JS Designs, High Street, Olney

This picture-perfect market town is all honey-coloured stone and Farrow & Ball front doors and JS Designs, with its classic black and cream exterior, fitted in perfectly.
The first kitchen I saw featured rough cut oak-fronted doors complete with knots and saw marks. I was admiring this when Andy joined me and explained that this was in fact a laminate from Bauformat. The matt finish looked like natural wood. I was impressed. Andy said: "This is a new door for 2012, I've just put the display in and it has already attracted a lot of attention. Bauformat covers eight price groups, but this door is in the cheapest group."
Andy likes the kitchen so much he has it in his own house. He showed me before-and-after photos and then we talked about other designs on offer including glass-fronted and a navy blue display. "We don't do a heavy sell," he said. "I can come and measure up so you can make a start with your plans. There's a lot to think about. It's important you make the right choices."

SERVICE: 4 SHOWROOM: 4    TOTAL: 8/10
I liked Olney and I liked this showroom too

Olney Kitchens, High Street South, Olney

Opposite Noble Kitchens, this showroom had a completely different personality. Selling Rot Punkt and Crown there was plenty on display, despite limited space, plus a selection of doors and worktop samples, warm lighting and a big vase of flowers on the central island.
Phil immediately apologised for the mess, he was in the middle of installing a display, which turned out to be, surprise surprise, a run of units featuring a new laminate door that looked like natural oak planks complete with knots and saw marks. The door was exactly the same as the one just seen in JS Designs except in a grey colourway. We talked through the buying process and Phil said: "I'll come and measure up and do some drawings for you, that's just a starting point. We can make adjustments until you are happy. If you decide to proceed, you pay 10% deposit, 75% on delivery but hang on to the last 25% until the job is finished. Things don't go wrong we're very professional."

SERVICE: 4 SHOWROOM: 4    TOTAL: 8/10
Phil said he would do a professional job and I believed him

Noble Kitchens, High Street South, Olney

I drove to Olney to visit JS Designs, as the showroom details popped up when I ran a Google search of the area.
So, imagine my surprise on entering the town to find not only JS but two additional kitchen showrooms, all within a short stroll of each other. After JS, I popped into Noble Kitchens at the other end of the high street where I met Daniel and asked about the Second Nature kitchens he sells. There was a cream gloss kitchen on display with black gloss tiles and a sparkly quartz worktop, also a walnut display with leather finish granite worktop.
I think there was more through the arch at the back of the shop, but the lights were off and Daniel didn't suggest I browse around. He explained that the showroom had been open for one year and talked enthusiastically about the quality of Second Nature kitchens. Despite this enthusiasm, the showroom felt rather cold and grey. This could have been the strip lighting or the lack of any props or decoration. It also didn't help that Daniel was working at an island unit in the centre of the showroom and the spread of paperwork looked untidy.

SERVICE: 3 SHOWROOM: 3    TOTAL: 6/10
This showroom lacked a feminine touch

P&R Bathrooms, Lurke Street, Bedford

Having exhausted all that Olney had to offer, I drove the few miles to Bedford to investigate bathroom showrooms. First stop P&R Bathrooms.
The showroom is in a large area at the base of an office block, but sense had been made of the space with tiles in one area, traditional bathrooms from Imperial in another and a series of room sets divided by full- and half-height walls. There were also some eye-catching touches, such as the Villeroy & Boch glass basin set against a pink mosaic wall at the entrance. I told James I wanted to combine a shower with a bath. He walked me round the showroom pointing out L-shaped and P-shaped baths and a deep oval model with designated shower area. "Most people have small bathrooms," he said, "but there's a solution for everything." He went on to explain that P&R was a family business and that it had a team of fitters. "They won't be the cheapest but they are all qualified tradesmen the tiling you see in the shop is the quality we would give you at home."

SERVICE: 5 SHOWROOM: 3    TOTAL: 8/10
James knows his stuff

Marabese Ceramics, Windsor Road, Bedford

Inside I found a wide range of bathroom-sized displays from a variety of suppliers, including Twyford, Majestic, Imperial and Porcelanosa and salesman Dez was helpful, answering all my questions and showing examples of CAD on a wall-mounted screen. But, and this is a big but, the showroom was really grubby. There were clumps of dust on the floor, tiles on the walls appeared to have been wiped with a dirty rag and a couple of the showers had been walked in as they were sporting dirty footprints. It was a quiet Thursday afternoon, there were staff in the shop but only one other customer. Would it have killed someone to pick up a duster? Also basins and baths were missing plugs and or taps and a couple of WCs didn't have seats. I quickly lost my initial enthusiasm.

SERVICE: 3 SHOWROOM: 2    TOTAL: 5/10
This is not a beautiful showroom, it is a dirty one

QP Interiors, St Martins Way, Bedford

On a trading estate on the edge of town, QP was easy to find with a clear blue-on-grey sign saying Luxury Bathroom Retailers.
There were certainly some nice pieces on display from brands such as Duravit, Sottini, Jacuzzi and Sanitan. The displays were neat, with typed price lists stuck to the walls and all was spotless (Marabese take note). Full- and half-height walls divided the ground floor space with a further selection of basins and baths on a gallery floor. A salesman at the front desk was busy with customers, so I wandered round on my own. I could see other members of staff in an office at the back, but no one left their desk to offer help or advice, even though I lingered by the counter.
This showroom was clean and well laid-out, but it felt drab. I couldn't quite put my finger on why until, standing on the upstairs gallery looking down, I realised the walls were all painted beige, so the multiple displays of white sanitaryware and shiny chrome taps merged into one. There was nothing to differentiate one display from the next and grey light from the corrugated roof didn't help.

SERVICE: 2  SHOWROOM: 3    TOTAL: 5/10
Where's the wow factor?

WINNER'S PROFILE: Olney Kitchens

Phil Bardell took over Olney Kitchens 12 months ago and set about turning the business around. He started by replacing Hacker displays with Rot Punkt and Crown and promoting his showroom on his website, at an exhibition at Milton Keynes shopping centre and through local advertising.
"My background is in fitting, I'm fairly new to retail, but it was important from the start that the showroom looked good, so we could show off what we do." The strategy is paying off, as Phil says he has completed 31 projects in the past year, average spend £20,000, and he has just finished a £60,000 Rot Punkt kitchen. "Our strength is service," he says. "We do everything just so and we're confident in what we do. Customers don't have to pay everything up front. So far they have all been satisfied."