New Build and Architect-Led Kitchen Design

A good deal of our work comes through architects, and it usually starts at drawing stage rather than once the building is up. That is the right time to involve a kitchen designer, and it makes a considerable difference to what is possible later.

Classic Design Kitchens has been designing and installing across Tayside and Fife since 1994, from our showroom in Broughty Ferry. We are an authorised Nolte Küchen partner and a five star Neff Master Partner, and we work with the same trusted fitting teams on every project.

Why Drawing Stage Matters

Most kitchens are designed around a room that already exists. On a new build you have the rarer opportunity to do it the other way round — to let the kitchen shape the space rather than fit into whatever is left.

The things that are cheap to change on paper and expensive to change later:

• Waste and water positions, which dictate where the sink can realistically go
• Extraction routes — a downdraft system needs a path out, and that decision belongs on the drawing rather than on site
• Socket and switch positions, particularly around islands where the feed has to come up through the floor
• Window sill heights against wall units and worktops
• Ceiling heights where tall units or a full-height larder run is wanted
• Door swings and circulation, which decide whether an island works or gets in the way

None of these are difficult if they are settled early. All of them are compromises if they are not.

Working With Your Architect

We work regularly with architects across Tayside and Fife, and are used to being brought in during design development rather than at fit-out.

In practice that means producing a kitchen layout that can sit alongside the architect’s drawings, marking up the services requirements so they can be built in, and revising as the design moves. We are not trying to take the design away from the architect — our job is to make sure the kitchen that ends up in the room is the one that was drawn.

Working With Your Builder

Depending on how the contract is set up, we work either direct with the homeowner or through the main contractor. Either is fine, and we will fit into whatever arrangement suits the project.

What matters on site is that we hold our slot. Installation is carried out by fitting teams we have worked with for years, covering joinery, electrics and plumbing, and we coordinate the whole job ourselves so you have one point of contact rather than a string of separate trades. We will give a firm duration rather than an estimate, and tell you early if anything is going to move.

Between them our installation team has 80 years of experience, and the same people come back if anything needs putting right after handover.

Lead Times

This is the one that catches people out on a build. Nolte manufacture to order, and the lead time is six weeks from order to delivery. That is dependable, but it is not something that can be pulled forward at short notice if the programme moves in the other direction.

We will tell you at design stage what the lead time is and what the latest sensible order date looks like against your programme. If the build moves, we would rather know early than be told the week before.

The Product

Around 95 per cent of what we fit is Nolte Küchen or Nolte Neo, manufactured in Löhne, Westphalia. Rigid carcasses, thick cabinet backs, hinges and runners rated for far more cycles than a typical UK carcass — which is what keeps a handleless run looking right in year five rather than year one. Nolte is PEFC and FSC certified. For traditional British in-frame shaker we supply Daval.

On appliances we are a five star Neff Master Partner, a status Neff awards by invitation rather than application. We also supply Siemens Studio Line, Bosch, Bora and Quooker.

Worktops in Dekton, Silestone and Caesarstone porcelain, templated after the cabinets are installed rather than before.

Talk to Us Early

If you are at drawing stage, or your architect has suggested getting a kitchen designer involved, it costs nothing to have the conversation now. It is considerably cheaper than moving a soil pipe later.

Visit the showroom: 60 Dalhousie Road, Broughty Ferry, Dundee DD5 2UB
Call: 01382 731560
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, Saturday 10am to 5pm, Sunday closed