The essentials in 1 minute
- For a rectangular room with no special features and a budget under €15,000, a good kitchen studio is enough, and you see your kitchen in the showroom first.
- If the room does not fit a manufacturer’s grid, who plans, builds and installs decides, not the brand.
- Ask whether furniture, appliances and installation share one contract and who your point of contact is.
- Kolev is one firm and one contract partner for planning, production and installation.
- At Kolev the deposit follows the order confirmation; you pay 15% only after acceptance.
Rusi KolevArchitect & Founder
Real Estate Economist (ebs)
Questions in this guide 12
- Five supplier types, six questions: who plans, who builds, who installs
- What you see before you buy: showroom, configurator or workshop drawing
- Who plans, builds and installs: one firm or several
- The mistake almost everyone makes: choosing the supplier by the front
- What it costs: planning, the first offer, payment plan
- How we do it at Kolev
- Frequently asked questions
- Next step: the first consultation
Five supplier types, six questions: who plans, who builds, who installs
Anyone buying a kitchen chooses one of five supplier types: a furniture store with a kitchen department, a kitchen studio, a self-assembly system, a joiner, or a Manufaktur (our own production facility). Six questions separate these types cleanly: who plans, who builds, who installs, how many contract partners you sign with, what you see before you buy, and whether a front can be remade in ten years. What defines an Architektenküche, an architect-designed kitchen, in detail is covered in its own guide. Here it is only about the five ways to buy a kitchen.
| Supplier type | Who plans | Who builds | Who installs | Contract partners (furniture, appliances, installation) | Remaking a front in 10 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Furniture store with a kitchen department | in-house kitchen planner | one or more manufacturer ranges | a commissioned installation team | one to three, depending on the contract | depends on the store, as long as the range runs (ask for the reorder guarantee in years) |
| Kitchen studio (specialist retailer) | kitchen planner in the studio | one or more manufacturer ranges | own or commissioned team | one to three, depending on the contract | depends on the range (ask for the reorder guarantee) |
| Self-assembly system (furniture store or online configurator) | you, at the configurator | series production | assembly service or you yourself | split, depending on the order | catalogue product, as long as the series runs |
| Joiner or cabinetmaker | the joiner | the same workshop | the same workshop | one to two, depending on the contract | can be rebuilt, as long as the workshop has the records |
| Manufaktur with its own planning, production and installation (our model) | the architect | our own Manufaktur | our own installation team | one contract partner | remade from the archived workshop drawing, as long as the finish is available |
What you see before you buy: showroom, configurator or workshop drawing
What you see before you buy sets the five types clearly apart. A furniture store and a kitchen studio show your kitchen in the showroom, to touch and in the light, a real advantage if you want to feel the surfaces and handles. The self-assembly system shows it on screen in the configurator, to take away or have delivered. We show your kitchen in the 3D site survey and in the workshop drawing, made to measure for your room, but without a showroom to walk through. That is a fair trade, not a shortcoming: if you need to touch it, a studio or furniture store is the right place; if you want to see the room planned to the millimetre before anything is built, we are.
Who plans, builds and installs: one firm or several
The honest question is not whether someone uses subcontractors, but how many firms work on your kitchen and how many contracts you sign for it. A furniture store or kitchen studio often sells the kitchen on a single contract, but has a manufacturer build it and a commissioned crew install it. Depending on the store, appliances or installation may also sit in their own contracts, so one to three, depending on the contract. So ask whether the furniture, appliances and installation are on the same contract and who your point of contact is if there is a problem. Connecting power and water is, in every model, the job of a licensed trade contractor, because it is legally reserved for a master tradesperson. We plan, build and install in-house, with one contract partner for all three steps.
The mistake almost everyone makes: choosing the supplier by the front
The most common mistake when buying a kitchen is to choose the supplier by the front in the showroom, because the choice of front does not decide quality. Over ten or thirty years it is the carcass and the hardware that decide, not the finish in the showroom. Brand does not equal quality: the coating and the hinges do. What carries the carcass and which hardware is fitted, you read in the offer, not off the display piece. The most common kitchen-buying mistakes are collected in the 12 Kitchen-Buying Mistakes guide.
