AIBU to think buying a new kitchen is a nightmare.

[SaucySpider]

So after a few years of saving hard I am about to embark on the journey of buying a new kitchen. But why is it so difficult? I've read so many reviews about the major suppliers i.e. Wren, Magnet, B& Q etc that aren't fantastic. Then the other type of supplier such as Howdens or Benchmarx require me to do everything through a tradesperson (I don't have one yet). What experience do you have that you can share with me. I'm tearing my hair out already.

We had ours from John Lewis- probably a little more expensive than other places, but they took the old kitchen away (including appliances if I remember rightly) and put the new one in, including appliances (which we’d bought from them).
We shopped around a lot before going with Lewis’s, and overall they seemed like the best. Their kitchen fitter was great, and we were able to tweak the design as we went.
There was a bit of a delay in them collecting rubbish at the end of the whole thing, so we had a a pile of stuff in the back garden for a few weeks, but they sent a massive bouquet and gift voucher (not insubstantial amount either) as an apology.
The quality of the fittings etc has been really good, so no regrets about going with them- and it’s a two year interest free payment schedule, which spreads the cost nicely!

Does anyone have any experience with ex-display kitchens? They seem to be such a great way to get better quality and more for your money, but can't quite wrap my head around the how to get a kitchen of one size fitted in another with a completely different layout and size.

We've gone for an independent shop and it's looking good.

We're having ours done at the moment! We found an independent kitchen company with good local feedback and gave sourced our own fitter as we also needed some renovation work doing and going from electric to gas.

If it's a straight kitchen upgrade / replacement, I'd go for IKEA. I had one in my old house and it looked great. That was keeping all appliances in the same place. Whole kitchen plus fitting was under £5000.

Are diy kitchens flat pack? Is flat pack really terrible?

No DIY kitchens come pre assembled so really quick to fit.
They're decent quality.

Kitchen broker might be the way forward.
Kitchenfindr suggest verified independent people near to you who can give you what you want for your budget.
We used them and love our kitchen and it was a really good price. Now my parents have used the same guy to suggest an independent place in their city.

I bought a kitchen directly from howdens myself. I got a kitchen fitter who had an account there then went directly to howdens. They came out, designed my kitchen, and I paid them. It was easy and my kitchen is great.

Yep we had ours done 10 years ago and because of all the drama and fuss I have really looked after it still looks like new and am hoping it will last anther 10.

We used DIY kitchens. We were really pleased with the quality. We also chose the colour from a massive selection. Basically you can have some ranges matched to most paint colours

Ours was hard work and did my head in too but the finished result is worth the pain

We found someone first through a builder friend. The person we used was jack of all trades, plasterer, electrician, gas fitter, tiler, the lot! We knew we would need the walls plastering and a ceiling board with spot lights fitting too.

We went to B&Q. Met with a designer with measurements of our kitchen. He then came to our house to run through different designs etc We picked our kitchen from B&Q, we were on a tight budget and they do have some lovely kitchens.

With things like the intergrated oven, hob and washing machine, B&Q price matched. I got some fab discounts!

Bought light fittings/sockets and LED spotlights separately. Tiles were from Tops Tiles.

We had ours done over a period of weeks as builder chap did it after his full time job, so evenings and weekends were all consumed by this. It was quite stressful at times but when you see it all coming together it’s very rewarding.

Good luck! It is a nightmare room to sort.

Agree with pp about ikea. Mine is from there (minus worktops. They were really expensive there because our kitchen is bit atypical). Great service, came to mesure it all, had a good advice.
We are still really happy with it. Best thing is you get access to your plan so you can play with it and really figure out what works best for you

For those asking about DIY kitchens at south Kirkby (Yorkshire)

They have an example of a cabinet from list of height st kitchen places along side one of their own in the foyer. They have one from B&Q, wickes, IKEA, wren, howdens, etc . Theirs come ready assembled no flat packs and honestly the quality is miles ahead of any of the rivals from the high st. Like I said we had already ordered ours and I was spitting feathers that I hadn't found them first.

