The Complete Guide to Kitchen Renovation in Mallorca
Key takeaways
- Decide the layout, the cabinetry level and the worktop before asking for prices; they set most of the figure.
- Plan from the delivery date backwards: cabinetry and stone reach the island by sea.
- One company responsible for the whole job, trades included, is worth more than three cheaper ones.
- The building decides more than the catalogue: stone walls, old drainage, a community of owners.
A kitchen renovation is the kitchen project with the most moving parts: an old kitchen to remove, a room to make ready, trades to coordinate, and a new kitchen that arrives by ferry. This guide is the whole sequence, in the order it happens, with the places it goes wrong marked.
Before anything: what the kitchen has to do
Start with the house, not the catalogue. Who cooks, who eats where, how many months of the year somebody is here, whether the property is let, and what the kitchen has to open onto. A villa kitchen that feeds a terrace, a rental kitchen used by strangers, and a family kitchen used three times a day are three briefs, and the same cabinetry serves them differently.
The three decisions that set the price
- Layout: kept, adjusted or changed. Keeping the sink, hob and drainage where they are is the biggest saving in most renovations.
- Cabinetry level: standard fitted, premium fitted or bespoke. Three different purchases.
- Worktop: the material and the metres of it. An island is worktop.
Make these three before asking for quotes, or ask for the kitchen priced both ways where you are unsure. A quote that names all three can be compared with another; one that names none of them cannot.
The survey, and what it finds
A company that has seen the room prices what is there. On Mallorca that means walls that may be stone, drainage that may run where nobody documented it, a supply that may have been sized for one oven, extraction that may have no route to outside, and a stair or a lane that decides whether the worktop arrives in one piece. The survey is where the awkward answers surface, and it is the reason two quotes for the same kitchen can differ so much: one was written after it and one before.
Order, and the lead time
Most cabinetry fitted here is made on the mainland or in Germany, and every worktop slab is cut from stone that reached the island first. Lead times are longer than a mainland showroom assumes, and a project timed for the weeks the house is empty is planned backwards from the delivery date rather than forwards from the strip-out. Ask every company for its lead time from order to fitting, in writing.
The sequence on site
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Strip-out | The old kitchen out and disposed of, the room stripped to what stays. |
| First fix | Water, waste and power run to the new positions while the walls and floor are open. The electrical supply upgraded if it needs to be. |
| Walls and floor | Plaster, tiling, flooring to the point the units want, and dry before they arrive. |
| Cabinetry | Carcasses, then fronts, scribed to the walls that are not straight. |
| Worktop | Templated after the units are in, cut, delivered and fitted. Then the sink, the hob and the splashback. |
| Appliances and lighting | Connected and tested. Under-cabinet lighting, pendants over the island. |
| Snagging | A visit once the kitchen has been used, for the doors that need adjusting. |
Who is in charge of the trades
A kitchen needs a plumber, an electrician, often a plasterer and a tiler, and somebody to coordinate them so that nobody waits for anybody else. Ask who that is. One company responsible for the whole job, with the trades included in its price or working under it, is worth more to most owners than three cheaper companies who each need managing, and it is the only workable answer for an owner who is not on the island.
Where it goes wrong
- The layout changed for the sake of it, and the plumbing surprises that followed
- Appliances chosen after the cabinetry was ordered, and housings that do not fit
- A worktop ordered before the stair was surveyed
- The electrical supply discovered to be short after the walls were closed
- Three quotes for three different kitchens, compared on the total
- Lighting left until the ceiling was closed
Every one of those is avoided by the order above. The mistakes article takes each in turn, and the checklist is the same guide as a list.
Where do I start with a kitchen renovation?
With the house: who uses the kitchen, for how much of the year, and what it has to open onto. Then the three decisions that set the price – layout, cabinetry level, worktop – and then a written brief to several companies.
How long does the whole thing take?
The fitting is weeks; the wait before it for cabinetry and stone that cross by sea is often longer. Plan from the delivery date backwards. The timeline article sets out each stage.
Do I need an architect?
For a wall coming down, a structural opening, or a kitchen that is part of a larger reworking of the house, yes. For a kitchen replaced in its own room, a kitchen company plans the layout as part of the job.
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