We are doing up our house in London and trying not to go too crazy as we a) have no money left after buying the house and b) it's not our dream/forever home. So we want it to be functional and as nice as possible for us and any future buyer in say five years time, but without getting handmade wooden cabinets iyswim (I wish…).
We got a quote for John Lewis today. They were so nice and helpful, didn't try and upsell us at all, and one of their basic kitchens was a reasonable rip-off of the Alno style they also had in store. We're going for minimalist doors and a new composite work surface, we need all new appliances (washer/dryer/dishwasher/stove/oven) and with fitting it was coming out at about 17k so I expect 20k in reality. What we really like with John Lewis is the commitment they seem to have made to see that the fitters finish the job - we have had ENDLESS problems in London with different handymen/electricians etc just not finishing off jobs properly and never returning (a whole other thread… they just don't care, even if you withhold payment they seem to move on to bigger, better jobs and never look back! We are really nice, inoffensive, tea-and-coffee-and-biscuit offering, fast-paying people, but to no avail! Grrrrr. Sorry, tangent).
However, I love the look of Ikea kitchens and imagine that we could get what we want for a bit less there. Does anyone have experience of making this kind of choice and what did you go for in the end? Were you happy with your choice? Does anyone have a great N London Ikea fitter they'd recommend?
Sorry, long post but kitchens are expenssssssivvvvvee!
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Entry-level John Lewis vs Ikea Metod Kitchen (plus any advice on London fitters)
Knittingbat · 25/03/2015 22:29
Reading with interest as we are also planning to redo our kitchen and are wavering between John Lewis and Ikea.
I think if JL have actually quoted a figure it shouldn't increase by £3K. I would be horrified if this happened to me and I'd probably have to sell one of my kidneys 
The 'first collection' range at JL is lovely - seems better quality to me than the Ikea ones, and I also love the quartz worktops, although ££££.
We don't need new appliances apart from oven and hob, and would not get those from Ikea anyway. I don't like the idea of having to coordinate different suppliers and fitters, the work dragging on, having to take more time off work etc. The lovely man at JL said the whole thing would take a week, with everything delivered on a Friday and the installation carried out the next Monday-Friday. Quartz worktops are templated once the kitchen is in, and they fit a temporary one in the meantime.
What style/colours are you going for?
I had my IKEA kitchen fitted by my builders about 8 years ago: I am still very happy, no signs of wear, the built-in appliances that came from there are also still working as new. My Builders moaned and moaned that there is no gap at the back of the cupboards like in other brand kitchens. So my cupboards are deeper (yay!) but if there were pipes or cables to route behind them they might be problematic (no so yay). In my case we had only one heating pipe that went floor to ceiling: it goes up inside a tall cupboard and said cupboard with drawers was no problem to fit after all. If you have IKEA-experienced fitters then it should be no issue whatsoever.
And: my worktop was ordered from a different supplier altogether as IKEA had far too long a lead time on that. Ditto for taps, sourced elsewhere when out of stock from IKEA. Total cost with appliances (oven hob dw extractor) under 2K, plus £800 for the worktop iirc 
. We spent the money saved on really good quality carpets instead 
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