Cool kitchens come riding on an increasing availability of snazzy products. Just cast a glance at the market—French, Italian and German modular kitchens have flooded the shops, the latest entrant being Gautier. The kitchen accessories—notably the Faber and Kaff chimneys and hobs—are coming in all shapes, sizes and colours. There are sliding cabinets, aluminium racks, rotating carousels and sleek taps and sinks. Hundreds of very upmarket kitchen design shops offering comprehensive kitchen solutions dot our metros and small towns, be it Orchid Design or Veneta Cucine in Chennai, Pluto in Hauz Khas, Delhi or Arcus in Gurgaon. You can assemble a 10 x 12 square feet kitchen for Rs 50,000-Rs 80,000. A designer dream could cost anywhere between Rs 2-3 lakh, minus the gadgets, of course. "These days you can just buy a kitchen off-the-shelf, by the yard," says Delhi-based interior designer Nandini Dhanda.
Even small towns are keeping up with the metros. Ghaziabad-based Nirmal Mohanty is an engineer-turned-designer who specialises in designing affordable kitchens. A 10 x 10 designer kitchen may cost you about
Rs 2.5 lakh but he can get you one with similar looks and functions in about Rs 40,000-50,000. "My aim is to improve the quality of middle-class living," he claims. He manages this by using local material like kell instead of pinewood or teak for the planks. He can also get you a good ventilating system by creating a mechanical suction process in the kitchen instead of fitting it with an expensive chimney. It's a clean sweep, just go for it.