I did 3 houses on my own. I hired a carpenter who works on per square feet price. 3 years ago I paid 150 for kitchen and recently I did it for 200. Currently I am doing another one for Rs 200. These are the things you should know.
Design(It is simple, google is your best friend, you get one idea)
choice of wood, just go for water proof plywood ranging from 60 to 80. Your carpenter should be able to tell you how much wood is needed. You may need some 19 mm, few 6 mm(for back panel) and some 12 mm for draws(wooden draws if you choose).
Then you should know where to buy baskets and channels. Here there are 2 types, one in regular and other Hettich. I felt regular one is good and I did that for all the three house. There is a company called ebco that makes most of the kitchen materials. Just go with that. You get good deals if you go to Kilari road in Mejistic. Or you can goto Kumbarpet . Talk to few guys and you will learn what you are looking for. Do not hurry in buying. Do your research.
There are other materials like hinges, nails, fevicols that you can buy anywhere. It does not make much difference.
You have to choose laminations. Bring your creative side out and do it yourself. I did one light and dark blue combination. It came out very well. You will need 2 laminations, one for inside and one for outside. Inside it is usually white. Go for 0.8 mm thickness. People say pakka .8. Then go for 1mm for outside lamination. Go for Matt finish as it does not get scratches too much.
You have to work with the carpenter closely, take some printout of the images you googled, show it to him, discuss with him. I involved my 5 years old daughter to do some coloring in the design I put up that gave a more detail to my carpenter.
With all this you will be able to get a better quality kitchen done for less than 50% and the satisfaction is tremendous.
BTW, all the houses is mine or my relatives. I don’t let anybody go to branded modular kitchen places. I help them and now I have taken them as hobby.
My carpenter is from Rajasthan and his name is Shankar(I am fortunate), he is very skilled and trustworthy. He is very hard worker and one time when I remodeled my in-laws kitchen they started feeling bad when he left after completing the work. He had become our family member.
Good look with building modular kitchen
Regards,
Kannan
kannansn@hotmail.com