Veneta Cucine - Italian Modular Kitchens

This is a long due post. Veneta Cucine was one of the first modular kitchens I visited with an intention for exploration and possible purchase. When I had just started exploring modular kitchens, I  remember being  aware of Veneta Cucine and possibly 1 or 2 more. I assume that is because of their marketing efforts and top of the mind recall.

Courtesy: Veneta Cucine

The initial visit and follow-up was good. Although I had walked in without an appointment, I was guided around by an able sales manager . Of all the modular kitchens I have visited , I must say that  I liked her personality and attitude the best. She had this overall vibe of genuine interest without overselling or being snooty like few others; which is a pity because we did not make the final buy and also we came across one serious negative feedback on Mouthshut.com. Recently I also came across few others, which would obviously be worrying to any customer looking to purchase. Thankfully there is some semblance of response from Veneta Cucine on some of these reviews. However, these responses should have been there on the site well before and for all the feedback against genuine purchases.

While the whole world and its businesses are going digital it is ironic to see several brands being

Courtesy: Veneta Cucine

unable to use digital well. Just setting up a Twitter handle or a Facebook page doesn’t cut it. Do you actively manage it? And by that I don’t mean posting pretty pictures and garnering likes from your own team. It means being able to respond to new customers for their queries and helping older customers with their feedback and issues. Not responding and ignoring a customer would scare off other potentials and being defensive in your response would not really help. If I feel that you as a brand and a vendor will not support me during my time of need then I am really better off without hiring you by making a purchase. As far as modular kitchens are concerned this is a space where a lot of improvement needs to be made. But it’s heartening to see the new startups like Capricoast, HomeLane figure out customer acquisition and handling the digital space a bit better than their older counterparts. I was also pleased to see Espiq Kuchen reaching out to an aggrieved customer on my blog.

Anyhow I digress. The sales manager showed us the different models, shutter finishes and explained

Courtesy: Veneta Cucine

how some design elements could help us. Of all the Italian kitchens that I have viewed, Veneta Cucine probably has a larger variety of colors available and that is attractive to many Indian customers. I remember seeing an edgy design in lavender, a nice one in lime green and one shade which looked like a mix of ochre yellow and orange. Unlike the German or Northern European brands which tend to restrict themselves mostly to white and wooden finishes, the range of colors available among Italian brands is usually higher. So if this is of considerable importance to you, you might want to restrict your search to them. As far as material is concerned, the usual laminate ( and mono-faced lacquer), PVC  high gloss , lacquer & veneer, tempered lacquered glass and solid wood options are available in increasing order of price.

One of the constraints of ordering with Veneta Cucine is that you need to purchase the kitchen appliances ( hob, oven, chimney hood, sink and faucet) from their in-house brand VC Plus. They do work with other brands Foster , Smeg, Falmec, Electrolux, Siemens, Whirlpool but it is possible that the price of VC Plus will be lower than all of these brands. Whirlpool could be lower actually. Their Indian website lists prices of appliances which is a dream because I do not need to visit their store, call up or email to inquire prices. Wish other brands would be smart enough to do that. The sink and faucet cannot be purchased from external brands. What I do not recall is whether customers can purchase appliance brands outside the list of names mentioned above.

Courtesy: Veneta Cucine

 Veneta Cucine charges an upfront price of 10,000/- for a quotation with design. This is absorbed/refunded ( please check ) in the final price if you purchase your kitchen from them. This is the norm with several modular kitchen brands. If you are checking out few brands, you obviously cannot be spending 10k at every store. Hence, the workaround would be to take a print-out of your floor plan, ask for average/starting prices of cabinets ( base, wall, tall/midi units) and few other stuff that you will definitely need, when you are getting the sales pitch/tour. Also ask them to look at your floor plan and give you a rough estimate and then add the cost of appliances (usually around 1.5L, countertop (30-40k) and any accessories). For us the initial quote was highest among others and as a result we never went back for a detailed quote. However, there is always a possibility to ask the designer to match your budget.

People generally tend to post their feedback usually in extreme of circumstances and more when they have had a negative experience and in rare occasions, when they have had a positive experience beyond expectation. What we do not know is the percentage of these failings. If you knew that Vendor 1 performed miserably 10 times for 100 sales and Vendor 2 performed badly once for 10 overall transactions, whom would you choose? There is no easy answer unfortunately.

Location in Bangalore

Veneta Cucine is located in Indiranagar and Jayanagar. Check out the exact location here.

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Del Tongo and Ballerina Kuchen from Grandeur Interiors

Courtesy: Grandeur Interiors

If you happen to visit the stretch of Inner Ring Road very near to Domlur, you will come across loads of shops relevant to decorating your house including showrooms for modular kitchens, wardrobes, lights etc. I had already visited this area in the past for Alno and happened to see the relocated Cucine Lube Kitchens recently too.

