New Kitchen

[dutch]

Anybody has address of a kitchen supplier in or around Nakhorn Ratchasima?

No do it yourself shop,because I cannot do it myself

Want to buy and install in August.

Thanks

[Jeff1]

Hi dutch,

We have been looking also.

What we have narrowed it down to is

Home Pro at the Mall. Ask for a contractor to do ( not cheap )

Index also has a showroom in the Mall , but go to the Index on the road to Joho

On the way, there is a Kohler supply store for sinks, faucets and such , mostly a bathroom / plumbing supply outlet. But here in the U.S. We view Kohler as the best. There is another store in the mall that has a few kitchens but we did'nt care for them . That store and the Index store is 2nd level across From the internet cafe

Good luck and let me know what you decide.

P.S. Where did you buy your satallite and do you like it ?

Thanks,

Jeff

[dutch]

Hi Jeff1,

Some time ago since heared from you.

Yesterday 12call provide me with the website of Homepro (in Thai)

Of course we know homepro in the Mall.Did not know that they could intermediate with contractor.We will see in August.

All the other shops were not really good. (the shops in the Mall I mean)

No news yet about the satellite.I hope in December/January when everything is operational to bring you the good news.

[ProThaiExpat]

Dutch: I have installed a half dozen kitchens in that many years of many types, from Ikea ready mades to high end designer kitchens. Your comments at the end of your last post suggests you are not interested in "low end", that is getting what you pay for and the quality for price. I installed an "outside" Thai kitchen for smelly Thai food for you know who, from local sources but my inside kitchen, open to the "great room" is the best quality I could find.

Heavy duty hardware in the drawers is the big thing to look out for. If the door continues to close in the last two inches of its inward travel after you have removed your hand from the handle, you are at the level of quality you may want.

Likewise, the big difference in kitchen cabinet design in the past few years in the west is large drawers below the counter cabinet. They make so much sense, and they eliminate that silly design where you open lower cabinet doors and then pull out a sliding shelf to access pots and pans in the back of a shelf.

I have a dishwasher, so it is a dream to just transfer dishes from the dishwasher on one side of the kitchen to drawers on the other, a continuous motion not involvings bending over to empty the dishwaher and then standing to put the dishes in an upper cabinet. Also, Thais are short, so if they are doing the dishers, they love not having to reach overhead.

Of course, I am talking about a custom kitchen installation. The problem with buying pre-made cabinets is fitting them into your space. The use of fillers is important to make it all fit.

The happy medium is the custom installation that uses "boxes" which have been standardized. The "custom" supplier has a list of standard "boxes" that fit most configurations and uses a computer or a kitchen designer to "arrange" the boxes to meet your requirrements and fill up the avalilable space. Good design eliminates all but a couple of inches of "filler" where the box meets the wall a little short.

Once the boxes are mounted on the wall, the pre-made doors matching the box size are installed. The doors come in the various finishes offered while the boxes are simple white melamine covered particle wood.

I found my cost for my custom kitchen here in Chiang Mai to be one half the cost of the same quality in the U.S. My neighbor just had a local make from scratch his wooden cabinets and believe me the quality isn't there, the design isn't there and the wood is subject to termites or wood worms.

I have seen the cabinets at Home Pro and find them expensive and not amenable to a true custom installation. HomeKitch's quality is below that of my choice of

Teka. The parent company is German and if you have seen their appliances around in the various shops, you can see the quality.

Since you are talking about a substantial amount of money for your kitchen, it would be worth it to contact Teka in Bangkok and find out where the closest store to you is. I will do it for you if you PM me. A low cost flight to wherever a Teka store is woud be well worth the expense. They may even send a manager type to you to do the measurements and finalize the deal. Certainly, you can fax measurements and get prices prior to an actual meet. It is 2500 Baht roundtrip Issan to Chian Mai on Phuket Air now, so you could come here easily.

