Anyone designed a kitchen with Wren but bought from DIY Kitchens?

[icebubbles]

We've had a quote from Wren (shaker style, nothing especially wild) and I've heard about submitting the design to DIY Kitchens and asking for a price match but I don't know anyone whose actually done it. It is a good idea / is it worth it? Do you save much? Is DIY-K
decent quality? There's no showroom near us so we couldn't check in advance. Thanks so much

We used DIY kitchens and were very happy with them.

Do a search on the money saving expert DIY forum and you will see lots of recommendations for DIY kitchens.

The quality is very good and it is very reasonably priced.

Also do not use Wren. There are so many bad reviews on money saving expert and and on the internet in general.

I forgot to add yes lots of people gets designs from wren or Wickes and then send it to DIY kitchens for a quote.

The guys at DIY kitchens are very helpful. You can just emailed the quote to them and they will price it up for you.

We did! We even put a deposit down on a Wren kitchen before we decided to back out. Luckily this meant we got the full plans and item list which made it a lot easier to get what we needed from DIY. We saved about £2k (fitted ourselves so we didn't have builders fees etc), with the Wren kitchen we had laminated worktops and a stainless steel sink in the plan, we actually ended up getting solid hardwood worktops (from Worktops Direct) and a butler sink so a LOT more expensive than laminate and steel, and we still saved £2k. The quality is fantastic and it still looks new over 2 years later. It's 100% worth a trip to Pontefract to look round!

Avoid Wren like the plague. I've never heard a good thing about them. Their fitting service is appalling and the quality of the doors etc is shite. My BIL bought his kitchen from there a little over a year ago and all his doors are starting to peel.

This is my DIY-K kitchen (before it was 100% finished, so ignore the loose wires and lack of kickboards)

Definitely

DIY kitchens are not only cheaper but better quality too.

I got a few designs - not one of them came up with anything I hadn't already thought of. I used DIY online planner, got better fitting units by playing around with the units because they have most units in 50mm size increments.

When I went to them with my plan they did have some other ideas for internal storage that I hadn't thought of - such as all drawers rather than cupboards in base units so the whole depth is usable - including pull out drawers behind a cupboard door for a neater finish.

I love my DIY kitchen.

This is so helpful, thanks all so much. Any more tips and tricks v welcome!

Ooh also, it's a small detail but one that I appreciate, DIY colour match your cupboards to your doors, so the insides of our cupboards are also grey. I'm not aware of any other company that do this! Their showroom is also lovely, they have a kitchen area that's just full of drinks and snacks that you can help yourself to, several fridges just full of all kinds of cans of fizzy pop, fresh cakes, packets of biscuits etc. the kids were thrilled when we went there 🤣

We got a wren design and then got quotes from DIYK and OnlineKitchenStore.co.uk

decided to go with onlinekitchenstore as they had a showroom with units showing the differences between their units and all the other high street brands, was great to see, felt in very capable hands with them. Our fitter told us it was the best kitchen he's ever fit (maybe they say that to everyone!) Our fitter was our builder and he now uses onlinekitchenstore for all of his kitchens!

To add, OnlineKS were much more quicker and better at responding to us than DIYK

We got our DIY kitchen about 4 years ago, we still love it. It’s great quality and I’ve recommended to friends who also love theirs.

We went to Howdens and shaped the kitchen we wanted. Then got the price. When we picked ourselves up off the floor we priced it on DIY Kitchens and pressed order.

A £12k Howdens kitchen was £8k on DIY Kitchens and like a PP we upgraded several things along the way too.

A year on we're really happy with the quality (and we ordered blind, the showroom being hours and hours from us).

Yes Same, we got quotes couldn't get really simple things however with some main brands and took the plunge with DIY.
Very Happy so far and at least 3/4 grand cheaper with nicer accessories

Our diy kitchen is 4 years old now and still looks brand new. Using them meant we could get solid wood doors etc for the same cost as basic laminate from other brands. Our kitchen still gets a lot of compliments & we know several people who also got diy kitchens after seeing ours - everyone has been very happy with them.

Their online planner is also the best kitchen planner I came across.

The DIY Kitchens website has an awesome tool wher you can design the litchen yourself there. It
sounds complicated bjtnif you take 15 mins reading and thinking thn it becomes easy.

Absolutely have meetings with Wren, Magnet, Wickes etc. I did. But their quotes were laughable and they kept trying tomprssurr me away from
certain ideas (Because they didn’t sell the right shape cabinet).

After speaking to thnkitchen companies I boyght from DIY K and am very happy with it. They manufacture in UK and control the whole process end to end so you don’t have to worry about your cabinets stuck at the border for months as happend to my friend!

We saw a kitchen we liked at an independent showroom. We found the exact one on DIY kitchens and used their design it was about 1/3 of the price.

I wish I'd read this thread before ordering our Wren kitchen. Don't ever use them - they have been an utter disgrace from beginning to end and we've spent a fortune on a kitchen which isn't really what we wanted and won't be installed in time. Never, ever use them: they talk the talk, but never follow through.

Do DIY kitchens offer a fitting service or do you have to source your own? What did people roughly pay for a medium sized kitchen, thinking one was of units and an island. I presume you have a separate person fit the worktop or will the fitter do that too?

The clue is kind of in the name, DIY Kitchens.

That’s the problem. Everyone always raves about DIY kitchens but if you don’t have a fitter or any good recommendations you’re kinda stick with companies that will do the fitting 🤷🏼‍♀️

I want to use diy kitchens but having problem finding fitter. All very different price quotes! Also some want to do the floor and others don't.
Do I get the floor done first, during or after?!

That depends on the type of flooring. You can get advice on this from John Lewis flooring department for free. They told us we could get vinyl fitted after the new kitchen is in but certain other types of flooring should be fitted before the kitchen goes in. It’s all so confusing if you don’t have a tame builder/fitter, Im
sure we’re going to make silly mistakes