Most homeowners ask the wrong question when they start pricing a kitchen renovation. They compare the sticker price of a flat-pack range against what a bespoke kitchen costs and stop there. That gap looks significant on paper, particularly if you are pricing a full renovation on a Dublin home you plan to stay in. It is often far smaller in reality, and over time the calculation tends to reverse entirely.
What Flat Pack Actually Costs in Ireland (Once You Add It All Up)
The appeal of flat-pack kitchens, whether from IKEA, B&Q, or similar retailers, is the visible price. A budget kitchen from IKEA can start from around €3,000 to €5,000 for units alone in a medium-sized room. Mid-range flat-pack ranges sit somewhere between €5,000 and €10,000 for cabinetry.
That figure does not include fitting, which for a standard kitchen in Dublin typically runs from €1,500 to €3,500 depending on complexity. It does not include worktops, tiles, flooring, or appliances. And it rarely accounts for the practical cost of standard units meeting a non-standard room.
In older Dublin homes, walls are rarely plumb and angles are rarely square. In over 40 years of fitting kitchens across Dublin, we have never walked into a 1960s semi-d with a perfectly square room. Filler panels, cut-down units, and visible compromises start to appear, and by the time you have added professional installation, laminate worktops or quartz worktops, tiling, new flooring, plumbing changes for the sink or dishwasher, and electrical work for the hob and integrated appliances, a budget flat-pack kitchen in Ireland lands closer to €15,000 to €20k fully installed than the initial cabinet price suggested.
That number matters, because it is also the starting point for a serious bespoke kitchen conversation.
What a Bespoke Kitchen Actually Costs in Ireland
Bespoke kitchen prices vary considerably depending on size, materials, specification, and the manufacturer. A made-to-measure kitchen from an established Irish joinery, designed and built in-house, typically starts from around €15,000 to €20,000 fully installed for a mid-range specification. Premium kitchen projects with solid wood doors, quartz or Dekton worktops, and branded appliances from manufacturers like Bosch run from €25,000 to €40,000 and above.
The cost breakdown differs from flat-pack in one important way. With bespoke cabinetry, the price includes design consultation, precise measurement, manufacture to your exact dimensions, and professional fitting by a team that built the kitchen and knows how it goes together. No separate fitting quotes. No filler panels hiding gaps. No workaround costs dressed up as design features.
The Real Cost Difference: Quality, Lifespan and What Happens in 12 Years
Flat-pack cabinets are typically built from medium-density fibreboard or particleboard with a laminate or PVC finish. These are functional materials. They are also materials with a lifespan. In a frequently used kitchen with steam, moisture, and daily wear, the carcasses of a budget flat-pack kitchen begin to show their limits within a decade. Swollen drawer bases, delaminating cabinet sides, and hinges pulling away from soft board. These are not edge cases. They are what happens.
A bespoke kitchen built from quality board, solid wood components, or high-grade MDF with a painted or lacquered finish, fitted with full-extension soft-close drawer boxes and proper joinery techniques, will typically last 20 to 25 years in the same conditions. Many last longer.
When you are spending €15,000 to €30,000 or more on a full kitchen renovation, including tiles, flooring, worktops, and appliances, the idea that the cabinetry needs replacing in 10 to 12 years is a meaningful cost. The per-year figure on a bespoke kitchen that lasts 25 years is often lower than a budget kitchen replaced twice in the same period.
The Design Gap No One Talks About Honestly
Standard kitchens come in standard sizes. The ranges look extensive in a showroom. In practice, the choices narrow quickly once you are working with a real room that has a structural wall where the island was supposed to go, a boiler cupboard that needs to stay accessible, or a ceiling that drops 200mm at the back corner.
A made-to-measure kitchen starts with your room. The dimensions, the angles, the ceiling height, and the awkward alcove behind the door. Every cabinet is built to fit exactly where it will sit. There are no off-the-shelf compromises dressed up as design choices.
This matters most in older Dublin properties, extended semis, and any home that has been altered over time. It also matters in premium new builds where the brief is exacting and the design needs to integrate with open-plan living, utility rooms, or bespoke joinery elsewhere in the house.
Where the Money Goes in a Full Kitchen Renovation
Whether you choose flat-pack or bespoke, the cabinetry is rarely more than half the total spend on a complete kitchen renovation.
Worktops are the first surprise. Quartz worktops or granite can add €2,000 to €6,000 depending on size, and most homeowners underestimate this until they get the separate quote. Tiling for the floor and splashback adds €800 to €2,500 installed, and if the old tiles need lifting first, that is additional labour. Flooring runs from €60 to €150 per square metre for quality porcelain or wood-effect tile. Plumbing work for a repositioned sink or new dishwasher connection, electrical work for a new hob position or additional sockets, and structural work if a wall is coming out: each of these is a separate cost, and together they typically account for as much as the cabinets themselves.
These costs exist regardless of whether you chose flat-pack or bespoke furniture. The only variable is the cabinetry at the centre of all of it.
When Flat-Pack Is the Right Answer
It would be misleading to say flat-pack is never the right choice. For a rental property, a secondary space, a home you plan to sell within five years, or a tight budget where the priority is functional over aspirational, a mid-range flat-pack kitchen with proper fitting does a reasonable job.
IKEA kitchens in particular have improved significantly and have a large network of independent fitters who know the system well. A well-planned IKEA kitchen with upgraded doors and quartz worktops can look the part at a lower upfront cost than bespoke.
The trade-off is lifespan, fit, and the absence of real design flexibility. You are working within the constraints of what is available in the range, not what works best for your home. For many homeowners that trade-off is worth making. For others it is not.
The Best Value Kitchen Is Not the Cheapest One
The best value in a kitchen renovation is not a price point. It is the ratio of what you spend to what you get over the full lifespan of the kitchen in your home.
A bespoke kitchen fitted by the people who built it, in a Dublin home you plan to stay in for 15 or 20 years, is very likely to be the better financial decision over time. It shows in small things. The way a door closes flush against the frame. A drawer that runs to exactly the corner of the cabinet without a filler strip breaking the line. The absence of anything that looks like a compromise.
There is a difference between a kitchen that was installed in a room and one that was made for it.
Thinking About a Bespoke Kitchen in Dublin?
At Aloco Kitchens, we design, manufacture, and install bespoke kitchens from our Santry factory, and we have done since 1980. Every kitchen we build is made to measure for the home it goes into, fitted by the same team that built it, and backed by genuine aftercare.
If the numbers in this article are starting to make sense for your situation, the most useful next step is a free design consultation. We will look at your room, understand your brief, and give you an honest picture of what a bespoke kitchen would look like and cost for your specific home. No obligation, no pressure.
Book your free consultation and see what’s possible for your kitchen.
The old kitchen you have been putting up with for another year costs more than you think. Not always in money. In the mornings you stopped noticing it was worth improving.