What it costs: planning, the first offer, payment plan
What a kitchen costs with us starts from €14,999 incl. 19% VAT, including planning, delivery and installation. For comparison: in specialist kitchen retail a kitchen cost around €14,760 incl. VAT on average in early 2026. The industry association AMK gives €12,404 (GfK data), to which VAT is added, and that figure also includes grid-size kitchens with basic appliances. The architect’s planning is included in the offer if you accept it within three weeks. Otherwise it is added as a separate line item of €5,000 (AGB § 2). The payment plan is staged: 20% after the order confirmation, 65% after the design approval and before production starts, 15% only after acceptance. Where several offers differ in price, it is usually down to the appliances and the worktops; the extra cost over a cheaper offer sits in the kitchen, not in a margin on appliances or stone. For ceramic worktops our prices are openly online, in the free cost calculator. The cost guide with a cost calculator and the details on the deposit and payment plan are in their own guides.
How we do it at Kolev
At Kolev it is one contract partner for planning, production and installation: the architect plans, our own Manufaktur builds it in-house, and our own installation team fits it. Every kitchen comes from a workshop drawing that is archived permanently, so a replacement front can be remade even in ten years, as long as the finish is available, onto the same carcass. The hardware is named and therefore reorderable: pull-outs and hinges by Hettich, lift-ups by Blum, corner and larder pull-outs by Kesseböhmer. Every type is set out in the workshop drawing. The price is stated as a fixed price in writing in the offer and is valid for three weeks. For the warranty, the statutory provisions apply. More about the architect and the Manufaktur is under About us. One example is our renovation in Frankfurt: in that room we fought for every centimetre with full CNC freedom. With fixed catalogue modules the same layout could not have been sensibly filled: space would have been given away, and the protruding carcasses would have looked like a set of teeth made of cabinets, sticking out in the wrong places. Exactly where the manufacturer’s grid no longer fits, in-house production plays to its strength.
Frequently asked questions
Kitchen studio or furniture store, what is the difference?
Both advise you and show the kitchen in the showroom. The difference lies more in the range and the number of contracts than in the advice. Both work with one or more manufacturer ranges. In both cases it can be one contract or several, depending on whether appliances and installation run separately. Ask for the reorder guarantee in years.
Joiner or kitchen studio, when does which fit?
A joiner builds in the same workshop that also installs, and mostly does everything under one roof, good for a one-off of regional craftsmanship. A kitchen studio plans from one or more manufacturer ranges and shows the kitchen in the showroom, good for simple, rectangular rooms. Which route fits depends on whether you want a series range with a showroom or a one-off made to measure.
What distinguishes a Manufaktur from a kitchen studio?
A Manufaktur plans, builds and installs in-house. A kitchen studio plans and has one or more manufacturer ranges built and installed for it. With a Manufaktur it is one firm and one contract partner for all three steps. A kitchen studio shows the kitchen in the showroom, a Manufaktur in the 3D site survey and the workshop drawing.
Who installs the kitchen at a furniture store?
At a furniture store, a commissioned team usually installs, working on the store’s behalf. Before you buy, ask who your point of contact is if there is a problem after installation. Connecting power and water belongs, in every case, in the hands of a licensed trade contractor.
How many offers should I get?
Get three offers and compare them, ideally using the same six questions: who plans, who builds, who installs, how many contract partners, what you see beforehand and whether a front can be remade. That way you compare the structure, not just the final totals.
Next step: the first consultation
If you are not yet sure which supplier suits your project, then let’s talk. In the first consultation we look at your room, your wishes and your budget, directly with the architect, 45 to 60 minutes, for Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region.
And a piece of advice no kitchen studio likes to give: get three offers and compare them. We are one of them.