Kensington Kitchen Range
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If you've been scrolling through kitchen ranges and Kensington is the one that keeps catching your eye, it's usually the in-frame doors doing the work: the door and drawer front sit inside a proper traditional frame rather than as a flat slab fixed straight to the carcass. That framed construction is also why Kensington takes longer to build in the workshop than some of our other ranges - each frame has to be built and hung dead square, or the gap around a drawer front stays visibly uneven for the life of the kitchen. We design and fit Kensington kitchens for homeowners across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, from Victorian terraces where a framed door suits the period detail of the house, through to newer builds where people want that classic look without it feeling twee, and a free quote is just a phone call and a home visit away.Kensington isn't the only shaker-style option we fit. If you want something a touch more contemporary, our Jefferson range swaps the framed door for a handleless slab front, and the Clonmel range sits somewhere between the two with a lighter frame if Kensington feels a little heavy for your kitchen. Whichever you land on, the same team designs it, fits it, and stands behind it once it's done.
The Kensington Spec, Door by Door
- Free home consultation and CAD/interactive floor-plan design so you can see the Kensington layout in your own room before ordering
- In-frame Shaker cabinet doors and drawer fronts, built and hung by our City & Guilds trained joiners
- A hand-finished painted door, colour-matched in-house to palettes including Little Greene and Farrow & Ball
- Soft-close hinges and drawer runners as standard
- Worktop templating, cutting and fitting across granite, quartz, marble or sintered surfaces such as Dekton and Corian
- Appliance, tap and sink plumbing connections by NVQ Level 2 and City & Guilds qualified plumbers
- Kitchen electrics - sockets, lighting circuits, appliance wiring - installed and certified by Part P approved electricians
- Gas hob and range cooker connection and commissioning by Gas Safe registered engineers
- Plastering and making good of walls once the units are in
- Removal and legal disposal of your old kitchen under our registered waste carrier licence
- A formal sign-off and written installation warranty once the job's finished
Not Included / Costed Separately
- Structural work such as knocking through walls or fitting steel beams - we'll price this separately if your layout needs it
- New appliances themselves, unless you'd like us to supply them as part of the job
- Upgrading your consumer unit or extending your electrical supply, if your existing circuits can't take the new kitchen's load
- New flooring, unless you ask us to include it in the quote
- Tiling beyond a standard splashback area
- Bespoke or oversized stone worktop slabs beyond standard dimensions, which carry a supplement
- Planning permission or building regulations applications, though we'll flag it if we think your project needs one
From Sample Door to a Kitchen You Can Use
- Enquiry and a door sample: You get in touch and tell us what's drawn you to Kensington - usually the framed doors rather than a flat front - and we arrange a home visit. Where it's useful we'll bring an actual sample door along so you can see the frame depth and painted finish in your own light rather than under showroom spotlights.
- Design in your own room, not a showroom: We put your kitchen into CAD and interactive floor-planning software so you see the Kensington layout, worktop and colour in a photo-realistic view of your actual dimensions, then follow up with a full written quote.
- Written agreement and ordering the frames: Once you're happy, we put a detailed written agreement in place covering price, specification and dates. In-frame doors like Kensington's take longer to build in the workshop than a flat slab front, so we factor that lead time into your installation date from the start rather than it becoming a surprise later.
- Strip-out, first fix, and hanging the frames: The old kitchen comes out and our plumbers and electricians reroute pipework and cabling to where the new layout needs it. Then our joiners build and hang the Kensington cabinets, checking each frame sits square and each hinge has the right tension before moving to the next run - it's the step where a rushed job would show.
- Worktop, gas connection and sign-off: We template and fit your chosen worktop once the carcasses are level, our Gas Safe engineer connects and commissions any gas hob or range cooker, plasterers make good around the units, and we walk the finished kitchen through with you before handing over your written warranty.
Budgeting for In-Frame Joinery
Kitchens through us start from around £5,000, and because Kensington uses in-frame doors rather than a simple slab front, it typically sits toward the middle of our range rather than at the entry point - the framed construction takes more joinery time than a flat door fixed straight to the carcass. What you actually pay depends on your kitchen's size, the worktop you choose (granite, quartz and sintered surfaces like Dekton all price differently), how much plumbing and electrical work is needed, and whether you want us to supply appliances. That price also carries our standard 5-year guarantee on labour and installation and 2-year guarantee on products, so you're not just paying for the units but for the comeback if anything needs adjusting afterwards. We can't give you an accurate figure without seeing the room, which is why the home visit and written quote are free
and come with no obligation to book anything afterwards. If the number's more than you want to pay upfront, we work with an FCA-regulated finance partner who can spread the cost, subject to status.
Kensington Set Against Jefferson and Clonmel
| Range | Door style | Best suited to | Typical finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kensington | Classic in-frame Shaker - door and drawer fronts sit within a visible frame | Period homes, or anyone who wants a proper country-kitchen look that still works in a modern layout | Hand-painted in-house, colour-matched to palettes such as Little Greene or Farrow & Ball |
| Jefferson | Contemporary handleless slab door | Newer builds and open-plan spaces where clean lines matter more than period detail | Sprayed matt or satin lacquer finish |
| Clonmel | Lighter shaker profile with a slimmer frame than Kensington | Homes wanting a shaker look without Kensington's heavier framing | Painted or woodgrain finish options |
Why Frame Tolerance Is the Real Test
That kind of tolerance isn't something you can fix on-site with packers and hope. It gets built in at the workshop stage, which is why our City & Guilds trained joiners check each Kensington frame against the carcass before it ever reaches your kitchen, not just when they're screwing it to the wall. The same standard of qualified trade runs through the rest of the job: NVQ Level 2 and City & Guilds plumbers connect the sink and appliances, Part P approved electricians certify the wiring, and any gas hob or range cooker is connected and commissioned by a Gas Safe registered engineer - so the parts of the kitchen you can't easily check yourself are handled by someone qualified to do exactly that. We're a family-run business rather than a franchise, which in practice means the person who measured your kitchen at
the design visit is usually still the one on site when the last Kensington frame goes up, and we've been building kitchens to this standard across Nottingham and the wider East Midlands for over 20 years. You get a written agreement with the price and specification locked in before anything starts, and a written installation warranty once it's finished.
