New kitchen advice!

[ImWearingPantaloons]

My Mil needs a new kitchen fitted.

Please share your experiences of good, bad and ugly companies so we can advise her of who to go for (or not)

Thanks!

Depends how much she wants to spend.

Howdens are reputable but you’d need a carpenter as they are trade only.

If you’re looking for a cheap basic one, look at B&Q or Wickes.

Probably looking to spend as little as possible, just moved to a new house and the kitchen is quite dilapidated.

Shes in her 70s so isn’t looking for an incredibly fancy all bells and whistles one, just something practical and usable

Does she need an entire new kitchen? If the carcasses are still ok, changing just the doors/handles can be a much cheaper option which makes a massive difference. We did this in a previous property and everyone thought we'd had a whole, new kitchen.

We've recently renovated and DH's cousin in a builder. He told us to avoid Wren. He said Wickes are good in terms of quality, their actual brand in BenchMarx. When we went in for a quote, they always seemed to have a 'sale' and the cost was no cheaper than their non sale time! Neighbours had Howdens and overall it was just ok, but multiple bits missing which they needed to chase to get replaced.

We went to most highstreet type places including some smaller, independent shops. In the end, we found a local guy that could supply the entire kitchen, provide door samples, colours etc. He didn't have a shop but bought all samples to us and it was a faction of the cost of the exact same doors from an independent shop! We had a carpenter who had fitted kitchens before install it all. You could ask on nextdoor.com come in MIL's area for local recommendations too for independent suppliers..

Yeah she needs a whole kitchen as opposed to just a jazz up.

IKEA always used to be good value and pretty robust. Haven't bought one from then for about ten years thofmugh so I might be a bit out of date.

DIY KITCHENS.

best price for best cabinets.

kitchen fitters love them as they come ire assembled. (Which saves money in fitting too). Only downside us needing the space to put them.

they have a good range of styles & designs, you can also get them a bespoke colour for not too much more £££ but if she doesn't want to spend the extra, the colour range is void anyway.

theres an online tour if gge showroom, but if you can visit the showroim(s) all the better! I've only been to the contract one (3 hours from me) but there's now one in Ixfird too.

i don't work for them, but I should! Love them.

EXIT: don't touch Wren. Not with a barge pole. IKEA is ok but kitchen gutters don't like them & they're more expensive to have fit. Fine if you gave the skill & time to do it yourself.

We have a new Ikea kitchen since June. We absolutely love it! The girl in the kitchen dept who helped us plan it was brilliant. We had our own ideas but she came up with stuff we hadn’t thought of or advised us if she thought something wouldn’t work. Took a while to plan etc but was worth it.
We got our own fitter as Ikea fitters were too expensive. It looks brilliant and I have so much storage and workspace that I never had before.
We looked at B&Q, Homebase & Cash & Carry. Could never have afforded an independent kitchen maker but the Ikea one looks great. Definitely looks more expensive than it was.

DIY Kitchens.
Avoid Wren and B&Q.

Another vote for DIY Kitchens. Solid, pre built, good range and great value. I have had Wren and IKEA in the past which were actually fine, but I wouldn’t go back to them now.

Choose your door finishes very carefully - mine attract every finger print going, I'm constantly cleaning the damned things. I have a LOT of 'door finish' regret......