Happy Birthday, Sola!

Goodness how time flies when you are having fun! on 12th April 2010, Sola Kitchens will celebrate its 4th Birthday! This will certainly be something to celebrate especially since we started Sola during the big recession. However, we have gone from strength to strength and in those 4 years we have met some amazing people who have become firm friends. We have also gained an enthusiastic and loyal following of happy customers – long may that continue!

Testimonial for our Taste of Sweden Event

Dear Lara and Sofia

Last night’s event was really helpful, I now know 100% more about you and Sola Kitchens than I did, and a lesson in how to be great hosts; your food was wonderful (my husband is making an afternoon snack of the doggy bag as I type this!) and I made some useful contacts.

Thank you and look forward to seeing you again next week.

Claire Plastow
Interior Designer & Design Minded Founder

A Taste of Sweden Event

Last night at 6:30pm Sofia and Lara hosted a “Taste of Sweden” event in their cosy chalet.

Guests included Amy Cutmore from “25 Beautiful Homes”, Terry Barbrook from “Beautiful Kitchens” and Heather Seabrook from “Good Homes”. Also there were Lena Renkel-Eriksson from “The Swedish Chair” and Claire Plastow who runs “Design Minded” networking. There were also interior designers and architects.

Sofia spent all day preparing delicious dishes from her native Sweden for the guests to enjoy.

The specialities included Swedish meatballs, salmon rolls, reindeer rolls as well as Sofia’s mother-in-law’s famous cake.

Everyone had a great time networking and discovering the quality of Sola Swedish kitchens.

As a going home present everyone was given a goodie bag containing Swedish food.

Sola Swedish Kitchens in 25 Beautiful Homes Magazine

Hello everyone!

Happy September. We are delighted to announce that we have been selected as the “Favourite Shop” in 25 Beautiful Homes Magazine. The article is in the Living in the South Section and is truly fanastic!

We attach the article below:

Happy reading!

Sola x

Miss Bune Gets Married

Sola Kitchens is delighted to announce the marriage of Sofia Bune, Director of Sola Swedish Kitchens, to fellow Swede, Anders Strand on Saturday 27 June 2009 in Ljungby, Sweden.

The happy couple were blessed with stunning weather and a fantasic reception.

We wish her well in her married life!

Add Value to your property

Although the recession has hit everyone hard, there has never been a better time to add some value to your home in anticipation of the price rises that (hopefully!) will come about when we emerge from the recession.

I had a look at the Sunday Times guide to adding value to your property by Isable Unsworth (you can find it at http://www.sprout.uk.com/visuals/images/books/stguide/ST-property.pdf ). In it she says,

“The kitchen is the most important room in the house when it comes to adding value to a property. [..] Estate agents define success as a kitchen that succeeds both as a status symbol and a statement of lifestyle but is still practical and robust enough for the hard wear and tear of constant, daily use.They are unanimous that a good kitchen will often clinch a deal for the buyer and that many other faults in a property can be overlooked if this room is right.”

How much should you spend? “The general advice is that you should spend about 5% of the value of your house on the kitchen but it can add as much as 15% to the asking price of a property sale. If you do not have the 5% of the value of the house to spend, it is better to think creatively rather than spend money on a kitchen that is too cheap for the property.”

Isabel points out that although adding new doors to existing units can make a kitchen look better, “new doors on an old kitchen will not add a penny in value, as it is an obvious presentation trick, which anyone can see through as soon as they open the cupboard doors.”

Isabel also gives advice on planning: “The kitchen is the room in the house where there is greatest need for the careful integration of the essential services. Money spent on professional advice from architects, designers or kitchen planners is rarely wasted as they often prevent costly mistakes.”

Using Isabel’s calculations, you can see how much should be spent on a kitchen according to house value:

£500,000 value = £25,000 kitchen adds £75,000 value

£700,000 value = £37,500 kitchen adds £112,500 value

£1 million value = £50,000 kitchen adds £150,000

Add value to your home by investing in a Sola Swedish Kitchen.

Our Kitchen Fitters

When buying a kitchen it is important not just to consider the contents but also how and by whom it will be fitted. If a kitchen is badly fitted, it will not look good. At Sola Swedish Kitchens we have our own teams of expert fitters who install our lovely kitchens.