Courtesy: Grandeur Interiors

While visiting one of the tile shops , Tileprint ( yes your work is not done with designing and ordering a kitchen!), I chanced upon Grandeur Interiors showroom and decided to look around since I was shopping for modular wardrobes at that point of time. For some reason I felt that the brand felt familiar but I could not place it. Going back home, I realized I had come across Grandeur Interiors in my Elle Decor magazine. Of course the Mumbai showroom was advertised but it did help me in discovering the brand some time back. Even in the day of overload of information on the Internet and social media, I have gained  most if not all of information  from these different magazines which is why I think it is more helpful to write a section on your projects, than advertising a lot and achieving few clicks online which might never translate to action.

Courtesy: Grandeur Interiors

Whenever I visit the branded showrooms, I realize that the kitchens towards the higher end of the pricing range might fit the tag of "designer kitchens" more than the starting ones. That's common sense too. Most of the furniture in Grandeur would probably fall into the tag of "designer furniture". However with the good design the price also increases proportionately . Unfortunately I simply cannot remember the prices  of the modular kitchens, or it is possible that I did not ask for the prices of the kitchens. The wardrobe pricing was comparable to some of the pricing in the SEA Bauformat, higher end range of Arte-M wardrobes and few of the Loddenkemper wardrobes ; they looked very pretty even though one of the wardrobes had this really bright orange lacquer finish that I wouldn't typically dream of having in my house. I guess that's the effect of good looking furniture on oneself.

Courtesy: Grandeur Interiors

Grandeur Interiors has Italian modular kitchens from Del Tongo and German modular kitchens from Ballerina Kuchen. From whatever info I have gleaned over the past few years the German and Italian modular kitchen brands form few of the majorly used brands all over the world. In fact among the German brands, there are few that account for most of the sales among those brands. While Ballerina doesn't fall under those mass brands, it is a brand of repute and has presence all over in Asia , Europe and some parts of Africa.

Courtesy: Grandeur Interiors

Also, Grandeur has some lovely accent furniture pieces that you could also pick up. And if the prices are too high, you could always search for similar looking pieces on the ecommerce furniture sites :). 






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Renting furniture not Kitchens

This blog is/was about my tryst with modular kitchens. But the tryst now seems to extend to other furniture required for the new house. Since the only essential furniture missing from our collection is a wardrobe, we have been trying to look at options. As usual, I am not fond of most of what I see around. The ones that catch my fancy are going to eat into the budget for other items. Also there is the dilemma of "to hire an interior designer or not". Since I am aware that few areas of the house will have complicated carpentry and decor, I am in favour of hiring a designer who can deal with the carpenters and anybody else. However, many interior designers  prefer a full turnkey project as opposed to working on few specific areas. So the conflicts continue and dear partner thinks the easy way out, is to invest in nothing at all till we are decided and have greater liquidity.  I haven't disagreed but that hasn't stopped me from doing my homework or getting aggressive with my short-term investments.

Copyright : Furlenco

Nevertheless, quite some time back, I  came across a 'startup' for renting out furniture, Furlenco, when it was possibly still named as RentUrDuniya . These days, the term startup seems to be used very freely and I am not too keen when people use this term to define new companies that provide existing solutions with a user interface. However, the world doesn't care for my opinions or for Neil Blumenthal's opinion ( co-CEO and co-founder of Warby Parker) . Neither do venture capitalists and their assorted ilk who pour in truckloads of money to hedge their investments and make sure that they do not miss out on the next big thing. 

Irrespective of definitions and reasons behind funding, what actually matters in the real

Copyright : Furlenco

world is whether something is useful and I think Furlenco is. It helps to solve a common problem in  cities like Bangalore which is home to increasing number of students, professionals and expats. If they do things correctly and deliver great customer experience from start to end in terms of product and service they should turn out to be very successful. Right now Furlenco offers limited furniture in Living, Dining, Bedrooms and I am hoping they increase the categories and specifics ( remember I needed a wardrobe). I thought I read about an experience centre or something like that but I can't seem to find that info again. However, the pricing is worth testing it out and if the furniture turns out 90% like what it appears on the website then, my not so low expectations will be met. 

Copyright : Pepperfry

The catty comment on the gap between seeing the furniture on websites vs seeing the furniture in real life is from my own experience. After furniture buying moved online, lazy souls like myself heaved a sigh of relief. Nice furniture at okayish prices, in fact some seemed to be a steal at the prices they were advertised. So I spent time gazing on UrbanLadder, Pepperfry and FabFurnish. Recently I managed to visit a small retail store of FabFurnish and realized with deep sadness in my heart, that a lot of the furniture on display aren't as nice as they appear on the websites. A lot, not all. Any bias towards UrbanLadder is due to their well-designed website which has limited number of options ( choice overwhelms and confuses users ) and also because I feel they have taken the time to scale up well too.

Anyhow, I am digressing. Coming back to rentals, Furlenco isn't the first company to offer rentals. There are plenty of shops in Frazer Town, Shivajinagar where you can do the same. If you prefer shopping online, then some companies like Home Essentials,  RentalWala ( not only furniture), Rentongo, RFC Rentals, Rentech Designs also provide an interface for customers. I am yet to come across modular kitchens that are rented out though I don't see why some enterprising team/company can't make it work; especially since modular kitchens on display can be bought off ( and at discount ) if they match your general layout or if you can make it work.

If you have used any furniture rental company, it would be helpful to know about your experience.

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