Diy kitchens stansbury vs howdens chelford or chilcomb

[KittyKatyKate]

I’m just looking for kitchen door advice. I’m currently pregnant and we’re doing some building work before the baby arrives, including a new kitchen. We plan to be here 10 years ish or less depending on what comes in the market. The baby is our first and I’m not sure if I’m imagining kids being more boisterous than they are. I nannied very energetic 7, 8 and 9 year olds many moons ago.

Originally I was looking at diy kitchens stansbury which is a painted mdf, settled on howdens chelford which I brought a sample of yesterday but looked at it this morning and it’s a wrap. The kitchen we ripped out at the old house had a peeling wrap, and I really didn’t want this. In my head I wanted something that was paintable so when we sell the house we can update the kitchen just by getting it sprayed. So now thinking of howdens chilcomb. We currently have wooden shaker in this kitchen it’s at least over 6 years old (from Rightmove pics) but paint is peeling and a door is cracked, so it looks rubbish, but at least they could be freshened up. I’m just really torn and DH is no help at all. Last time we did the kitchen we knew we would be moving soon we picked based on price rather than thinking what would last and still look reasonable when we move, and didn’t have kids to consider then either. The kitchen will be in the corner of an L shaped room with a family area and the dining room with a peninsula. Imagining a kid tearing through it and just want something that will withstand family life.

[KittyKatyKate]

Bought* even, can’t work out how to edit

[Muststopeating]

Also very interested in peoples recommendations here.

[Cookiemonster1234]

I had the Chelford in pebble fitted over a year ago and I absolutely love it! We got our quartz worktop from a stone masons separately and I got some lovely chrome cup and pull handles online, which were pricey but really gave it that feeling of luxury! Our fitter was superb - I think key is to get an excellent fitter. I have young children also. Wishing you lots of luck with it all.

[Clairet20]

We are having the same dilemma between Chelford and chilcomb. I thought Chelford was a painted front mdf door with foil wrap rear. That's according to their specification.

[Redskyyy]

We have DIY kitchens stanbury and love it.

[smallgoon]

I went with DIY kitchens Norton in the end but did consider both the chelford and the chilcombe. I felt the chilcombe was the better quality door as it had thicker wood and you could see the grain - chelford had a smooth finish. Chilcombe was more expensive too from what I remember. Howdens tried to charge me circa £14k for a chilcombe kitchen but then offered to price-match when I let them know my DIY norton quote had come in at £4k.

[KittyKatyKate]

We’re looking at the pebble colour too! I do really like the shape of the door and like the bevel edge rather than square. Which website did you get your handles from as I’ve not seen anything I love yet.

[KittyKatyKate]

I’ll have to double check, I did think it was paintable but when I said I wanted to be able to repair any damage and get it resprayed as necessary the sales person said that I wouldn’t be able to do this. The sample just looked very different to what I expected though.

[KittyKatyKate]

This will sound like a random request, I loved it when we went to the showroom, but can’t remember what the back of the doors look like, please could you send me a photo. I’m just pushing it with their lead time so won’t be able to go back to the showroom.

[KittyKatyKate]

Howdens prices are ridiculous in comparison, I hate that there’s no transparency too. Apparently Diy’s units are better too. I love the breakfast cupboard howdens do though so think that’s our preference. Luckily they have said they will pricematch too, but yes if they don’t I’ll lose the breakfast cupboard (which would also save on quartz too) as there is thousands in it. Between the stansbury/chelford and chilcomb/Norton it’s about 3k for our kitchen.

[Cookiemonster1234]

Hi there, I looked for ages and found my handles from Armac Martin not cheap but they are gorgeous!!

[Cookiemonster1234]

You are better sourcing your own Quartz rather than getting that from Howdens too

[KittyKatyKate]

Great thank you! That’s my Sunday afternoon sorted. I’ve already had a quote from Gemini Quartz and let seem to have good reviews and prices. Who did you use?

