A new kitchen is a dream held by many homeowners, but one that can be prohibitively expensive to realize for some people. If this is you, then how about a couple of tips to get the kitchen of your dreams – at a reduced price? Read on for the good stuff.

The number one advice, when it comes to saving cash on a kitchen, is to look for auctions on what is called ex display kitchens. As you may be able to tell, these are former demonstration models from kitchen showrooms, that often go for a fraction of the list price. If you are lucky with your bidding, you can have a high-end kitchen for an amount which is peanuts relative to what you would have to pay otherwise – and still a lot cheaper than that rather mediocre solution you were scraping together to afford. Of course, a demo-model will not be a custom-fitted kitchen – not in your home anyway. It was built to fit in a showroom, and as such will most likely require some modification to fit into your home. But the good news is that you can simple add or remove a unit or two – or simply choose to live with the layout of that kitchen, in return for getting a great product at a bargain price. Even if you have to get extra units or extra kitchen unit doors to make things fit at home, it will still be a lot cheaper than if you had bought at list price.

Another trick to cut down on the price for a fitted kitchen, is to think in standard measures. Kitchen sales-copy these days like to throw the word “individuality” around a lot. Your kitchen must help you express your individuality, it is often said. And why not? Truly custom-made kitchens are good business for kitchen fitters. So if you would rather save some cash, at the risk of being slightly less unique, cut down on “custom” and turn up “standard” in your specifications for your new kitchen. Any kitchen manufacturer will have a number of standard units in their program and it will always be cheaper to buy these, as they are simply blasted out of a manufacturing line in their hundreds or thousands. When you plan your kitchen, do so with standard units in mind. See if you cannot reach an acceptable compromise between price and performance using only standard units.

The last tip for now, is where it gets hard for a lot of people to choose cheap – I am talking about finish. Kitchen units doors or fronts are the most visible part of the kitchen (together with the worktop) and are what express, if not your individuality, then your taste at least. very quickly it becomes a matter of sacrificing looks for functionality – or the other way around – and this is never easy. But perhaps try thinking of the perfect look not as the ultimate money-no-object solution, but rather as a look that simply works in the context. It may not be the rhinestone horn of plenty you had envisioned at first – but it may end up being quite satisfactory still, if you are open to it.