It's a first class service too with absolutely no hard sell.
They have a chef onsite working from one kitchen so there is always food and drink while you are planning too!

We changed out layout and bought just one cabinet and drawers from them they paint matched it to the wickes one who were going to charge something utterly ridiculous for one unit because they treated it as a separate order so no discount!! but the diy kitchens- the quality is just streets ahead and they are defo in my radar for next time. I was so mad with myself that we didn't find them first.

What I found that with companies like Howdens and MKM that go through a trade link its a bit smoke and mirrors exactly what the quotes are for Wasn't like that for us when we went to Howdens - we had individual prices for every single unit, bit of kickboard, end panel etc. We were able to visit the Howdens depot and see the different units for ourselves. We had a great deal of control over the process, and were able to get exactly what we wanted.

@PlainSpeakingStraightTalking was that with the blue light card or just your nhs pass?

I like Wickes. My mum had Howdens in the utility and it wasn't the expensive range as it was only the utility but she's not impressed. Her kitchen was bespoke and although she loves it she has said Wickes would have been good enough and saved her lots of money.

I agree op. I just want an idiots guide to help me choose then someone to arrange and do it all!

We just installed a new kitchen in the summer. The budget and timescales were very very tight and we tried to do a lot ourselves .

We bought Ikea units, built them ourselves and had them fitted by a joiner. Bought a deeper worktop from another supplier as Ikea units have no void at the back for services .

Bought appliances elsewhere ( cheaper or better quality ) . Ditto taps and sink.

I spent ages researching each appliance, reading reviews, researching prices and then using price match to get most of them from the same supplier .

I also had to watch as we are in a flat and some companies will only delieve to the kerbside ie out in the street .

This research got my appliance budget down from just over £2k to 1100 so well worth it ( also better quality ).

But I had the time and and knowledge to manage the project myself, which saves a lot of money . And I wanted to chose my own things from a range of suppliers, not just from one company .

I accept that not everyone can be bothered with this. It’s a lot of work and probably takes longer .

I agree the best thing is to get a joiner booked first, as the best ones will be booked up months ahead. Usually they have their own plumber, electrician and tiler that they like to use.

plus Ikea have no service void for pipes so you need to leave 5cm behind and buy a deeper worktop

Not true, services can go underneath the units.

In my last kitchen, the service void was used more by mice than by pipes

I hear you. I've had one kitchen fitted previously (Wickes), was lovely in the end but a disaster in the planning. Included them sending us completely the wrong kitchen, their fault, but making us purchase the right sized one before refunding & taking back the wrong one. We started looking this time last year. IKEA, not interested, wouldn't come out to look. WREN, lies repeatedly about prices, very shabby smoke & mirrors treatment. I understand this isn't uncommon with them. B&Q, chose kitchen, paid chunky deposit, 5 home visits & a change of surveyor later and they said they could do it in bits and pieces over a few months. NO!!!! So fed up with it.

Don’t use wren, they left us 6 weeks Without a kitchen, not even a sink. Their “designer” got measurements wrong ordered wrong stiff for wrong date etc etc. The actual quality of units is fine but the company is a shambles.

I would find an independant kitchen fitter who has trade accounts with the likes of howdens, wren and others and get a few options.

Also get appliances separate like others suggest, a lot of companies offer employee benefits such as points or cash back for curry’s etc so ask around your friends to see if anyone can get those for you. Too late now but January sales good time to buy

@WH1SPERS this is exactly how we've done it. I got quote for the similar kitchen from I think wren (?) and it was 2k more. 2k is a lot. Wemanaged under 2.5k total, but we saved on their installation since we had tradesman here already.

Thanks for the diy kitchens info.
Hmm, only 240 miles to the showroom - weekend trip perhaps?

Not true, services can go underneath the units

This is true in general but

1. It didn’t work for us as we had gas pipes runing down from a boiler

1. We have a moderately wide galley kitchen and I wanted the extra

10cm deep worktops

1. British trades people are not used to the Ikea units and you MUST make sure all trades understand this before they do the first fix.

I must have been lucky with wren we just completed our kitchen before Christmas. No issues at all but I did have my own fitter.