Kitchen is an area where there is no room for compromises since it is one of the most functional parts of the house. Modern-day kitchens have gone a step-ahead where
they have also turned into place to socialize. When Kitchens are so directly connected with your health, socializing and status, you would want to have a kitchen that mirrors your personality. The market is filled with kitchens that range from budget to ultra high-end. SURFACES REPORTER spoke to brands to understand how the
industry works for different requirements, space, designs, price and the way ahead to get your perfect kitchen in the Indian market.
It is always better to outsource the kitchen to a very good company who does a quality job than to give work to many local vendors sitting all across resulting in a shoddy work.
Average cost of a kitchen
The cost of a kitchen is a very subjective matter. While some may spend on the interior of the kitchen, others want to splurge on the appliances. So practically, there is no end to the cost factor when it comes to kitchen. Various brands have different cost factors in play. While some have products that cater to wide price brackets while others cater to the specific price brackets. It is not always necessary that a branded kitchen would be very costly. Various brands have good quality kitchen available in a relatively smaller budget as well. Subodh Mehta, Sr. VP, Marketing and Sales, Godrej Interior says, “The starting range of our average kitchen unit is one lakh rupees. It primarily consists of cabinets in a straight line depending upon the layout (L-shape or U shape) of the kitchen along with a cooking top.”
On the other hand, Rajesh Bohra, Managing Director, Aran Kitchenworld says, “Aran Kitchenworld kitchen range starts from Rs.3,00,000/- to any value depending on the size, model, additional comfort, accessories and appliances chosen. The starting range kitchen shall have complete storage solution for the customer.”Jitender Singh, Director, Alsorg Kitchen informed that their Kitchen range starts from about 4 Lacs.
Nolte Kitchen starts from 8-10 Lacs onwards (without appliances, sink, faucets and counter and the back-splash). Thus the definition of an average kitchen depends on multiple parameters. Alex Sofalvi, MD of SEA Group Germany says, “First is the size of the kitchen space: is it a project kitchen or kitchen for an individual customer? Second, what is the use of the kitchen? Is it a dry or a wet kitchen? Keeping these requirements in mind, our experienced and well trained design team is consulting and supporting the customer to combine individual requirements with comfort, maximum storage space and an outstanding design according to the budget of the client.” Kitchens from brands such as Poggenpohl are available in the range of 20 Lacs and above. According to Capt. Mukesh Kumar, MD of Kanu Group of Companies, the average cost of a modular kitchen that goes into Indian market ranges between 6 lacs to 8 lacs and goes upto 10 lacs. Costing varies depending upon the city.
For instance, in Mumbai, due to space constraint, Kitchens are comparatively smaller than Delhi. Hence, there, the average cost of modular kitchen ranges between 6-8 Lac while in Delhi it is higher. In modular kitchen segment, the demand is also generating from Tier II cities. Also exclusive distributor for Häcker Kitchen, they have opened first showroom in Indore in March 2016 and in just three months of operations, they have already sold around 10-12 kitchens. Cost of Kitchen appliances are discussed in the Appliances section.
Components of a kitchen
The cost of a Kitchen depends on the various components that go into making the final Kitchen.
Flooring- Kitchen is a high traffic area so the flooring here has to be resilient enough to undertake all the stress. In addition, in Indian kitchen, there is heat along with heavy moisture content, so the flooring has to endure it well. Traditionally, the most popular material for an average kitchen flooring is ceramic tiles. However, as your budget ups, there are variety of options available that include Stones like Marble or Limestone to offer a more gracious look. Now-a-days, wood especially Laminate flooring is getting popular for kitchen as well. It provides the warm feeling of wood but also adds the touch of plush to the kitchen décor. Today’sprefinished wood floors and Laminates withstand heavy traffic and water stains. Other options for kitchen flooring are Vinyl and Cork that come in mid rangeflooring for Kitchens.
Kitchen CounterTops - The most used and noticed surface of the kitchen is the countertop. You just can’t play with the quality of a Countertop. It has to be a material that can withstand the pressure of Indian cooking style but keep on looking good as the years passed. Being the second hardest surface in the world, Granite countertops were most preferred materials for countertops for a long time. However, with the launch of engineered stones and other artificial surfaces having qualities like non-porosity and seamlessness, Surfaces Reporter can see a gradual shift. Some of the other preferred Countertop surfaces from mid level to high-end kitchens include Engineered stones, Quartz, Solid Surface etc.
Walls & Backsplash- Aha the Backsplash! Most experiments in terms of materials are being done at the Backsplash as it creates an image of your kitchen. Choose anything from a mosaic created out of wood, stone to marble, solid surface, quartz and even wallpaper. Almost any surface can be your backsplash, you just have to be little creative and depends upon how much you use the Kitchen as well the type – dry or wet Kitchen.
Cabinets, Hardware & Finishes- A kitchen looks stylish when it has trendy cabinets for housing utensils and built-in appliances. Today, the cabinets are made with MDF or particleboard backing and finished with different paneling options including high gloss laminates, back painted glass etc. Earlier, the most common cabinet shutter material used to be wood, and the popular species include red oak, white oak, hickory cherry, hard maple, birch, ash and pine for cabinetry. However, as the relevance of wood reduced due to sustainability and cost factor, there are other materials that started becoming popular. Laminate and Thermofoil are two materials commonly used for cabinets. Stainless steel, melamine, lacquer, acrylic are other materials for cabinets. WPC (Wood Plastic Composite) is another material that is a great substitute of wood for panelling cabinets. It’s resistance to termite, moisture, heat, fire and plenty of colours and design availability etc., make it an ideal material for kitchen cabinet.
“Do the most important things first and do not compromise on the quality. It is better to make a smaller kitchen in good quality than a big kitchen with low quality. Electrical and plumbing are not the areas where you can make any compromises while you may go economical in the selection of tiles, stone and accessories,” recommends
Ankush Aggarwal, Principal Designer, ANSA Interiors, New Delhi.
This list of Appliances is never ending. You have to choose carefully according to your food habits and dimension of kitchen. Do not be tempted to over buy if you will not use them. A multipurpose appliance is definitely a space saver for e. g. food processor, a chimney with microwave, a microwave with convention and convection to avoid separate griller, and more.