Here is a picture of Magnus, one of our fitters making sure that the cabinetry looks as good on the inside as it does on the outside…..

What makes us different?

There are so many kitchen companies out there, you can imagine that we often get asked the question, “What makes you different?”

Sofia and I had a think about this and there are a number of things that make Sola Swedish Kitchens different:

• We are a small owner-run company and not some big corporation with hundreds of employees who do not genuinely care about the customer;
• We do not have premises on the High Street so our overheads are kept very low, which means we can pass on those savings to our customers;
• We have a showroom which is by appointment only, so it means each customer gets personal attention;
• Our cabinetry is genuinely bespoke in that each kitchen is made to order and is not pulled off the shelf;
• One of our manufacturers offers genuine solid hardwood carcasses. This means that the insides of the cabinets have beautiful varnished interiors. The carcasses are not chipboard with wood veneer glued on the inside to make them look solid wood unlike many top end manufacturers. When you ask kitchen companies about the carcasses, be sure to find out exactly what the carcasses are made of as very few offer solid wood. You may pay the price for a solid wood kitchen but in reality you will rarely get one!
• We offer a complete service from design to installation. Our design service uses the latest CAD technology to produce excellent graphics which really give customers a feel for how their new kitchen will look. Don’t be impressed by hand drawings, these are old fashioned and nowhere near as good as CAD pictures.
• Our Lidhults cabinetry has a remarkable environmentally friendly aspect- all the wood is sourced from sustainable forests, the sawdust from the factory is reused as fuel, the manufacturer has geo-thermal heating, they use solid wood as much as possible instead of MDF and chipboard which are not good for the environment, especially as they require special types of glue. There is a recycling policy in place that ensures that anything which can be reused, is reused efficiently. We use water-based paints to hand and spray paint the cabinetry.
• Almost anything is possible with our cabinetry although we do not do curves! Curves are in vogue but they are inpractical and will go out of style at some stage. We only offer practical solutions!
• We offer bespoke kitchens within 6-8 weeks. This is fast given the bespoke nature of the majority of our products and the fact that they are shipped over from Sweden;
• We are not in the Euro zone! Sweden wisely stayed out of the Euro and is very similar to Sterling so when the Pound is weak, the Kroner is often weak too. This means that our prices have not risen sharply unlike those manufacturers who purchase their cabinetry in Italy, Germany and Spain.
• We started the business after purchasing the products as consumers ourselves. I doubt there are any other kitchen companies out there with the same origin.
• We are genuinely passionate about kitchens and providing excellent customer service. There are very few remaining kitchen companies with our level of attention to detail and the end result.
• We are highly flexible! If you want a specific appliance, sink, worktop or tile, we are not tied to anyone so can get you the best choice and the best price.
• The bespoke nature of the products enables the customer to choose the height, width, depth and appearance of their cabinetry.
• We work hours to suit you. We can see you when you are not at work, ie the evenings, weekends, etc. I even sold a kitchen at 10:30pm last night….

There are probaly more unique factors about Sola Swedish Kitchens, bt hopefully this gives you an idea of what makes us stand out from the crowd……

Lidhults New Ranges

Earlier this month one of our manufacturers, Lidhults, exhibited at the annual Kitchen Show held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was at this event that they unveiled their two new kitchen ranges. Sola Kitchens can now offer these two new designs called Aspen and Cannes. Take a look at the photos below from the exhibition!

4 Page Spread in Beautiful Kitchens Magazine

Hello!

We were very pleased to have one of our gorgeous kitchens featured in the February 2009 issue of Beautiful Kitchens Magazine.

The feature was on Peter Cashmore’s lovely studio flat and the highly practical and yet minimalist kitchen designed by Sofia.

This kitchen was a spray-painted solid ash kitchen from the Fjellen range by Lidhults. For the worktops Sofia used white Blizzard Caesarstone from UK Stone Ltd, our preferred supplier.

One the features is the very small fully integrated single dish drawer by Fisher & Paykel. This drawer is so clever in that you do not need to have a large appliance to get those dishes clean!

Please go to our Home page and click on the Press tab where you can read the article in full.