Kitchens - Ikea or Howdens? Price, quality etc

[LowDudgeon]

Advice from anybody with either much appreciated, thank you

[Cheesebleeze12]

We have a WREN kitchen being fitted this week. The quality is really good. The customer service, however, is not and really lets down what should be an excellent new kitchen experience.
Wren have sent wrong sized units, missing end panel, which means our fitter having to come back because it will take weeks to get the correct units delivered(Wren's error).
I think if you want quality go for Howdens. Our kitchen fitter reckons they sort out any errors really well and quickly. It came up in our conversation as Howdens was on my list of kitchens when I was chosing. It is good to have quality of units PLUS good after care and customer service. One out of two is frustrating!

[PixieGio]

We've just ordered Howdens. Fairly large kitchen, lots of base units, 2 larders, in the Burford range. Loved the design service - must have gone in 3 times to tweak it, was no trouble for them. Good communication by email and phone - could always get hold of the designer. No hard sell and very open about giving us the layout and plan. One kitchen designer(Betta living I think) actually snatched the design layout from my husbands hands when he tried to take it. Put down 10% deposit and should be ready in 3 weeks. Really impressed with their service. Also came out about £3000 cheaper than Betta Living.

[PixieGio]

Just to add we are getting our appliances and work tops elsewhere but the Howdens and Ikea solid oak worktops are both beautiful.

[traceyed1]

we have ordered an Ikea kitchen. planning and ordering very straightforward. for 14 units and appliances minus a washing machine and worktops we have paid £4700. We are having the grey gloss doors.

[limesoda]

We got an IKEA one, simply based on cost (we are in N. Ireland so a lot of options aren't available). I looked at handmade and DIY kitchens, but having to do everything online wasn't for me. I also really wanted wood so I could repaint easily (I use my kitchen for my business so it takes a lot of abuse) and IKEA did a wood veneer at the time.

The in store staff were fab and so helpful, even though we bought it did it in stages (made life a little trickier, but our doing IYSWIM). We broke a ceramic sink during fitting, but thanks to the family card got it refunded with zero hassle. I actually wanted to cry with relief.

I fitted it myself and found the whole thing really quite easy (now, at the time it was a bit mad).

It cost £2.5k for the units including sink, dishwasher and coffee machine. Handles, appliances, worktop and quooker came from elsewhere.

The end result does look amazing, but everybody always says that on these threads. Nobody can quite believe just how cheap the units were.

[Eachpeachpearplum1985]

I've seen kitchens I like in both ikea and howdens so I'm watching with interest!

[WhatsItAllAbout123]

I have an IKEA kitchen, it's about 15 months old now and I'm very happy with it. We have two full height appliance units, 7 base units, 8 wall units, Veddinge White doors, blankett handles on the drawers, push openers on the cupboards and Hallestad worktops. We have 18 drawers in the base units. It came to £2k. We fitted it ourselves and it is as solid and well fitted as my parents Howdens kitchen.

My parents have a Burford in cream with the better oak effect laminate worktop, they have the standard hinges and drawers. They used a good fitter and it looks lovely; they are not as impressed with the Lamona hob and oven though. It is 3 years old, but was fitted as part of some building works too, so I have no idea what the kitchen actually cost.

Our hinges and drawers are all Blum and soft close as standard, which is what Howdens use as their upgraded ones. They are far better than their standard ones, so if you opt for a Howdens kitchen go for the upgraded hinges.

Our kitchen was delivered with no damage and everything was there. I have no idea about my parents kitchen, but Howdens do stock everything, so it is usually just a case of taking a faulty item back and swapping it there and then. I found IKEA good for returning and refunding extra bits we didn't use (eg I ordered an extra internal drawer we didn't need).

I wanted a modern and fairly minimalist kitchen which IKEA allowed me to achieve at a fairly modest cost. IKEA also had open pricing without haggling, Howdens prices depends on what discount your builder / fitter gets and how much of that they pass on to you.

Howdens units come assembled with solid backs, IKEA is flat packed and just have hardboard backs. I've read that the units don't need solid backs to increase their strength, and ours is certainly solid! Both carcasses are 18mm thick and I think are the same material (MFC). IKEA use a fitting rail like the German kitchen brands and dont have a void at the back of the units, but it isn't difficult to re-route utilities below the units.

I was happy to design my kitchen myself, though I think IKEA do have a design service.

