Design Service in shops like Ikea, Cotto, etc. - is it good?

[OneMoreFarang]

Some companies, maybe many, offer design services.

I.e. Ikea has a service to design a kitchen and other rooms.

Cotto has a service for bathrooms and other rooms, mostly with tiles.

 

Did you ever try a service like that? What did you like and what not so much?

Is this, in your experience, really a service for people to find the design which they want? Or is it more something for companies to sell the most expensive things?

 

I am renovating a condominium from scratch. I have an idea what I want but not much in detail.

Maybe I will hire a designer and/or interior architect. And I think about sitting down with i.e. a kitchen specialist for an hour or two and a bathroom specialist for another hour or two is probably a good start.

 

Obviously they want to get paid by me i.e. per hour or room and I think that is fair enough. I wouldn't like if they get also commissions from their shops if they sell more expensive products.

 

What is your experience?

[Airalee]

It’s usually not done on an hourly rate charge.  The design cost is baked into the price of whatever the project might be.  Don’t expect that you can go from place to place and have them put hours into creating a design for you if you’re just kicking tires.  That’s just the way it is.   Know what you want and then be prepared to pay.  My kitchen design studio dragged their feet until I came back into the store with a 250k cash deposit sat down at the reps desk and said…”ok…here’s the money, when will you have the design completed?

 

Money talks.  
 

Edited to add…

 

if you hire an independent kitchen/bathroom designer/architect that will be for a much higher end remodel because the kitchen places will have their own software that the architect won’t have.  An architect will be for more one-off custom type installations.  And those don’t come cheap.

Edited April 10, 2022 by Airalee

[Pmbkk]

Maybe worth saying where you are.

 

When I was doing up my Condo's in Bangkok(3) I seemed to spend every weekend for months in designer village, just add any designer outlet and furniture store, including wood street, Pattaya etc, so you could def' offset your time against whatever cost you get quoted.

[sead]

You go to IKEA and tell the design team what you like in the shop. They will ask you about size and will put it together. If you like that colour they fix same colour for same price. If you want the that cheap gasoven then you get that cheap gasoven

The service is free of charge

Edited April 10, 2022 by sead

[OneMoreFarang]

Thanks for your answers. Let me clarify this a little more:

I live in Bangkok.

I saw on the COTTO website this "design service" for, it seems, 1000B

บริการออกแบบห้องน้ำ : Design service (cottolife.com)

 

IKEA offers this, I think they charge and if the customer buys the kitchen then the design is free:

https://family.ikea.co.th/en/kitchen-appointment

I sent them already an email asking for details.

 

Like I wrote above, I don't expect a free service. I am willing to pay for their time.

I.e. with my new kitchen the width of the room is basically fixed. But I will "move" anyhow one wall and I think about how long the room of the new kitchen should be. So I could tell one of those kitchen designers: Please show me how you would fit the appliances and shelves and whatever in a room with 3m length and how what would you do if you have 4m length? 

 

And in the moment what I want is a rough design (no idea what the real name for that is). In the moment I am not interested in selecting the handles or things like that now. I can decide this when I buy.

 

And coming back to my original post my concern is if these designers, who work in the shops, have an incentive to sell more expensive items from that shop. I.e. maybe they suggest product A for price X but "forget" to mention product B for half the price.

 

If a company would be only willing to do anything if I show them 250k up front then I would question their attitude. If they are good and have reasonable prices then they shouldn't be scared that the customer compares them with others. And if they think they customer will take their design and he will find another company who can do it for half the price then maybe they should get more competitive prices.

[Airalee]

The problem with going to one person for the design and then another person for the product and then maybe a third outfit for the install of cabinets, and then another for the countertops and yet another for the appliances is that usually, the overall design is based upon semi-custom fixtures.  You’re not going to be able to take a design from design studio X and bring it to design studio Y and ask them to replicate it because X sells brand X and Y sells brand Y.

 

I chose a one stop shop because if one of the suppliers did substandard work, or there was a problem, there was only ONE person that I would need to go to with my complaints.  If I had too many different contractors trying to puzzle it all together, I would have ended up with the blame game between contractors/designers/manufacturers etc. and multiple headaches.

 

Nobody tried to “upsell” me when I bought my kitchen.  I knew of all the different options and it was all very transparent.  The showroom had prices clearly listed and it was all relatively (note…I say relatively) hassle free.  The studio also sold the appliances and buying through them actually turned out to be less expensive than buying the appliances from the usual appliance centers.

 

Finally, any designer is going to want to know the measurements of a kitchen before they start putting something together.  It’s a fairly involved process and a lot of the time, you’ll have to work within certain limitations with regards to what can be placed where due to plumbing locations.

 

The headaches with a remodel can be numerous and personally, I’d prefer to just have one outfit handle it all from start to finish.  It was still an enormous headache, but it would have been a much bigger headache and much more expensive (as then, it becomes a custom install vs semi-custom) if I was trying to piece it all together as you are talking about.

 

Personally, I would recommend going to all the different outfits, understanding what quality level will fit within your budget, and then having one place do everything from start to finish.

[Yellowtail]

The design services are fine. You give them a sketch they help you put together a what you think you want. I think SCG was 1,000 up-front which they deduct from your order, assuming you order from them. This included them coming out to tape-out the area prior to confirming the quote and scheduling the work.

