One of the smartest ways to get a high-end kitchen without the high-end price. Here is how it works, what it costs, and when it is the right choice.
You do not always need a £50,000 bespoke kitchen to get the bespoke look. There is a smarter route that designers and clever renovators have quietly used for years: start with rock-solid, mass-produced cabinet boxes, dress them in beautifully made, made-to-measure doors, and finish the whole thing to a high standard. Done properly, it looks and feels genuinely high-end, for roughly a third to a half of the cost.
Here is how it works, and how we bring it all together for you.
The three parts of a kitchen
Every kitchen is really three things: the boxes you never see, the fronts you do see, and the finishing that turns it into a room.
1. The carcasses (the boxes). The cabinets are the unglamorous but important part. IKEA's Metod system and Howdens are both well engineered, come in a huge range of sizes and internal fittings, and use quality soft-close hardware. (IKEA uses Blum hinges and runners, the same ones found in far pricier kitchens.) This is about 80 per cent of the cabinetry, and once a door is on it, you genuinely cannot tell the box apart from one that cost five times more.
2. The fronts (what you actually see). This is where the character and the quality show, and where the hack happens. A growing number of specialist makers produce beautiful, made-to-measure doors, drawer fronts and end panels designed to fit standard Metod carcasses: painted Shaker, smooth slab, real oak, fluted, in-frame looks and more. Names worth knowing include Naked Doors (Naked Kitchens), Plykea, Holte Studio, Superfront, Reform and Husk. You choose the style, colour and handles, and they make the fronts to order.
3. The finishing (what makes it a kitchen). This is where most do-it-yourself versions fall down, and where we come in: worktops, appliances, sink and taps, splashbacks, lighting, handles and proper fitting. Get this part right and the kitchen reads far above the cost of its cabinets. Get it wrong and even expensive units look flat.
Where Hankley comes in
The parts are only part of the story. What turns a flat-pack box and a set of doors into a seamless, high-end kitchen is the bringing-together, and that is our job:
- We design the layout and order the right carcasses and fronts, so everything fits and works.
- We build and fit the cabinets properly: level, plumb, securely fixed, with doors and drawers aligned the way a good kitchen should be.
- We supply and template the worktops, whether that is quartz, granite, porcelain or solid timber.
- We source the appliances, usually at better-than-retail trade prices.
- We handle the plumbing, electrics, tiling, lighting and decoration, and manage the whole job through to a finish.
You get one team accountable for the entire kitchen, from the first drawing to the day you cook in it.
What it costs (a rough guide)
Every kitchen is different, but as an indication for a typical 10 to 15 square metre kitchen, fully fitted:
| Route | Typical fully-fitted cost |
|---|---|
| Full bespoke, handmade | £45,000 to £90,000+ |
| Branded mid-range (e.g. Howdens) | £18,000 to £38,000 |
| Carcasses plus bespoke fronts (the hack) | £12,000 to £25,000 |
The made-to-measure fronts themselves usually run from a few hundred pounds for a small kitchen to a few thousand for a large one, on top of the carcasses. As a rule of thumb, the carcass-plus-bespoke-front route saves around 30 to 40 per cent against a comparable custom kitchen, and lets you put the money where it shows most: a beautiful worktop, good appliances and the right lighting.
When it is the right choice, and when it is not
We will always give you an honest steer. The hack is a brilliant fit for most kitchens, especially where you want a high-end look but would rather spend your budget on the worktop and appliances than on the cabinet boxes.
It is less suited to very unusual layouts, curved runs, oversized or full-height feature cabinetry, or where you genuinely want a hand-built, in-frame joinery kitchen with detailing only a cabinetmaker can achieve. In those cases we will tell you, and we can build or source that too.
Getting it right: our tips
- Spend on the worktop and the handles. They carry the whole look.
- Choose your appliances early, so everything is designed around them.
- Do not skimp on lighting. Under-cabinet and well-placed task lighting make a kitchen feel expensive.
- Measure carefully and plan properly. The savings disappear fast if fronts are ordered to the wrong sizes.
- Use one team to bring it together. The finish is in the coordination.
Brand names are given as examples only; we are not affiliated with them. Costs are indicative for 2026 and depend on size, specification and finish.