I hope that helps it probably doesn't! 😀

[Drquin]

I got mine just before Christmas ..... Grey gloss no-handle doors and white glass-effect work tops, all appliances (incl wine fridge!) from Howdens.
£7k for everything.
Back wall has bank of units including FH larder, fridge freezer, microwave & double oven, wine racks and glass cupboard.
Long wall (5m) all base cabinets / pan drawers, hob, lovely sleek remote- controlled extractor and washing machine.
Window wall - dishwasher, sink, wine fridge, drawers which fit around sink and bin storage.

It was part of a wider refurbishment, so one of advantage of Howdens over IKEA was distance when It came to changes (nothing damaged, all my changes!). Howdens is 5 minutes along the road. IKEA is a 4-hour round trip. Whilst purchase price itself (let's assume quality is the same) is obviously important, ability to get to the shop was equally important, so to be honest I never really considered IKEA.

My Howdens designer was brilliant ..... If I believe him, he's got the same kitchen in his house and was very excited I chose as I did!

[citychick]

We have a Howdens kitchen.
It's lovely. We opted for lots of storage over wine fridge, cupboard lighting, etc...

We were recommended IKEA, but chose H as my parents have rental properties and use Howdens kitchens there. They won't use anything else.

The quality is great, the price was better than any other quotes we got, eg, wickes.

The showroom and stock unit are close to the house and the fitters did a great job. It's a cream gloss Burford, with IKEA cooker, fridge and dishwasher.

It's worth looking for a trusted fitter and getting a good discount.

Our house is currently being rented out as we are abroad for a few years, but I am going back to check the house in a couple of weeks so look forward to see how the kitchen has survived the tenants!

Good luck.

[citychick]

that should be howdens cooker fridge and dishwasher. sorry

[madwomanbackintheattic]

We have Ikea. We bought it all during a kitchen event, so had an extra tonne of cash on a gift card to spend afterwards. We were originally planning to use the free money to go back and buy the ikea appliances, however in the end decided to go elsewhere for fridge and dishwasher and hob. The double oven is fab though. I wouldn't be without it.
Don't have Howden's here, so not an option.

[LowDudgeon]

Thanks for all the helpful posts - I'm still completely undecided though!

Like Drquin I have Howdens very near, but Ikea a good 2-3 hour round trip away, so that is a factor. My SIL used to work for Howdens & I would then have got family discount but she retired last year & now I don't so I will see imaginary extra £££ in whatever I would have to pay them

I haven't even got designs & quotes yet, but it's good to know everybody is happy with whichever they chose. I think IKEA will probably be cheaper & I do love all their little clever storage bits...

I currently have a 7-year-old LG Anerican-style fridge-freezer which still works fine-touch-wood; also a slightly younger Bosch freestanding dishwasher; I'm wondering if I should keep those in order to cut costs. (But the integrated stuff does look lovely!)

[Sal1977]

I've had both Howdens and Ikea.

For the money, Ikea is way ahead of Howdens IMHO. Their guarantees are also longer.

Our 'local' Ikea is also 2hours away so we called and made a planning appointment so we didn't have a wasted journey. Well worth doing.

Added bonus is if you spend £1500 you can get 12months credit at 0% or if you spend £3k 24months at 0%. Howdens needs to be paid at the time.

[madwomanbackintheattic]

We kept our dishwasher (it was only a year old) and bought a new fridge freezer (not ikea) because I was so fussy. The only appliance we bought with the kitchen was the double oven. We bought a hob separately as well, because they didn't have one we liked. We also bought countertops separately as we wanted granite, and although I liked two of the ikea offerings a lot, we live too far away from the store to liaise with their suppliers. We just used our local stone company.

Our kitchen is 18mos old now and we have had no trouble at all with the ikea stuff - I love our two corner cupboards and all of the soft-close drawers and doors. My favourite part of the whole kitchen is the island - we designed it ourselves with sink and dishwasher space on one side, half cupboards on the other (under where the stools go) and we used their shelving with cut away corners on the end - so space for all of the cookbooks and chopping boards etc. We may also have built a wine rack in, too It is easily the most used space in the kitchen, from breakfast to food prep to homework.

[JasperDamerel]

DIY kitchens - prices similar to IKEA, but rigid carcasses, and really good quality.

[pambeesley]

We got howdens when we did our kitchen last year and am very happy with it