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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Haecker Kitchens - German Modular Kitchens

My plan of visiting Hacker Kitchens on a Saturday has been repeatedly postponed over

Courtesy: Hacker India

several months, thanks to the typical trials and tribulations of us as a working couple. The only day of a weekend where you can get any work done is a Saturday. As a result, higher priorities take over and it doesn't help that looking at modular kitchens doesn't fall into " things to do" for my partner who is usually affable to shopping ( possibly because I have low patience for the exercise of shopping itself ). 

The interest in going to see Hacker kitchens was higher because in Bangalore they are housed with a whole lot of other brands under Trisha Interiors. Trisha also has furniture by Hülsta, a Hafele Design studio, furniture by Rolf Benz and few other imported brands of lighting, fixtures, etc. I liked some of the lighting installations a lot and might go back to them. The fixtures were nice but honestly I wasn't very interested at this point. The furniture designs were nice, not wow. I think I might like the designs by Ebony Gautier even better. But then Hülsta uses HDF instead of MDF like Gautier and that probably makes a difference to the overall strength of the product. 

At one point of time, I also felt that the furniture show cased by Nolte and CC India might have felt a bit more sturdy and strong. Pricing was way higher for a comparable size of furniture. Of course if one is interested a discount on furniture existing in the store ( amounting to a clearance I suppose ) could be worked out. However as the sales guy repeatedly mentioned that I should check out the website and if I like a design, then we can place an order ; which gets transferred to Germany from when actual manufacturing starts. Time of delivery is same as modular kitchens,  which is 3 months. 

My visit to Hacker Kitchens particularly was extremely disappointing. Maybe I shouldn't have given out info that we were just exploring and were recommended to check out Hacker. There were 2 sales girls available. The one who started giving a demo seemed to have lesser knowledge than me. While the next one was better, it didn't help that she kept showing some detailed features without focusing on the basics - finish, design , materials.  A clear difference from my experience at Nolté Home Studio and at Veneta Cucine. It didn't help that there were not a lot of models on display. There was 1 entry level model. 2 of the other 5/6 models were very nice, but extremely at the higher end of the range but the design was guaranteed to raise eyeballs. I believe I wasn't even shown ALL the models. 

Courtesy: Trisha Interiors

Visiting a couple of stores, and researching has led me to be able to estimate the basic price of most models. Either the sales girl exaggerated the prices extremely high or Hacker models are very high-priced. I was given pricing of 15 Lakhs for a laminated kitchen set which should not have been more than 6-7L. A wonderful bridge kitchen was supposed to be 45L. While I can't debate the latter, I can definitely debate the former price. From the little demo that I got, I wasn't even sure if they were comparable in quality to the Veneta Cucine models I was shown. For sake of research and brand value , I'll assume that they were. And for some reason, my dear partner took to the brand or like me , he has a positive bias towards German brands. 

Finally getting the door bitch treatment while being handed a brochure instead of the catalog didn't also work well with me. Apparently Hacker cannot also provide basic quotations even after sending the floor plan by email. You need to attend a presentation and I assume that falls under the initial paid design consultation. While Hacker is a reputed brand, I still don't have info of Trisha Interiors as a dealer. With a bad experience initially , I might override my partner 's positive evaluation of the brand on this one. Let's see. 

With the location of Trisha Interiors bang in the centre of the city, I presume that it has provided interior solutions to a host of people. While the greater number of clients would probably be the moneyed business community, it would really help to get information on Trisha's delivery capabilities. Else I don't have a lot of inputs yet to enter this brand my top 3.

Hacker location in Bangalore:
TRISHA, 1A CASTLE STREET, ASHOK NAGAR, BANGALORE-560025
Tel : +91-80-41131769/70, Mob : +91-9740999350,
Email:hacker@trisha.co.in

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