That's a bit like asking how long is a piece of string. As a starting point, though, my kitchens typically cost £50,000 to £150,000, or more depending on scope.

I take a holistic view of every project, and that extends to how I talk about pricing. These figures cover the whole of the work involved in creating your new kitchen, not just the cabinetry, worktops and appliances, which is often what "kitchen cost" means elsewhere. Every kitchen is different, but the costs involved often include removing the existing kitchen, electrical work, plumbing, plastering, decorating and new flooring, as well as any building work needed, from knocking through a wall to building an extension.

A standard showroom kitchen comes from a pre-designed, modular range: fixed sizes, a limited set of colours and finishes, built for mass production. The cabinetry is off the shelf, and the designer's job is to fit those ready-made cabinets into your space.

There's a middle ground too: kitchens made to order, but still based on a standard design. You might alter the dimensions, though not the shape, or choose from a list of colours, sometimes any colour you like, but not the exact finish. The doors are still the same doors. That's customisation, not bespoke design.

A bespoke kitchen starts at the other end: with your space, your vision and your particular requirements, designed around that before it's made. It's the difference between ordering from a menu and hiring a chef: one hands you the nearest thing to what you wanted, the other asks what you actually want, then goes and gets the ingredients.

Either. Some clients already have a builder and trades in place; I design and install the kitchen and coordinate with your existing team. Others want me to manage everything, including the building work, bringing in my own electricians, plumbers, plasterers and decorators, so one team carries the whole project, with a single point of contact and responsibility. This full-service option is one of the main reasons clients come to me. We'll agree the right approach at the consultation.

The design stage varies; I don't put a time limit on it, because getting it right matters more than speed. Once the design is finalised, it typically takes one to three months to get your kitchen made. Installation varies depending on any building work, but is usually between three to six weeks unless there's more major work involved.

Always. My own installers, who are cabinet makers themselves, fit every kitchen, so the finish matches the design and the work is guaranteed.

Send photos of your current kitchen, a floor plan with measurements and ceiling height, or any inspiration images, if you have them. It gives me a head start. But nothing is required; I'll cover it all on the day. Worth thinking ahead, though, about any questions you have, and any ideas of your own, however outlandish. They may be more possible than you think.

The next step is the design fee: £4,995 including VAT, less the £695 already paid for the consultation. It covers the full design service, with no limit on time or revisions, until you're happy with the result.

The measurements and detail from your consultation are what the design work builds on, so there's usually no separate site visit needed to get started. From there, it's collaborative: we work through materials and finishes together, sometimes with samples brought to you, sometimes visiting suppliers together, and often in my own showroom, where I'll cook for you so you get a real feel for how the kitchen will actually work, not just how it looks on paper.

There's no fixed number of rounds and no single sign-off meeting. Decisions get refined and locked in gradually, for as long as it takes to get right, before I finalise the drawings, CGI renders and technical drawings, including electrical diagrams, needed to hand the design over to the makers, installers and other trades.

Yes. The £695 comes off the £4,995 design fee, which in turn comes off the cost of the final kitchen if you go ahead with the build.

As early as possible. If you're planning structural work, an extension, or any change to your layout, bring me in before those plans are finalised. Then the kitchen and the building work can be planned together, instead of the kitchen having to fit around decisions already made.

Otherwise, there's a real risk of limiting what's possible. Plans drawn up without specialist kitchen design tend to make standard assumptions, ones that suit an off-the-shelf kitchen, but not necessarily yours.

It depends on your space, your budget and what you're trying to achieve, and it's one of the most useful things the consultation settles. Where it's relevant, I'll often sketch several layouts, showing what the kitchen could look like within your current footprint and what it could look like with an extension, so you can compare them before committing to either.

That comparison often carries into the design phase too. For many clients, the design process is what actually settles whether a side or back extension is worth building, or whether knocking through a chimney breast would give them a better kitchen.

No material is best; it depends on your kitchen and how you use it. I work with natural stones such as marble, granite, quartzite,  as well as engineered surfaces: quartz (Silestone, for example), acrylic solid surface (such as Corian), porcelain (e.g. Dekton), and other materials like stainless steel or timber. Each has its own strengths: heat resistance, ease of repair, a seamless finish, cost. We'll talk through what suits your kitchen as part of the design process.

Either, entirely up to you. I can supply and fit every appliance as part of the kitchen, or you can bring your own, whether that's new appliances you've chosen yourself or ones you already have and want to keep. Whichever route you take, I make sure what you choose is compatible with the design, and works the way you expect it to, in terms of the space it needs and how it connects to power, water and ventilation.