Zoiks! It would be ridiculously cost-prohibitive for me, but maybe you will be surprised.

And you'd have to deal with getting it through customs.

Yes, don't overlook the customs fees and hassle. Dh had a kayak shipped to the US from South Africa and he had to appear at the port in person and pay custom fees to take possession of it. There wasn't a date certain until it actually arrived and then he had to pay storage until he could get off work to go over and collect it. I have no idea what the shipping cost or custom fees actually were. You may be able to arrange for an agent to take possession and pay the fees for you, but that will add to the cost.

I don't have experience buying furniture or cabinets from UK, but I did once buy a wool coat from a manufacturer in UK. I cannot remember if it was FedEx or UPS that delivered to me. Anyway, the coat was like $500, and I paid the carrier a customs brokerage fee of about $125.

I ended up returning the coat to the manufacturer due to fit issue. Theoretically speaking, I could get back my paid customs fee by filing some sort of claim to the U.S. Customs office, which is in a different state than mine, if I remember correctly. The process would take months according to what I read. In the end, I decided it's not worth my time and trouble. $125 is not too bad for a lesson.

When my kitchen came from England it was shipped in a container coming to the store, so I wasn't responsible. The container got stuck in customs for a week.

I priced having the same kitchen made locally. One shop told me $100K, another $80K. I paid under $30K for all of the cabinetry. Some pieces came finished (stained pieces and black hutch) but other arrived painted and were glazed on site. This was almost 8 years ago, and the pound has gone up significantly since then.

Have you looked at The Workshops of David T Smith? They can build anything and do cottage style kitchens.

Allison, What a great deal you managed to get on your amazing kitchen! I am only considering it because I think if I pick on of my inspiration sources... I would have to explain what I want with fewer words. ;) And I love Ivette's kitchen - every time I see it I reconsider doing an all white kitchen just like that! I'm getting some more great ideas looking at it again... And I think I can get my local cabinet guys to make and design a kitchen somewhat similar (I hope). It's the unfitted design (standing furniture pieces with finished ends and feet, various heights) that take so much time to explain to someone not familiar. Sure wish there was a US equivalent. De Vol will provide the design for free if you buy their cabinets... and I know I like their design. But the customs sounds like a nightmare. Too bad they don't have a US distribution center like Mini Boden!

And to think that some people think it's too inconvenient to use Ikea cabinets if the store is more than an hour or two away from their home!

Have you thought about Smallbone? They have a US Showroom in New York.

If you're working directly with the company in England (i.e., no shop to handle it for you) you might talk to the people who ship personal goods when people move overseas. Since there are several major ports in California, it shouldn't be a problem finding some. It's usually most economical if you can do a container rather than partials. If the whole kitchen, wrapped, won't fit into a single container, it might be worth sending it flat and paying for one of them to come over and assemble on site. I don't know the rates. Compared to airfare a second container might be a lot less. Just offering alternatives.

If you use a shipper, they should take care of all of the customs and all for you, and might or might not arrange for delivery out of the port. They'll also have contacts in England to arrange for the loading and shipping from there.

Check shippers in different ports too. You might find different parameters and prices in San Diego, Port Hueneme or Oakland that would make it worth extra land freight here to choose the right port.

For just some calculations, there are a number of websites that offer quotes: freightcenter.com who seem to be shippers, and xpressrate.com, who seem to be aggreators (and offer quotes for both partial and full containers), are just a couple. Use the words "freight", "international" and "container" in your search, along with the port you're looking for, and you should find some locals to talk to.

I only brought in a little bitty cooktop from England and it went FedEx (who also handled the customs and delivered it to the door), but I know people who've shipped whole households, cars, horses, etc. A kitchen before it's installed is just furniture. :) In fact, when you're talking to the shippers, it's probably best to say "furniture".

Best of luck.

Oh, Smallbone kitchens are wonderful! I love this 'Pilaster' collection :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to kitchen

Yes, I still pinch myself weekly. The store owner gave me his paperwork by accident when the kitchen was finished, and he wasn't making much to begin with. The two cream pieces were too tall (even the woodworkers that installed and made the hood trim said he couldn't measure worth a flip and every job had a major mistake) so even if you get something sent over it has to be 100% correct for installation or you would need to have someone on site able to make any corrections (even minor ones) that was capable. In the end, by the time he paid them and the faux finishers, I don't think he made $100.

Smallbone was another company I was going to mention. There are certainly US choices.

Have you considered going completely unfitted? An unfitted kitchen could be pieced together using antique and/or reproduction pieces. Several companies make new that look old.

I still think David T Smith is a great option.

I have had furniture and lighting and crystal shipped. It adds a significant delay as well as shipping expense and custom duties (which vary in a quite a bit, even for the same item, based on its characteristics). You can get information before you decide to buy by contacting the Customs Service.

To give you a recent idea as a starting point, I was considering these items below just a few weeks ago, and requested a shipping quote. The shipping from London to CT was $1000. For something really one of a kind, well, you have to bite the bullet sometimes. Of course you would have a large container and some economies of scale. But, honestly, if you can get something even remotely like Allison's 30k kitchen, you could spend the same to ship it and be far less than what I think that would cost in CA (which I assume to be no "cheaper" then here in CT). Everything we had done was bespoke, and just putting a tiger maple skin on the fridge cost close to 10k. The rest of the cabs for a 31x15 kitchen, well ... a lot.

All that said, unless you find a steal, I would want to build locally. We lived only 90 minutes away and I found that frustrating! Have you talked to your GC?