Thanks all for your postings!


My wife and I have discussed many of the points raised, so it is good to know we're not far off the track.

We first went to Fust (as part of COOP, we could collect points which we could then use for our mortgage at Bank COOP). They were helpful, although they included items in the estimate we specifically said we didn't want , but ultimately we want a big kitchen and the cost came in at a whopping, eye watering 70,000 CHF. Now while there may be some room for negotiation, a similarly fitted kitchen with IKEA would cost around 25,000 CHF, including fitting and a Quarz/stone work surface.

Basically, we could pay for three kitchens over if we needed to with IKEA... not so much a case of "buy cheap, buy twice" rather "buy cheap, buy thrice". They do also come with a 25 year guarantee. Now, I realise that in life there are no cast iron guarantees, but it is more than what the competition are offering.

Regarding Piati, we did very briefly look at them, but because of the size of the kitchen we had to reconsider very quickly. Put bluntly they are way out of our budget... Alno is new to us, so we'll take a look-see.

We spent a good 3 hours in IKEA yesterday using their software. Even though it was a busy Monday post Christmas, we got help from 3 different folk along the way (they weren't in a rush at all). Each was able to offer us additional tips as we went along, and each had different suggestions, so we benefited from this.

There is a company in German Reinach who also offer the cross-border service with Leicht, so we will get a quote from them, but I am doubtful they can match IKEA.

My real question is whether IKEA is cheaper solely because the quality is lower. I am guessing that there must also be a cost savings component, as the bulk must be greater than that for companies like Leicht.

The other aspect in our minds is that we have three small children (oldest aged 5 in Jan). So we're factoring in that there will be some breakages along the way. We imagine that Leicht stuff breaks almost as easily as IKEA with a child hanging off it, but would be more expensive to replace or fix...

Anymore thoughts/info welcome. Will post an update on costs (if we get quotes from competitors) for those that have a passing interest!

Tara for now

C