To ask you if you've used wren or magnet kitchens

[sittingonacornflake]

Shamelessly posting here for traffic.

Desperate to get a new kitchen - needs to be on 0% credit so spotted wren and magnet both offer this. Has anyone used either and can provide any feedback please?

Alternatively if there are any other kitchen companies offering 0% credit I'd be very interested to hear!

wren have just messed up my order, ended up 2 months delayed. and still only half delivered right.

Oh crikey. That doesn't bode well. Sorry to hear that!

My builder BIL sometimes uses Magnet for units when they have offers and are cheaper than Howdens. He says the units are fine, can't vouch for their fitting as he fits them himself.

We've just had a Wren kitchen - bought from them but fitted by a local firm, not their fitters. Everything was delivered on the right day, and it's all really good quality, we are pleased with it.

They had to fit the delivery in around us, and we had to delay it time and again for several months due to lockdown etc, and their customer support was great.

We used Wren, and had our joiner fit the kitchen.
Pros - it comes ready built not flat pack so he had the whole kitchen fitted in 3 days and we have wonky walls (very old house) and he was able to cut the back of the units to fit them properly. They have been very sturdy and it still looks good after 7 years.

Cons - It comes ready built so it needs a big space to store it - we emptied our garage in readiness.
You also can't get spare pieces easily. Our joiner made a mistake fitting a drawer handle so tried to get another drawer front and couldn't. It doesn't matter to us as you can't see it unless you peer from a particular angle but being able to replace parts would be an advantage.

We have the corner units with metal shelves that are on a mechanism and they are awesome. I'd go for something similar whomever you decide to use.

My wren kitchen is great. We used our own fitter. Couldn’t knock the service from the start, it was excellent. Zoe in Orpington looked after us so well. We were overseas when I needed to start sorting it and they were the only people who would entertain the idea of doing it all by email/phone, with a visit to the showroom a good few months later to sign papers.

BIL and SIL had issues with their Wren kitchen. They chose a mix of flat fronted units with curved units at the corners. Turned out that the flat and curved doors were made in different factories and the colours didn't match despite ordering the same colour for each. Ended up in arbitration to get compensation. They also had issues with the quality of the work done by Wren's fitters.

We’ve had two magnet kitchens. Both the kitchens brilliant. One fitter was excellent and the other not, I think it’s luck of the draw as far as fitters go.

Love love love our Wren kitchen! No complaints at all. One unit delivered had the tiniest of marks on it. They swapped it the next day no hassle at all. But don't use their fitters as they charge you about double!

Magnet is fine. There's no such thing as 0% credit in my books, they'll just be hiding the cost of finance in the price of goods.

2 work colleagues had £20/25k kitchenS from wren, one had no issues then other no end of issues and she eventually had a partial refund. Luck if the draw I’m guessing

@MrsPnut

We used Wren, and had our joiner fit the kitchen. Pros - it comes ready built not flat pack so he had the whole kitchen fitted in 3 days and we have wonky walls (very old house) and he was able to cut the back of the units to fit them properly. They have been very sturdy and it still looks good after 7 years.

Cons - It comes ready built so it needs a big space to store it - we emptied our garage in readiness.
You also can't get spare pieces easily. Our joiner made a mistake fitting a drawer handle so tried to get another drawer front and couldn't. It doesn't matter to us as you can't see it unless you peer from a particular angle but being able to replace parts would be an advantage.

We have the corner units with metal shelves that are on a mechanism and they are awesome. I'd go for something similar whomever you decide to use.

Oooh I actually thought about storage - thanks for that!

Well a bit of a mixed bag of experiences but on the whole positive.

I'm now wondering what other things I haven't thought about with kitchen replacement....

Bought magnet higher end and our builder fitted them.

6 years on still happy with them.

Builders with accounts at Howdens/Magnet get between 30-70% discount dependent on what they have negotiated with the company.

@RandomMess

Builders with accounts at Howdens/Magnet get between 30-70% discount dependent on what they have negotiated with the company.

Interesting! Stupid question, how do you find out who has discounts?

You won't find out who has discounts unless they tell you. My kitchen fitter is very open about it, he'll show me the quote through from Howdens with his discount displayed (about 60% on most items), I pay Howdens direct on his account when it's ordered, and then he charges me an hourly rate for fitting them. But we've been working together on a few jobs now.

Only because the last 2 kitchens the builders we used let us have them at their cost price so we saw the paperwork!

It gives you an idea of how much mark up there is though!

Our last kitchen is 12 cabinets size and fitting was £1k...

Have had our Wren kitchen for over 6 years and still really happy with it. Everything still works well -drawers and doors all run as smoothly as that day they were fitted.

We had it fitted by them because they prove-matched a cheaper fitting service. Was impressed with all aspects of their service, from design to delivery to fitting.

I have a Magnet kitchen, which I got about 6 years ago. It was the top of the range one at the time.
My builder/joiner fitted it and ordered it (as people have said with trade discount). It has been really good and still is now. It cost £20,000 less than one originally wanted elsewhere and looks more or less identical.
So yes, I would recommend them although I have no experience of their fitting and that’s very important.

I have a wren kitchen, 4 years old, was installed by previous owners just before they sold. I wouldn't get one again. It doesn't seem very solid and there are annoying niggles, eg some of the drawer handles have quite sharp edges. We also have curved end units and the curved kickboard under them isn't quite the same curve so it won't stay clipped in. The doors under the sink the fronts have gone a bit wrinkly where they've got wet.
Also, you cannot buy individual bits as spares further down the road, even though the kitchen is still in stock, I've tried! They will only sell you a whole kitchen.

We moved into a house with a really new magnet kitchen and it was falling apart. It was one with surround bits on every door etc and they were all falling off and the corner cupboards centre pieces had already fallen off completely. Put us off buying one certainly

Still really happy with my magnet kitchen, I agree that you need to be happy with the fitter. The magnet designer made a mistake on the plan (I wanted sink under worktop, wasn’t clear) and the fitter fixed it without a quibble even though it was a pain for him.

Have a look at DIY kitchens - my parents have used them to do the utility room. They also used wren to do the kitchen

Magnet were good doing mine.

£20k for a kitchen! Wow. I might have to look at IKEA again