Getting a Kensington Kitchen Installed Near You
Most of our Kensington installs happen close to home, in Nottingham itself, including the streets around West Bridgford and Wollaton, where the traditional in-frame look tends to suit the age of the property - Wollaton's proximity to Wollaton Hall is a decent shorthand for the classic-meets-contemporary styling people in that area tend to ask for. We also cover Beeston, Arnold and Sneinton, and further into Nottinghamshire we reach Mansfield, Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Stapleford. Over into Derbyshire we've fitted Kensington kitchens in Derby, Long Eaton, Alfreton and Heanor, and we'll travel out to Chesterfield too. Beyond our usual 15-20 mile working radius, we do take on the right jobs further afield in Sheffield, York and Wakefield - if you're outside our normal patch, say so when you call and we'll tell you honestly whether it's workable for your timeline and budget rather than just saying yes to get the job.
Got Questions?
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Kensington range classic or contemporary?
Classic. Kensington is an in-frame Shaker kitchen - the door and drawer fronts sit within a visible frame rather than as a flat slab, which is the traditional English kitchen look. It suits period homes well, but we also fit it in newer builds for people who want that country-kitchen feel without it looking out of place against more modern fittings elsewhere in the house.
What colour finishes can I have?
We hand-finish Kensington doors in-house, so you're not limited to a fixed swatch card the way you would be buying off the shelf. We colour-match to premium palettes including Little Greene and Farrow & Ball, so if you've already picked a shade for the rest of the room, we can usually match the cabinetry to it rather than the other way round.
How much does a Kensington kitchen cost fully fitted?
Our kitchens start from around £5,000, and Kensington's in-frame construction generally puts it above our simplest slab-door options, because the joinery takes longer to build and hang correctly. The real figure depends on your kitchen's size, worktop choice and how much plumbing and electrical work is needed, so we'd rather give you an honest number after a free home visit than a guess now that turns out to be wrong. Finance is available through an FCA-regulated partner if you'd rather spread the cost, subject to status.
Can I see the design before I order anything?
Yes - that's the point of the free consultation. We use CAD and interactive floor-planning software to put Kensington into your actual kitchen dimensions, so you're looking at a photo-realistic version of your own room rather than a showroom display that doesn't tell you much about how it'll look at home. Nothing is ordered until you've seen it and signed off the written quote.
What worktops work best with Kensington?
Because the door itself carries a fair amount of detail, a lot of people pair Kensington with a plainer worktop so the two don't compete - a honed granite or a quiet-coloured quartz tends to work well. That said, it's your kitchen, and we template and fit granite, quartz, marble and sintered surfaces like Dekton and Corian, so if you'd rather have a bolder stone against the framed doors, we can cut and fit that too.
Will Kensington work in a galley kitchen or does it need an open-plan space?
It works in both, though a galley layout needs a bit more care with door swing and handle clearance, because the frame adds a little bulk compared to a flat slab door. We check exactly that during the home visit and design stage, so if a galley kitchen is genuinely too tight for the full in-frame profile, we'll tell you before you order rather than after.
Can I have integrated handle profiles instead of knobs or cup handles?
Yes, though it's worth knowing what you're changing. Kensington's traditional look usually pairs with a knob or cup handle, but we can also build it with a discreet integrated handle rail if you want a cleaner line - it just moves the kitchen slightly away from the classic look and toward something closer to our Jefferson range. We'll show you both options in the CAD design so you can compare before deciding.
Can I have Kensington doors fitted to a cheaper carcass system to save money?
Honestly, not in the way you might be picturing. In-frame doors like Kensington's need to be built and hung against a carcass to precise tolerances for the frame to sit flush and the hinges to work properly long-term - mixing them with a budget carcass system tends to show up as doors that don't quite close right within a year or two, and we won't put our name to that. If cost is the concern, it's usually better to look at where else the spec can flex, such as worktop choice or handle style, and we'll talk through that honestly at the quote stage.
How does Kensington compare in price and quality to your other ranges, not just in looks?
Kensington sits above our simpler slab-door ranges like Jefferson on price, mainly because in-frame joinery takes more time to build and hang than a flat door fixed straight to the carcass front. Clonmel is closer in construction - it's also framed, just with a lighter profile - so the price gap there is smaller and comes down more to finish and hardware than the underlying build. None of our ranges use a lower grade of carcass or hinge to hit a price point; the cost difference is genuinely the joinery time and finish, not corners cut somewhere you can't see.
Book Your Free Kensington Design Visit
The longer you put it off, the longer it is before you're using the kitchen instead of just looking at pictures of it. Get in touch, we'll arrange a home visit, put your Kensington layout into our design software so you can see it properly in your own room, and give you a full written quote with nothing hidden in it. There's no obligation to book anything after that visit, so there's no real reason to leave the phone call for another week.
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