Nolte Home Studio -German Modular Kitchens

Courtesy: HomeStudioIndia

 I finally managed to visit one of my favorite modular kitchen brands, Nolte. Among all the kitchen brands that I have come across, the German brands stand out by their simplicity in design and adherence to function than form. I would have loved to check out some Scandinavian brands but I don't think we have any in Bangalore (yet). I use the word "yet" because Ikea is apparently looking at Bangalore as a possible location; and when it does I am sure to pounce on its collection with much awaited glee.

Anyhow, the front desk is well- managed. On informing that we were looking around for modular kitchens, me and my silently admiring partner were taken around the studio by an experienced professional. Nolte has fewer models on display than Cucine Lube and Veneta Cucine but more than Haecker. It also has lesser options available. However the samples of finishes for wood, stone countertops are all available. So you can see what you get. And I honestly think that is great. 

Among the different finishes, I actually loved the different lacquer finishes especially the glossy ones. I think there was one with 15 (?) coats which looked almost the same as glass finishes. Wasn't very impressed with their vintage designs too. 

Courtesy: HomeStudioIndia

I am hoping the designers who come up with the initial and final designs are as experienced as the sales personnel. The ones I viewed looked tad young for me to spend my money on them.  Sorry if I sound biased but that's the way it is. The fact that we were exploring Nolte as a brand almost 9 months before we could actually place an order doesn't sit very well with most stores. Nolte Studio wasn't very different about it. However they agreed to do a basic quote if we sent our floor plan in CAD format. Unfortunately in our case the architects are not going to release the CAD format. So they have to make do with the PDF format. In such a scenario, Nolte wanted to go to the site and do the measurements to come up with the basic design. Currently I am not sure whether that comes under the paid consultation or the basic free quotation providing. Either ways, if we go ahead with Nolte, I am actually fine with it. 

However I have to admit, Veneta Cucine impressed me more in the communications department. Their sales person followed up very regularly with me, provided basic quotations across different finishes and has communicated even after. While I am yet to short list my top 3, the solid stuff of Nolte makes it an easy entrant of this list. With that quality, I probably would not mind going for an entry - level modular kitchen with some basic finishes that I can change later at some point in time. Although this doesn't fall under kitchens, Nolte also provides some basic furniture. Needless to say their quality as very good as well. 

On design, product Nolte scores high. They are definitely low on the number of choices that are available to you for selection, In terms of finishes, colors, etc. Unfortunately I still don't have a lot of info on how as a dealer/distributor, the Bangalore centre performs. And according to the European Kitchen Design blog, one should finalize a modular kitchen based on affordability ( obviously), brand, design, and finally dealer/distributor. This is where a design consultant would come in handy. If you have used  Nolte for your kitchen in Bangalore do drop me a note. I would love to get in touch and know about your experiences. Or if you had a look at it, considered it but selected some other brand, that would provide useful information as well. 

Update: 
We went to Nolte again. It was one of the 3 brands that our builder was working with to offer modular kitchens in our apartments. We had seen the mockups built by Nolte and the other two brands. To be real honest we were least excited with the mockup by Nolte. But we thought we could ask for modifications and get it to a desirable state. 

When we reached Nolte we did offer our requirements for modifications. However, a little bit into the process we realized that there were too many constraints due to Nolte's setup with the builder. So we thought maybe it was a better idea to get the kitchen done later and at retail prices. We couldn't see how  the design changes were being made in real time and hence visualize how the price was changing. So this made it all the more difficult to get a sense of the design changes vs prices.  

The sales person reminded us many a time that prices of Nolte kitchens start at `800,000 and hence it seemed like we were getting a big favour from them. Of course he forgot to specify that we were getting a sub-brand of Nolte, named Nolte Express and hence the prices were considerably lower. Additionally they had come  up with a basic design which didn't make things  and hence the choice of kitchen brand any better.  Despite all of that and the fact that he was insistent that we do not try to go for a different price brand i.e. Nolte, he did spend time in explaining  and displaying stuff. Nevertheless the entire experience and follow-up was a major put off.  We somehow never received the revised quotes and I have no idea why. Considering that we had almost mentally planned to go ahead with Nolte, months before the builder actually came up with the options, the entire experience was an unpleasant surprise. However it did help to make our choices easier. 

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