Anyone had a Howdens kitchen fitted?

[triplets]

My head is going round and round with planning my new kitchen, cant believe the prices I have been quoted! Havent looked at Howdens yet, do like the look of their Burford Cream Shaker kitchen. Thanks

[BikeRunSki]

I have a friend with a Howdens kitchen. It is cream and shaker style, but I don't know what it is called. A local builder fitted it, not Howdens.

[reup]

My house had one when we bought it. It looked ok but has not worn well. Most drawer fronts fallen off. Small amounts of water have damaged and warped tops of doors . I wouldn't buy one from there. Also there was one unit missing where previous owners had freezer. The company were very unhelpful when we tried to buy one unit so we gave up.

[HollyBen]

No but I am considering them. I had a builder round to do a quote and re recommended them. Be interested in others experiences

[jimblejambles]

My mum has the Burford kitchen in cream it is beautiful. How dens did a kitchen design for her and then she sent her kitchen fitter to buy it as trade got a slight discount.
She had a home base kitchen fitted 2 yrs ago at her previous house and says that the howdens one is a million times better

[Rattitude]

A friend has had one fitted. In my opinion, they are SHIT kitchen designers so don't count on them to produce a good design for your kitchen.

I also think they do not have a huge variety of units and they will 'impose' units they sell, when something else (that exists elsewhere) is more suitable.

I can't comment on the durability or quality of the product though.

A few friends have had IKEA kitchens fitted and were very pleased with the result and the cost.

[PennySillin]

My mum had her kitchen completely redesigned by Howdens. It's not my choice but it's better than it was and good quality. She would definitely recommend them.

[Picklebean]

We have burford grey and love it. Much cheaper than same thing at magnet. Key is to get a good fitter.

[FriskyMare]

We have the Glendevon cream, looks great, we designed the layout ourselves and just got howdens out to "OK" our plans. Our builder fitted it and so far we are really happy with it.

[BehindLockNumberNine]

I had the Burford Shaker Oak kitchen fitted exactly three years ago. I pretty much designed the layout myself, overriding the kitchen designers crap not-so-good ideas.
Our builder bought and fitted the kitchen, he passed his quite substantial discount on to us.

I love it. It works well, it looks good, it has withstood the knocks and bumps of a busy family with two children and a dog (not that the dog does much cooking ) and we are very very pleased with it!

[BehindLockNumberNine]

Rattitude, we went to their warehouse / shop in which there were at least 20 different styles and colours of kitchens to choose from. They let us choose whichever we wanted. We changed our mind 3 times. At no point were we encouraged to purchase a certain style.
Once the design was done I went back to the warehouse / shop and changed the style of hob, extractor and tap as I did not like the finished 'look' on paper.
They were very accommodating

[notapizzaeater]

We have a oak kitchen from them, it's 5 years old and still in perfect condition and still looks fab, now the granite workshops I chose

[Helpyourself]

If you're near an ikea, they're definitely the best cost/quality wise.
However you need to leave near enough for at least three or visits to collect and amend.
Builders love Howdens because they have a built in service gap for the pipes so they're much easier to fit they also get a cut, but that might not be true, but they're discounting is a little opaque

[Venushasrisen]

I have a now dated oak farmhouse style kitchen from Howdens which was put in 11 years ago, it has worn v well, and the wood door fronts almost never get wiped but look fine. It was put in by a good local joiner. I fought with the 'designer' and won the final plan which is fab for my kitchen, ignoring their insistence on easier to install options, but the dishwasher that came with it was crap. I drew plans on squared paper to decide what I want - how can some bloke who probably never boils an egg advise on kitchen design.

I don't like granite work tops (mentioned above), I have had one in a holiday home and it stains darker if oil, butter, peanut butter is spilled on it. An utter pain.

[Pannacotta]

I was going to get one but the designer was pretty dreadful and his design was worse.
USed Benchmarx instead who were fine but not fantastic either.

[orangepudding]

I had a floor fitted from there a year ago, it was poor quality so avoid the flooring!

[MrsApplepants]

We've got one, previous owners choice. It's burford cream. I think it looks cheap and nasty, really poor quality. I also don't like their insistence of only supplying to 'trade professionals' I wouldnt touch them with a barge pole. There are far better budget kitchen suppliers IMHO

[tulipsgirl77]

A family friend is a builder and he's recently closed his account with Howdens because he says they are not as good as they used to be. He said he was fed up of finding they hadn't sent all the parts required and on a few occasions he's had to send back parts because it's damaged.

[Smartiepants79]

Both me and my parents have howdens kitchens and would thoroughly recommend. We got good service and a good price after a bit of negotiating. They look great and is holding up well under the onslaught of my small children. Can't say it was the cheapest option but it certainly wasn't the most expensive. Cheaper than wickes or magnet. Get a good fitter.

[nessus]

New house has Burford in white gloss already in kitchen and it is very nice. Extending kitchen so popped into Howdens on Wednesday as will need a few more cabinets to match and they are popping round next week to do a design plan. Showroom staff were lovely and my builder has a good relationship with them so fingers crossed price sounds right. Happy to update!

[PrimalLass]

My mum had a new worktop from Howdens. It chipped within a week and the customer service was dreadful. I would avoid. Plus I get the rage re the secret prices thing.

[triplets]

Well mixed reviews, but think you are always going to get that. We popped over to them this morning, first impressions were friendly and helpful. We are interested in their Burford Cream, it is very similar to Magnet Shaker Cream we saw last week. We have their designer coming out next week, but we have a very good design from Magnet anyway. He did openly give us the trade price on a particular drawer unit we like, it was £200 cheaper than Magnet. I would have like to look at Ikea but our nearest store is over 2 hours drive away. Its a mine field isn`t it?

[Lcy]

We have the burford white shaker. It is very similar to ikea adel and they gave us 85% off and that made it a competitive price. The units also come pre built so our builder only charged us £300 to put the kitchen together. We could then afford a lovely silestone worktop, franke undermount sink and a fab range cooker. Altogether it looks amazing.

[NorbertDentressangle]

Our kitchen is a Howdens one - its about 10 years old and has lasted/worn really well and we've had no problems with it almost too well as I fancy a change but it still looks great so theres no excuse to change it.

[Martin377]

I think you will find the fronts are pretty similar Howdens or Magnet, the difference is in the method of purchase. If you buy through the builder you never actually know what the kitchen costs where as if you purchase it direct then you can hagle!

[Libramum]

We had a Howdens kitchen fitted last summer and we're generally happy with it. Agree with other posters about designers - get someone else to design it! Although the prices are a bit opaque, the breakdown of individual items was useful - like we took £400 off the cost of kitchen by leaving out one of the corner carosel units. Make sure you see the doors somewhere - we only saw pictures and they were a bit thinner and flimsier than I had expected, but then the price probably reflected it.