Buying a Kitchen in Italy — Revisited
Two Houses, Two Kitchens, Two Tiers
It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I will post some steps and what we are learning along the way.
We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is now our life!
We live in Tuscany in the fall, return again in the spring, and spend the rest of the time in California.
Step 1: A different kitchen the second time around
A couple of years ago I wrote a post called "Buying a Kitchen in Italy" about the kitchen we bought at Mondo Convenienza for our first house in the historical center. Mondo Convenienza offers well-designed modern kitchens with options to fit a range of styles, and we were genuinely pleased with the quality of what we got. The takeaway from that post was that a full kitchen — cabinets, appliances, installation — did not have to cost what we had assumed it would.
That post is still one of the most-read on the blog, and for good reason: most foreigners arriving in Italy assume a kitchen here is either something basic from IKEA or a five-figure luxury commission from a designer brand. Neither is the whole story.
For our second house in Santa Fiora, we made a different choice — and what we learned this time is worth its own post.
Step 2: The tier we didn't fully understand the first time
Looking back, we entered the first kitchen purchase with a very binary picture of the market: budget or luxury. What we didn't understand is that there is a substantial middle tier, populated by Italian brands that most foreigners have never heard of but which dominate kitchens here.
Roughly speaking — and this is from what our friends and the showrooms have told us, not from any market report — the market here breaks into three layers:
Budget tier: IKEA, Mondo Convenienza. A small kitchen with an appliance package lands somewhere between €1,700 and €3,000.
Mid-range tier: Scavolini, Stosa, Veneta Cucine, Lube. A real kitchen with name-brand appliances, fully installed, typically between €5,000 and €15,000 depending on size and finishes.
Luxury tier: Boffi, Poliform, Arclinea, Snaidero, Dada, Aster. These are the kitchens that appear in international design magazines. They start where the mid-range ends and go up from there — often well past €25,000.
The first time around we shopped at the bottom of this scale without realizing there was a middle. The second time we shopped the middle.
Step 3: Why we went up a tier
A few things changed between the first kitchen and the second.
The biggest realization was that the price difference between a budget kitchen and a mid-range one was smaller than we had assumed. For a few thousand euros more we could move from Mondo Convenienza's selection to Scavolini's — different materials, different finishes, and appliances from brands we already knew. The Scavolini appliances are all Samsung; the Mondo Convenienza appliances were Candy — an Italian brand, now owned by the Chinese company Haier. Perfectly capable, but not a name we'd known before moving to Italy.
There was also a practical advantage we didn't have the first time. By now we had a working relationship with our contractor, and he had a working relationship with a Scavolini dealer in the area. That changed the conversation considerably.
Step 4: Where we bought it
We bought the kitchen from Mobili Lazzeretti in Arcidosso, about twenty minutes from Santa Fiora. They are a regional Scavolini dealer, and our contractor had worked with them on previous projects.
The customer service at both places was excellent, but at Mobili Lazzeretti — a small local business — we felt we got more personalized attention. We sat with a designer for as long as we needed, talked through layout, and worked through colors, finishes, and customization choices in detail. We asked our contractor to accompany us, since he often works with Mobili Lazzeretti, and we agreed on a fair price.
I would recommend them to anyone shopping in this area — not as a paid endorsement, since they did not ask for one and would have no idea I am writing this — but because the experience was a good one all around.
Step 5: What we chose
We ended up with a Scavolini MODA, in an L-shaped layout of about 1.85 by 3 meters (roughly 6 by 10 feet).
The colors took some deliberation. We landed on a warm hemp-beige for the cabinet fronts, a stone-grey laminate countertop, cast-iron-style bridge handles, and an iron-grey plinth at the base.
The appliances are Samsung across the board: an integrated dishwasher, an induction cooktop, a built-in electric oven, and a combi refrigerator. The range hood is a Faber.
We ordered on April 28 and the kitchen was delivered and installed by May 29 — about a month, which felt remarkably efficient.
Step 6: What "included" actually means at this tier
It helps to put the two tiers side by side. Roughly, for a kitchen of similar size and layout to ours, with appliances and installation included:
A Mondo Convenienza L-shape with an appliance package generally starts at about €2,000 and lands in the range of €2,500 to €3,500 depending on the model, finishes, and which appliances you choose.
A Scavolini MODA in the same size and configuration, with name-brand appliances and installation included, typically falls between about €6,000 and €10,000 depending on size, finishes, and the appliance package you choose.
Those are ballpark figures rather than quotes; the actual number depends on layout, finishes, and the appliance package you choose. But the gap between the two tiers is real and it is smaller than most foreigners would guess.
For comparison, back in the United States, a kitchen of similar size with mid-quality cabinets, Samsung appliances, and professional installation would cost considerably more — usually well into five figures in dollars. Italy is one of the world's centers of kitchen manufacturing, and "installation included" here means what it actually says, where back home it tends to be a separate line item with its own complications.
Step 7: What the extra money buys
There are a few things that distinguish the two tiers from each other.
Part of it is the range of materials available at each tier. Mondo Convenienza kitchens are built around melamine-laminated panels with laminate worktops — durable, easy to clean, and standard at the budget tier. Scavolini's MODA line offers two door thicknesses (1.8 cm and 2.2 cm), with the thicker door opening up a wider material library — including real wood veneers, Fenix NTM, and Oleomalta — at the top end.
There is also a difference in warranty terms. Mondo Convenienza kitchens come with a two-year warranty; Scavolini extends theirs to five years through a registration program.
One thing worth flagging for foreigners: at the budget and mid-range tiers, countertops are typically laminate — laminato in Italian — not stone. We had assumed at first that "real" kitchens needed stone. They don't. Laminate at this quality is durable, attractive, and has one practical advantage stone does not: if it gets damaged, it can be swapped out without ripping up the rest of the kitchen.
Step 8: When the budget tier is still the right call
None of this means Mondo Convenienza was a mistake the first time around. It wasn't. Their kitchens are well-made and hold up to daily use. One thing worth knowing: for a modest fee — around €145 at the time of writing — Mondo Convenienza will send a plumber to handle the hookups, and an electrician as well if needed. That means you can end up with a fully functional kitchen without having to line up your own tradespeople.
The decision between tiers is really about budget and preference, not durability. For the second house, the small price gap meant we could choose from Scavolini's selection of materials and finishes and step over to appliances from brands like Samsung that we already knew. That math made sense for us. But the first choice was not wrong — it was right for what we needed then.
Insights
Looking back, what stands out about each kitchen is how well it fit the house it was in. The Mondo Convenienza kitchen in the first house — forest green with a wood-laminate countertop — complemented the wood beams and brown tile floors. It fit our budget, fit the character of the historical home, and was right for that space.
For the second house, we went up a tier for different reasons: more design choices to work with, appliance brands we already knew, and a layout that included a large Samsung refrigerator as part of the package (the first kitchen hadn't had room for a built-in fridge).
The broader lesson from doing this twice is that the Italian kitchen market has a real middle that most foreigners overlook. Both kitchens have served us well, and in both cases the total cost was well below what an equivalent kitchen would run in the United States. The right choice depends on the house, your priorities, and what you want from a kitchen.
More next time.
If you enjoy reading about Italian life, you may enjoy my book on southern Italy — where two Californians meet a region shaped as much by its history as by the people living in it now.
Stories from Puglia: Two Californians in Southern Italy — a book of southern Italian life, culture, and history, told through my own experience of the region and the stories behind its towns, its people, and its past.
"This book elevated my trip. Well written and fun." — Amazon reviewer
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