Italian Modular Kitchens from Cucine Lube in Bangalore

Courtesy of Cucine Lube India

I had actually planned to visit the Veneta Cucine showroom that afternoon. Unfortunately I wrongly assumed that all shops are open on a Sunday. I walked up to the showroom to confirm that it was really closed and not appearing so due to less employees and dim lighting. Unfortunately it was really closed. Damn! Considering I dragged my behind out of the house for this trip, I was now determined to see at least one shop related to kitchen design. I looked around and realized that there was one such shop very nearby which seemed open and was conveniently located right above one of my favorite restaurants.

With my skeptical partner by my side I huffed and puffed my way up the showroom. Aha! The results of recession or possibly slow business. The showroom seemed open but had only 1 employee , less lighting and no air conditioning. The lady looked at us from the office or office space and prayed that we would go away. Unfortunately I was in my " will explore and look around" mood. Hence I smiled innocently and eagerly  and announced "We are interested in a modular kitchen". The lady realized she had to get up and endure our presence for some time. I still don't remember why she was so apparently reluctant to show us around . Possibly she was resigning, possibly the variable component in her salary was low , possibly she refused to "work" on a Sunday or most probably she judged our appearance found it ridiculous that we would even consider to buy! My bets are on the last one.

So we , rather I , dragged her along to each and every kitchen set that was present there. 
There are about 15 modular kitchens present ( approximately ). Most of the designs were based on a modern look which looked good with lacquer than the veneer options. Of course some models with veneer were good as well. The ones using glass are really nice and if your budget permits, I would actually steer you to that direction. Unfortunately you will not be able to use the beautifully designed chimneys for Indian cooking. There are some semi-spherical, cylindrical designs which add a whole new dimension to your kitchen design but are woefully low on suction design.


Courtesy of Cucine Lube India

For those who prefer a nice old-fashioned but classic design, there were 2 in wood (one of them was possibly cherry? ) with huge pyramid shaped  chimneys coming down over the counter-top. Wooden kitchens also have the advantage that they can be painted in different colors . I don't think the lacquer, veneer and glass offer that option. I was longing to see a yellow kitchen but was unhappy not to find one. The colors mostly ranged from reds, blacks, a nice lavender, mint, other green, magenta, black and wood of course.

It's very difficult to talk about pricing to any sales person for modular kitchen. But the good ones till now usually give you a correct base price . In fact sometimes I feel you can determine how good and knowledgeable a sales person is based on the way they can help you figure out basic pricing. Till date almost each and every sales person I meet ,drones on  how they can tell us the pricing only when we sit to design, choose the modules ( how many pull-outs, shelves, fittings, brands, in-built appliances or not and so on..). I still fail to realize why it doesn't strike their pretty heads, that I would never sit to design with you unless I know what value you can offer to me. And without any information on price it is very difficult for anybody to do a valuation.

Oh I forgot, after much prodding, the lady finally conceded that the starting range should be Rs 4.5 - 6 Lakhs. The shipping time is 3-4 months since they will ship the entire kitchen from Italy . I  pray for the day modular kitchens are manufactured in our dear country and lower prices are passed on to us !

 The lady looked so happy towards the end of the visit. We were finally leaving.

My Rating: 3/5

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In the search of a Modular Kitchen in Bangalore

Quite some time back I chanced upon an Elle Decor magazine and that introduced me to the world of interiors. Since a lot of my work touches upon Design Thinking and related problem solving design methods ( I did end up using Jobs To Be Done for designing my laundry and store space successfully), I realized that good design isn't about pretty objects. It's about making things work they should and making the life of the user easier. One of the products of that understanding was that a well-designed modular kitchen would make my life easier. I was very particular about the shutter finish and since I didn't have contacts of really good contractors and designers, modular furniture (and  hence kitchen ) brands seemed to be the other option.

Once I was settled on the fact that I would be purchasing a modular kitchen from the available brands, choosing one became a hell of a job.

How do you compare one brand to another? 

Most importantly how is the experience after you make the payment. 

Is the installation handled well? 

What about post-sales service? 

Interestingly, although the modular kitchen brands have been around in India for many years, there isn't enough info about them. Apart from one review on Veneta Cucine  which is not encouraging obviously none of the opinions floating around are from actual owners. ( I believe Veneta Cucine lost a lot of potential customers because of that extremely objective review.) All this makes things very difficult. What I tend to assume from this is that either the owners are extremely satisfied or the negatives aren't extreme enough for them to come and vent online. 

Either ways, assumption wasn't enough for me. I hoped that when folks would come across my blog they would share their experiences. While that hasn't happened a lot, the blog and some of the comments would be quite helpful to anyone on the same journey as me. And my only request would be to add your experiences here so that others can also benefit from the knowledge. 

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