they do the difficult part well (or at least their joiners in Czech Republic do) and the easy part badly. I suspect that, as the product is actually good value, that they are simply very busy and cannot cope with demand at present. The finished kitchen will continue to please us long after the memory of the short-term experience has faded. If they could just sort out their ’designers’/admin/customer service etc in the future - or even just provide their staff with some training on how to slow down and actually read customers' correspondence properly - then I suspect they could be charging much more than they currently are. I personally think their product is better than DeVol, but I so wanted to place an order with the lovely attentive diligent people at DeVol or Sustainable Kitchens at the time just because of how nice, professional and responsive they were. Don’t say you haven’t been warned!

The simplest way is to shop around with one plan so you can compare like for like. So work out the layout either yourself or with an independent pro like us. Then email or drop your plans and item list into all the showrooms that offer the look you are after. That way you are giving the retailers/trade counter/online shop what they need to price it. You won’t feel beholden to any particular showroom who you may have asked to spend time designing for you and you don’t waste ( yours and their) time with different planners/sales people from lots of places who each want to come and measure up etc . It’s fairer all round and should enable you to negotiate the best deals. Click on my icon or name to see some examples on our pro page - and some client reviews !