A direct answer first, and then the layered one. A bespoke kitchen in a London period property typically takes 6 to 10 weeks on site, with another 8 to 14 weeks of design and manufacture running in parallel before the first carpenter arrives. The total programme from first measure to handover is rarely shorter than fourteen weeks, and often closer to twenty. Here is what those weeks actually contain.
When London homeowners ask how long a kitchen refurbishment takes, the answer most contractors give is the on-site number — six weeks, eight weeks, ten. It is the easy figure to quote because it is the period when something visibly happens: the skip arrives, the old kitchen leaves, the cabinetry goes in, the worktops are templated and fitted, the appliances are connected, and the snag list is closed.
It is also incomplete. A bespoke kitchen designed for a Chelsea Victorian terrace or a Mayfair Georgian townhouse cannot be conjured in six weeks. The cabinetry is hand-built in a workshop. The stone is templated on site, sourced from a slab that has to be selected and reserved. The appliances are specified months ahead because the lead time on a fully integrated Sub-Zero or Wolf is rarely shorter than ten weeks. Listed-building consent, where it applies, runs to its own calendar entirely.
The honest London answer is in three parts. The on-site phase is six to ten weeks for most bespoke kitchens. The design and manufacture phase that runs alongside it is eight to fourteen weeks. The full programme, measured from the day a survey takes place to the day the snag list is signed off, is fourteen to twenty-four weeks. Anything advertised much faster than that is not a bespoke kitchen; it is a flat-pack swap with marketing copy attached.
The phrase “kitchen refurbishment” covers a wider scope than most clients realise. Three different projects can be described in those words, and each runs to a different timeline.
A like-for-like replacement — new cabinetry into the existing layout, no structural change, no replumbing, no electrical reconfiguration — is a three-to-four-week job on site for a competent crew. It is rare in Prime London because the original kitchen rarely sits where a contemporary one wants to sit, and the stock layout was usually designed before integrated appliances and island runs became the norm.
A full bespoke kitchen refurbishment — new layout, structural alterations to walls or doorways, full first fix, hand-built cabinetry, stone worktops, integrated premium appliances, replastering, painting and finishes — is six to ten weeks on site. This is the brief in the majority of London period homes.
A kitchen tied to a side-return or rear extension — the typical Fulham, Chelsea or Notting Hill brief where the back of the ground floor is opened up and a new kitchen is built into the resulting space — is twelve to twenty weeks on site, because you are building a building first and a kitchen second. The kitchen install itself is still six to ten weeks; the structural shell adds the rest.
The breakdown below assumes a full bespoke kitchen refurbishment in a London period property — the most common brief we deliver. Where structural work or extensions are involved, weeks are added at the front; where scope is lighter, weeks come off the back.
Measured survey, layout iteration, elevation drawings, materials selection, appliance specification. Decisions made now save weeks downstream. Decisions deferred now will cost weeks downstream.
Cabinetry hand-built in workshop. Stone slabs reserved. Appliance lead times ticking down. Site work has not yet begun — but the kitchen is being built in parallel to the existing one being lived in.
Existing kitchen removed cleanly, dust barriers installed, period flooring and adjacent rooms protected, waste removed. The room is reduced to plaster and structure within three to five days.
Plumbing, electrics, gas, ventilation and any structural alterations completed. Plastering done. Sub-floor levelled or replaced. Walls primed. The room is now ready to receive the kitchen but does not yet contain it.
Cabinetry installed by the carpenters who built it. Worktops templated, fabricated and installed. Splashbacks fitted. Sinks, taps and second-fix plumbing connected. The kitchen takes shape.
Appliances connected, lighting fitted, second-fix electrical commissioned, painting completed, deep clean, snag list closed personally before handover. No project leaves with an open snag.
Every London property comes with a set of constraints that the building, the freeholder, the local authority or the supply chain will impose on the kitchen brief. Most of them can be planned around. None of them can be ignored.
In Mayfair, Belgravia, Knightsbridge and parts of Chelsea and Kensington, listed status applies to the building fabric. Consent is required for any change affecting historic detail. Add 8 to 16 weeks at the front of the programme.
Most of Prime London sits within designated conservation areas. Internal kitchen work is normally permitted, but rear extensions, rooflights and external alterations require planning approval. Add 8 to 12 weeks.
Mansion blocks under Grosvenor Estate, Crown Estate or major managing agents impose their own consent process. Acoustic specifications, working hours and lift protection are routinely conditioned. Add 4 to 8 weeks.
A kitchen extension is a building project before it is a kitchen project. Structural engineering, building control, party-wall awards on both neighbours, planning approval, foundations, steels, glazing. Add 6 to 12 weeks on site.
Calacatta Viola, Patagonia quartzite, book-matched Statuario — some specifications require slab reservation in Italy or Brazil before pricing can even be confirmed. Add 4 to 10 weeks if specified late.
The single most common cause of slipped programmes is unresolved material and appliance choices at the manufacture stage. Cabinetry cannot start until the door style is signed off. Stone cannot be reserved until the design is locked.
Some accelerators are real. Others are marketing.
The real ones are decisive design decisions taken early, parallel running of manufacture and on-site preparation, off-site fabrication of cabinetry while first fix happens on site, and selection of stone and appliances that are in stock or short-lead. A client who arrives at the design table with a clear brief and a willingness to commit to material choices in week three rather than week eight can take three to five weeks off the total programme without compromising a single detail.
The marketing ones are the “four-week kitchen” promises that surface in showroom advertising. They almost always describe a like-for-like swap with stock cabinetry into an existing layout, not a refurbishment. They cannot deliver a hand-built kitchen with templated stone in that timeframe because the cabinetry alone takes longer to manufacture, regardless of who is fitting it. Where the timeline genuinely matters, an honest contractor will explain why the figure is what it is rather than promise a number that the workshop cannot meet.
The reason our programmes do not slip is not because we work faster than the field. It is because the design and manufacture phase is treated with the same discipline as the on-site phase, and because the founders themselves are accountable for both.
Igor visits the property, opens cupboards, lifts a flooring board, looks at sub-floor and structural reality. The quote and the programme are written from the building, not from photographs.
Layout, materials, appliances and finishes signed off before manufacture starts. Late changes are accommodated where possible, but the cost in time is explained clearly so the decision is informed.
Cabinetry built in workshop, stone slabs reserved, appliances ordered — all while the existing kitchen is still being lived in. The on-site phase begins only when the kitchen is ready to install.
No project leaves with an open snag. The handover is signed off by a founder, not by a sub-contractor or a project manager. If something is not right, it is corrected before the keys are returned.
Our kitchen programmes are tuned to the constraints of each London neighbourhood — conservation rules, listed status, freeholder approvals, access restrictions and the housing stock itself. Explore how we deliver in your area.
Igor will arrange a free consultation at your London property within 48 hours. The programme is written from the building, not from a template — so the timeline you receive is the one we will hold ourselves to.