Cash & Carry Kitchens vs a custom kitchen: what you get with each

24 September 2026 · The Home Upgrade Co.

If you are pricing a new kitchen in Ireland, Cash & Carry Kitchens is almost certainly on your list, and it should be. They have been making kitchens here for nearly 50 years, they manufacture in their own factory in Cork, and you can walk into 17 showrooms around the country and put your hand on the doors. This page is not an argument that you should not buy from them. It is a plain comparison of two different ways of buying a kitchen, so you know what you are choosing between before you spend.

Who are Cash & Carry Kitchens?

An Irish kitchen manufacturer trading for nearly 50 years, with a 130,000 sq ft factory in Cork and 17 showrooms nationwide, including five in Dublin.

Their own description of how they work is that they design, manufacture and install kitchens. You book a free consultation, the units are made at the Cork factory, and they arrange for the kitchen to be installed in your home. They carry the Guaranteed Irish mark. Their Dublin showrooms are in Blanchardstown, Fonthill at Liffey Valley, Long Mile Road, Sandyford and Swords, with further showrooms in Naas and Navan, so most of our own area has one of their branches in it.

Where Cash & Carry Kitchens is the stronger choice

If you want to see and touch a kitchen before you buy, compare finishes in person and deal with a long established Irish name, they have the clear advantage over us.

A showroom is genuinely useful. Door colours photograph badly, handles feel different in the hand, and seeing twenty finishes in one afternoon beats any set of samples posted out to you. They have 17 of them and we have none. They also have nearly five decades of trading behind them, a factory you can point at, and customer stories and reviews you can go and read. We are new and we do not have that yet. If those things matter more to you than the rest of this page, that is a perfectly reasonable way to decide.

How do the two compare, side by side?

The short version: they are set up for choosing a kitchen from ranges in a showroom, and we are set up for drawing one to your room in your own house.

Everything in the Cash & Carry Kitchens column is taken from their own website in September 2026. Where it says not published, that means we looked and could not find it, not that it does not exist. Ask them, and ask us the same questions.

What is the carcase actually made from?

The carcase is the box behind the door. It is the part you never see and never get to inspect. Ours is 18mm melamine faced plywood, and it is worth asking anyone quoting you what theirs is.

This matters for one reason: water. A carcase spends its life under a sink, beside a dishwasher and behind a washing machine. Board that swells once never goes back, and the first sign is usually a door that stops closing flush. Plywood also holds a screw better over time, which is what stops hinges dropping after a few years of a heavy door swinging on them.

Here is our full published build, so you can hold it against anyone else. Carcases in 18mm melamine faced plywood, faced both sides and E1 rated, with 9mm melamine plywood backs. Doors and fronts in 18mm MDF with a single face flat lacquer, sprayed and oven cured. PUR edge banding. DTC soft close hinges and DTC undermount soft close drawers as standard, with Blum available as its own priced line rather than the standard build.

One honest note on our own wording. We say melamine faced plywood and not marine grade plywood, because we do not hold the glue grade in writing from the factory. Plenty of kitchen companies would say marine ply and move on. We would rather tell you only what we can stand over.

Does the design happen in a showroom or in your kitchen?

Theirs starts with a free consultation and a showroom visit. Ours starts with someone standing in your kitchen with a tape measure, before anything is drawn.

Both are free and they are good at different things. A showroom is better for deciding how it will look. A visit to the house is better for catching the things that cost money later: the floor that is not level, the soil pipe boxed into the corner, the window board sitting lower than you assumed, the door that will not open fully once the island goes in.

Our sequence is fixed. Stephen calls out within 2 working days to measure and photograph. Our designers then produce full 3D plans of your actual room, including ceiling light positions and LED plinth and under cabinet lighting, with an itemised quote within a further 2 working days. From sign off, allow 12 weeks to an installed kitchen. You get the drawings and the quote, and you decide in your own time. No cost, no obligation.

Who actually fits it?

They arrange installation for you. With us the same contractor supplies and fits, so if something goes wrong there is one number to ring.

Their site puts it as arranging for your kitchen to be installed in your home. That is a normal arrangement in the trade and it works perfectly well most of the time. The difference is where responsibility sits when a worktop template is out by a few millimetres or a unit arrives damaged. On our quotes, freight, customs clearance, delivery to site and installation all sit in one price, carried by one contractor.

Two questions worth asking either of us. Is fitting included in the price you have been quoted, or added afterwards? And is taking the old kitchen out and making good included? On our quotes dismantling and making good are included on most but not all, so read the exclusions rather than assuming. Appliances are excluded.

What does each one cost?

They do not publish prices. We do: from EUR 12,000 fitted including VAT, and EUR 15,000 to 25,000 for a typical family kitchen with quartz worktops.

Large rooms with an island, stone and integrated appliances can sit above 25,000. We publish those figures because the alternative is wasting your evening and ours. You can work out from this page whether we are in your range before anyone calls to the house.

Everything we supply is premium and made to the highest spec, and it is priced to that standard. Quality at this level is not a budget purchase, and we would rather say so here than at your kitchen table. If you are working to a tight budget we are honestly not the right fit, and a showroom range will serve you better.

Whoever you ask, get the quote itemised. A single figure on a page tells you nothing about what has been left out of it.

How should you decide?

• You want to see and touch doors before committing: showroom, and they have 17 of them.
• You are outside Dublin, Meath, Kildare or Wicklow: they cover the country and we do not.
• You are working to a tight budget: we are not the right fit, and we would rather say it now.
• You want the carcase specification in writing before you sign: ask both of us. Ours is published above.
• Your room is awkward, or it is an extension where the layout is changing: a measure in the house catches more than a showroom visit.
• You want one contractor carrying both supply and fitting: that is how we work.

See it before you decide anything

We design and fit fitted kitchens across Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow. The design visit is free: we call out, measure your kitchen, and our designers create full 3D plans so you can see exactly how the room will look. You get the designs and an itemised quote, and you decide in your own time. No cost, no obligation.

Frequently asked questions

Is Cash & Carry Kitchens any good?

By the measures you can check, they are well established: nearly 50 years trading, their own factory in Cork and 17 showrooms around the country. Whether they suit you depends on how you want to buy and what specification you need in writing.

What is the difference between a showroom kitchen and a custom kitchen?

A showroom kitchen is chosen from ranges and built up from standard unit sizes. A custom kitchen is drawn to your room, so awkward corners become storage instead of filler panels.

What should I ask any kitchen company before I sign?

What the carcase board is and how thick it is, what the hinges and runners are, whether fitting is included in the price you were quoted, and what the warranty covers and for how long.

Do you have a showroom I can visit?

No, we do not have a showroom. We bring the design to you instead: a free visit to measure your kitchen, then full 3D plans of your own room, at no cost and no obligation.