 

I think they generally rate the labor and you select the fixtures & materials, but to get their rate, you need to buy from them. 

 

Be advised, they are designers, not engineers. They fit cabinets and and show colors and whatnot, then give you a plan and a rendering. 

 

It is great for figuring out what you want. Not great is you need engineering, you need to do your own or hire one.

[scubascuba3]

i went to IKEA Bang Na, pretty basic the kitchen design, just assistants in the shop, didn't seem specialist to me, they said fitting would be 1 month at that point i lost interest, went back to the condo, ordered online and a couple of friends helped to fit it.

 

IKEA is good though, lots of good options different prices, can't go wrong with that except kitchen unit sink height is China size not farang so you may need to raise it

[Yellowtail]

9 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

i went to IKEA Bang Na, pretty basic the kitchen design, just assistants in the shop, didn't seem specialist to me, they said fitting would be 1 month at that point i lost interest, went back to the condo, ordered online and a couple of friends helped to fit it.

 

IKEA is good though, lots of good options different prices, can't go wrong with that except kitchen unit sink height is China size not farang so you may need to raise it

I can't speak to Ikea, but I think most modular kitchen cabinets are pretty standard, but use different length adjustable legs to set the height of the counter-top where you want it. The legs are typically hidden with a recessed kick-board that clips to the legs. 

 

 

[scubascuba3]

39 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

I can't speak to Ikea, but I think most modular kitchen cabinets are pretty standard, but use different length adjustable legs to set the height of the counter-top where you want it. The legs are typically hidden with a recessed kick-board that clips to the legs. 

 

 

in hindsight we should have adjusted the legs but at the time we didn't realise it was lower than UK standard, I'm pretty sure the kickboard didn't adjust though so perhaps raise the legs and have a bigger gap for any insects and geckos that may wander by

[Yellowtail]

10 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

in hindsight we should have adjusted the legs but at the time we didn't realise it was lower than UK standard, I'm pretty sure the kickboard didn't adjust though so perhaps raise the legs and have a bigger gap for any insects and geckos that may wander by

You should have ordered longer legs. The length of the lags determines the width of the kick-boards. The adjustment in the legs is not really for making the cabinets higher, but for leveling and whatnot. 

 

 

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

Last week I visited Ikea Bangna for the kitchen planning. I had an appointment. 

First about the height and the legs: According to the designer that is fixed for Ikea. Because my short gf will use the kitchen more than I do I don't even try a higher height.

Before I visited him I measured my new kitchen and put the measurements into the Ikea planning program. I also put some appliances into my plan because I have only one wall with fresh and wastewater connection. So it was obvious what has to be on that wall. And then the oven opposite.

What the guy did was selecting the "correct" cabinets and inserts. He put also some color in the plan and asked me about some materials. 

The result was/is a plan for my new kitchen and I have already a good idea what will be where and an idea about the price. This was why I visited him.

Now we will remove some walls and put some new walls inside the apartment. And plan/install the freshwater and wastewater pipes, put the tiles inside, etc. And when that is all done then I will think again about the little details before I order everything. Ikea has 25 years warranty on that kitchen. I guess that should be long enough.

I still have to think about and select the appliances. Ikea has some of them but it shouldn't be a problem to install any other brands. As far as I see the sizes are pretty much standard.

All in all I think it was a good idea to visit that designer. I didn't have to pay anything. 

[scubascuba3]

9 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Last week I visited Ikea Bangna for the kitchen planning. I had an appointment. 

First about the height and the legs: According to the designer that is fixed for Ikea. Because my short gf will use the kitchen more than I do I don't even try a higher height.

Before I visited him I measured my new kitchen and put the measurements into the Ikea planning program. I also put some appliances into my plan because I have only one wall with fresh and wastewater connection. So it was obvious what has to be on that wall. And then the oven opposite.

What the guy did was selecting the "correct" cabinets and inserts. He put also some color in the plan and asked me about some materials. 

The result was/is a plan for my new kitchen and I have already a good idea what will be where and an idea about the price. This was why I visited him.

Now we will remove some walls and put some new walls inside the apartment. And plan/install the freshwater and wastewater pipes, put the tiles inside, etc. And when that is all done then I will think again about the little details before I order everything. Ikea has 25 years warranty on that kitchen. I guess that should be long enough.

I still have to think about and select the appliances. Ikea has some of them but it shouldn't be a problem to install any other brands. As far as I see the sizes are pretty much standard.

All in all I think it was a good idea to visit that designer. I didn't have to pay anything. 

the only time i notice the height thing is when using the sink, i just felt i was stretching more than in UK, anyway it's only an inch+ but makes sense to leave it if the gf is using it more

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, scubascuba3 said:

the only time i notice the height thing is when using the sink, i just felt i was stretching more than in UK, anyway it's only an inch+ but makes sense to leave it if the gf is using it more

She wants to be able to look even in the tall pot when she is cooking something...

[Yellowtail]

Most of the stainless sinks here are just stamped, which is fine if (for whatever reason) you like a shallow sink or if you really don't use the sink or you are on a really tight budget.

 

I like a good stainless stainless sink with at least two deep-drawn bowls and a side for draining. The deeper, the better. 

 

I also like hot water in the sink. Doing dishes using hot water compared to using cold water is night and day. 

 

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