Kitchens

IvanDobskey

IvanDobskey

IvanDobskey

Soldato
Joined
2 Feb 2010
Posts
11,621
Location
Crowmarsh
So, once our front door is sorted, we will probably be turning our attention to the kitchen.

We had a look round Wickes and Wren showrooms and thought both looked decent. Particularly liked one in Wren, but then saw the price of 15k :p

Does anyone have any insight on who does a good kitchen for a reasonable price?
 
I wouldn't touch Wren with a bargepole as their owner is one of the biggest donors to the Conservative party :) My other half's colleague recently had his kitchen done by then, she hasn't the heart to tell him! We did actually look in one of their showrooms (purely for ideas) but it all felt very 'American' and a bit like a Currys or something. Very touristy.

Most on here will recommend DIY Kitchens I'm sure. We looked at them but thought the extra outlay for a local independent was worth our time and effort. Not to mention we're having the kitchen walls moved so didn't fancy figuring that all out with DIYK.

Howden's seem to be well-rated and are not stupid money. Besides our designer there disappearing off with COVID and no-one covering her emails (to a clearly shared inbox? :confused: ) it was a very pleasant experience. You could also try John Lewis, we had a meeting with them but their ballpark quote was very high, and they didn't have the colour we wanted either.

I would honestly look at a local independent if you have one, or Howden's. My Mum is going with Optiplan, price seems reasonable and she seems happy with the designer/process so far. They have a few branches.
 
Food for thought, thanks :)

Do DIY kitchens actually fit though? I assumed they just delivered the kit.

Howdens are trade only? So I guess you have to go through a tradesman?
 
IvanDobskey said:
Food for thought, thanks :)

Do DIY kitchens actually fit though? I assumed they just delivered the kit.

Howdens are trade only? So I guess you have to go through a tradesman?
Click to expand...
You would need to source an independent tradesmen (which isn't hard to be fair)

DIY kitchens are good, had one before.

They're all much of a muchness really to be honest but I think the "design/supply and fit" you're limited to only a couple offerings.

I found the wren sales pitch a bit overbearing, and also my family bought a wren kitchen "handleless" design was not very ergonomic for opening/closing drawers.
 
IvanDobskey said:
So, once our front door is sorted, we will probably be turning our attention to the kitchen.

We had a look round Wickes and Wren showrooms and thought both looked decent. Particularly liked one in Wren, but then saw the price of 15k :p

Does anyone have any insight on who does a good kitchen for a reasonable price?
Click to expand...
Ask howdens to come and price the kitchen, then use there design and ask DIY kitchens to quote for the same thing and play one off the other. Thats what i did and saved a few £££
 
One advantage with Wren is that they do 0% finance, whereas I'd wager that most local independents would want the cost up front.
 
Diy kitchens, our last one was from Magnet, we can't fault the units etc, all our issues came from the third-party fitters they used to actually fit the kitchen, I would imagine this will be the case with most of the major brands who don't have their own employed fitters.
 
I had a bit of a weird one at work recently. We drew up plans for a client for a modest extension but they were wanting to redo their kitchen and form a utility room at the same time. They forwarded a plan including price from either Howdens or wren I forget which. On their quote the price was coming in at around 18k for kitchen and fitting however there was a discount applied which meant it was coming in at about 10k. I don't understand how they can charge one figure but suddenly knock almost 50per cent off :o
 
Just redone out kitchen and went with DIY Kitchens, their online designer is really good, no faults at all with it.

Me and Dad fitted it ourselves well he has retired, but usual asking on your towns local facebook group can be a good way to find a kitchen fitter.
 
Scam said:
I wouldn't touch Wren with a bargepole as their owner is one of the biggest donors to the Conservative party :) My other half's colleague recently had his kitchen done by then, she hasn't the heart to tell him! We did actually look in one of their showrooms (purely for ideas) but it all felt very 'American' and a bit like a Currys or something. Very touristy.

Most on here will recommend DIY Kitchens I'm sure. We looked at them but thought the extra outlay for a local independent was worth our time and effort. Not to mention we're having the kitchen walls moved so didn't fancy figuring that all out with DIYK.