[Witchlight]

Just to say, I found this company brilliant. Their calculation tool is pretty accurate and they were professional and helpful.

www.nerostein.com/ps_quote_uk.php?_ga=2.208117202.193648153.1619964123-1183395609.1619964123

They sent me 4 samples FOC and I went for Dekton ceramic, rather than the surface I originally looked for.

[Witchlight]

Just to say, I did look at Howdens, but their pricing structure was so obscure, I felt I was being taken for a ride.

[KittyKatyKate]

Armac Martin is so lovely, they have handles that I’m OooOoing over but way out of my budget! That’s another task now, 26 Lincoln handles for 75% off, at least o know what I’m looking for now, just need to find them!

[KittyKatyKate]

Definitely, last time we used Howden’s we used my husband’s friend’s account and we sat down with the salesman and he just went through it and sent us an itemised list. Made it so much easier to compare online and I saved loads doing that kitchen too, impossible to do that this time. If it wasn’t for the transparency of DIY and being able to get a benchmark quote to present to howdens I would feel the same. Shocked by 3k difference 5k and 6k at diy and 8k and 11k at howdens. I guess part of the saving for diy is that they don’t spend ages designing but not sure that warrants a circa 30% mark up.
DIY’s prices seem fair so I feel like I know what price to expect from howdens. It annoys me how they push their lamona products too. I’d definitely get appliances elsewhere.
Great thanks I’ll check their worktops too :)

[SunglassesSeventy]

Do Howdens really offer to price match? I've had some quotes from Howdens and am really happy with the kitchens they offer, their design service has been amazing too, but I just compared their prices with DIY kitchen prices (which are online, unlike Howdens) and DIY kitchen is so much cheaper!

Is the quality the same between Howdens and DIY kitchen?

[SunglassesSeventy]

Apologies, asking if Howdens really price match was a bit daft, they obviously do as you've said that they have. It was just my incredulity. This revelation could save me a fortune if my local Howdens also do the price matching! Sounds a bit too good to be true.

[KittyKatyKate]

I thought exactly the same, my friend based in Manchester told me the do as did for her, and the one local to us have too.

When I asked howdens they emailed “We will price match to any reputable kitchen supplier on a like for like basis, so yes, we will match DIY Kitchens provided it is the same spec as ours and we have a full listed quote or 'shopping basket' code.”

We went to the diy showroom and the range I was looking at (Norton and stansbury) were both lovely, I think the carcass at diy is slightly thicker on the back too but can’t be sure. If they didn’t price match I was happy to go to diy, the only reason I’m leaning towards howdens is for the convenience with lead times and because they’ll come and do a final measure once we’ve knocked a wall down and it has been plastered.

If you can make it up to the showroom it was really good in helping consider different storage options too, there’s free colour and quartz samples there as well.

[SunglassesSeventy]

Thanks KittyKatyKate, I've done some number crunching and can see that on a comparable kitchen DIY kitchen cabinets are 26% to 34% cheaper! So I've emailed the designer I'm dealing with at Howdens to let them know this and ask if there are any further discounts.

I'm so glad I saw your thread as it wouldn't have occurred to me to do that and if it works it'll save me a lot of money.

It's great that they do those quartz and door samples as well.

[KittyKatyKate]

@SunglassesSeventy would love to hear how you get on! I just sent the basket code to them and they’ve price matched from that.

[SunglassesSeventy]

I'll let you know! I found it hard to do exact price matching as I didn't know the exact sizes (height) of all the wall and tall cabinets. So I emailed to say that DIY kitchens are cheaper can they do me a deal or discount. No reply as yet, I'll update you when I hear back from them. If it all goes wrong I might just use DIY kitchens, though it looks like they don't have a certain size cabinet that Howdens do, which will mess up the kitchen design.

[KittyKatyKate]

@SunglassesSeventyHave you got the 3D images from howdens? I think if you send that and the dimensions to diy they’ll do a price comparison for you and put the items in your basket and send you the code. We had a floorplan from wren we sent over but I think is said the visualisations were fine too

[KittyKatyKate]

@SunglassesSeventy the message above is for you!