Since the manufacture and installation comes out of Bangkok, the quality is maintained. The cost per linear meter of cabinet is the determining factor in the overall cost of your kitchen, measure the walls upon which you plan to hang your upper cabinets, then measure the space below them for the lower cabinets and add any "islands" or "free floating" lower cabinets you may have. You can pretty much determine the cost yourself if you ask for a quote of per linear meter of upper cabinets and per linear meter of lower cabinets and then just add them up. Sink, stove, granite counter top are separate. You can get accepatable Thai granite from local shops a lot cheaper than from Teka.

I had them do the cabinets in the bathrooms as well. Euro-design, high gloss finishes. The only quality I have in my 200 sq. meter single story house is the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and the sliding mirror doors from Home Pro.

The fact that the installation teams came from Bangkok makes the big difference. I saw the kitchen cabinet installers actually take apart a "box" to cut it down to size and install it, and have Bangkok ship up a door to fit overnight. The installers are paid by the job, not by the hour and they sleep over until the job is done. Took them three days for my very large kitchen and two baths. They were able to correct mistakes made by BKK on the job. Truly world class. I have yet to have a material failure in two years. When you think of how much you use a kitchen on a daily basis, is worth going for quality.

On the other hand, if the kitchen is for a Thai who operates in the kitchen like most Thais do, then it is not worth the expense. A local install would do. My kitchen is part of the living room, dining room and entertainment area, "ie. the great room" concept so the "furniture" look needs to be there.

I would be happy to help in any way I can, if your interested in this approach, just PM me. The manager of the store in Chiang Mai speaks fair English and I could always help out if need be. I enjoy kitchen design, so it would be fun for me and I like to pay back my good fortune, as I am retired. I believe you can get a much better job, better quality and cheaper than Home Pro. I had cabinets put all the way to the ceiling, thus ladder required to reach the top one, but I liked the look. Double the cost as I was adding a whole additional linear length of cabinet to the job. If your Thai does all the cooking and you rarely go in the kitchen, lower and smaller cabinets save big Baht. The shelves inside the cabinets are adjustable of course.

Good luck.

[dutch]

ProThaiExpat,

Times like this I feel most happy to be member of the Thaivisa Forum.

Thanks a lot PTE for this very detailed answer.

I certainly would appreciate to receive the addresses of Teka in BKK and in one of the nearest places to Korat .

We will have a wed and dry kitchen.Both not in open connection with other rooms.However I want to buy something that I like as far as looks and quality concerned.My wife ius used to the European styled kitchens but is not looking for a high class Siemens kitchen at high costs but also not too simple and to be regretted afterwards.

We will contact again if there is any more question.We will surely contact if our plans will bring us to CM.

Thanks again and I keep you posted

[ProThaiExpat]

Dutch: Call Khun Goi at 053-216-491 and she will be happy to help you with any information you need. If you email me at this screen name at hotmail.com, I will send you a couple of pictures of my cabinets so you can see them instralled.

[32x]

Hi Dutch..

Just bought loads of stuff for my new house in homepro the mall korat town

www.homepro.co.th

Kitchen range seemed very good.

Good luck

[flackjacket]

I had a complete kitchen installed by Modernform, dont know if there is one near you but there are many branches in Thailand. It was not low end of the market, dishwasher, hob, oven, cooker hood and washing machine(that not from Modernform). Installation was quick by Thai standards, a very good quality job and nothing has fallen off the wall in 2 years. They have a free planning system done in a laptop so can show you different choices and layouts. Around August/September look out for their "end of season" sale when they discount to make way for new lines. Haggle as discounts are there to be had. Best of luck.

[ProThaiExpat]

Flackjacket: I agree with your post entirely including Modernform's willingness to provide discounts. I have bought things from them and am a very satisfied customer.

I would have, in fact, bought my kitchen from them, had they had the high gloss "euro" style cabinet I wanted.

Rounded edges with no "mica" reveal is the break point from average to above average quality. My recollection is they have predominately wood finishes, and while very attractive, if you like a "wood" look, not what I was looking for.

[dutch]

Thanks a lot everybody for the input.

Special thanks to the ones who mailed me (incl pics).

will ask 12call (I call him the forum googles) ,if he has website from Modernform.