Howden's seem to be well-rated and are not stupid money. Besides our designer there disappearing off with COVID and no-one covering her emails (to a clearly shared inbox? :confused: ) it was a very pleasant experience. You could also try John Lewis, we had a meeting with them but their ballpark quote was very high, and they didn't have the colour we wanted either.

I would honestly look at a local independent if you have one, or Howden's. My Mum is going with Optiplan, price seems reasonable and she seems happy with the designer/process so far. They have a few branches.
Click to expand...
Do you check the political affiliation of everyone you deal with? What if your postman is a Conservative supporter? Have you asked? It's very important to make sure that your mail is not corrupted.

Back to kitchens, I know several people who have had Wren kitchens fitted and they have been very happy. There is a premium though for the fancy showrooms and the all in one service that they offer. I would say that I have also heard very good things about DIY Kitchens. Perhaps a visit to their showroom and a good local kitchen fitter?
 
I bought a Wren kitchen about 5 years ago now, fitted it ourselves but the quality was very good, the units came fully assembled which was a big plus, and the showroom guy was actually really useful compared to some of the other local designers we had out, who just copy pasted what we had despite me giving them clear instructions I didn't like the current layout. Haggling was painful to get to a price I was happy with, but I think if I was to do it again i'd go in and get them to come up with a couple of designs and then see what price DIY kitchens could do and go from there.

One thing I've read over and over is don't use Wrens own fitters.
 
We got our from Howdens (don't need to be a trade you can set up an account yourself). I found there stuff pretty decent to be fair, have a big range covering different budgets. Had two cabinets turn up broken and they sent us out two new ones now questions asked.
 
Participant said:
ITT choosing a kitchen based on the owner's political leanings :rolleyes:.
Click to expand...

gailjon said:
Do you check the political affiliation of everyone you deal with?
Click to expand...
Firstly, it's more that a minor 'leaning' if the guy is one of the biggest donors to the Tory party. That's not your postman "quite liking" Boris or something, that's actively enabling the absolute ****show that we have at the moment. Secondly, I didn't set out to check, my other half found out somehow and thought it relevant. Given that the kitchen is probably going to be the third biggest expense I've ever had in my lifetime, I see no reason not-to take that into account. Besides, like I mentioned we did actually take a look in the showroom and found it quite awful, personally.

I posted a lot of useful info too for the OP. Seems I touched a nerve.. nothing wrong with being a good citizen where you can, I have every right to not hand over my hard-earned to people that I disagree with in this world. No need to derail the thread.

On topic, another reason we're going to go with our local independent is that our builder (currently doing loft conversion) did. I'd imagine he'd get a hefty discount at Howden's because he's very well known in the area. I think the fact that he didn't go with them says something, at least about our local branch.
 
I'd echo @SoliD's comments. We had a Wren kitchen 3 years ago and the quality is fantastic but again we used our own fitter. On the flip side I wouldn't touch Wren's fitters with a barge pole - the cost was 5x what we paid for our joiner to do it and I have a couple of relatives who have horror stories as a result of Wren's poor fitting. We sourced our own worktops, sink and taps though as I managed to get a bargain on the Franke Fragranite sink from Amazon of all places (half the price of Wren's equivalent Blanco sink), tap was about 60% cheaper for same design Bristan tap rather than Wren's OEM and we didn't overly like any of their worktops either but to be honest - again we saved quite a bit here ordering online compared to even Wren's cheapest option.

Howden's quality was good but I found their own brand appliances overpriced once offers from Wren were added on big brands like Neff and Bosch and the whole "quoting the tradesman" thing was just a nightmare - I've posted about this before but we literally had two local branches beating each other up at one point but even then they still couldn't touch Wren. The overall buying experience from Wren was far superior and the ability to have 0% was also attractive (although not necessary).
 
Our last kitchen was from B & Q and I fitted it myself (15 years ago)

Couple of years back my wife fancied a change so I just replaced the doors :)
 
Dependent where you are in the East Midlands, but we’ve used this company twice in the past, each time they have surpassed themselves in terms of value for money, quality and after service (replacement doors after dog nibbling)

Our Kitchens - Kitchen Craft Design

Our Kitchens - Look at our recently designed kitchens - Kitchen Craft Design Chesterfield, Sheffield & Worksop
www.kitchencraftdesign.co.uk www.kitchencraftdesign.co.uk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom