Kitchen change | Howdens, Wren, Wickes or something else

[coldiris]

Hi everyone,

Looking for a bit of advice and experience sharing on kitchen change. We have an old kitchen that we inherited from the previous owners. My neighbours tell me it was last changed a while before 2004, so it is over 20 years old now!

Has anyone had any experiences with Howdens, Wren or Wickes? Or perhaps would recommend someone else? I have so far been down to my local Howdens store and the local Wickes store. To be honest, I can't see any significant differences in quality although I remember some of colleagues telling me that Howdens were really amazing.

Do these suppliers significantly differ on price and quality? And is it very expensive to fit a typical kitchen these days? I appreciate it does depend on the size and the type you choose but I would still like to be able to get a sense of it as the last time I myself changed a kitchen was in our previous house and this was a while ago!

If anyone could share their experiences with kitchen installations, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you to all in advance.

We just got a brand new kitchen in an extension and used Wren. They were great with the planning and the VR room was great to visualise it. Customer service was good. We used our own joiners and then bloody hell, the amount of damaged parts wren sent out to us was unreal! Like a pp we practically ended up with another kitchens worth of damaged doors. We got there in the end but it was stressful when the joiners came and then the doors were marked, scratched, dinted or wrong size and they couldn’t do it each time. The kitchen does look amazing now but I wouldn’t recommend wren

No, we went to a local company for the doors, as the cupboards were standard sizes.

Isn’t this DIY Kitchens?

Do not, I repeat do not use Wren. Absolutely awful customer service and shocking quality.

Our Howdens kitchen is about 18 years old and falling apart at the seams. Wouldn't touch Wren with a bargepole. We're about an hour from the DIY kitchens showroom so will definitely be giving them a look when we get round to changing it. It's going to be a proper rip everything out job as the floor is spongy in one corner after the dishwasher that came with the kitchen leaked 😬

I had a Wickes kitchen and they employ independent fitters, ours really was great and changed a lot of what they advised. It's probably the same for all of these companies to be honest. At least I was able to return what wasn't necessary and choose a better option. It's the fitter who is the best person for the job.

DIY Kitchens all the way. Real wood for less than sone hardboard shite from B and Q.
My fitters literally couldn't praise the units enough and they have fitted every brand out there.

Another vote for DIY Kitchens. Recommended by our builder, I was sceptical, but couldn’t be happier with the end result - great quality, brilliant customer service, really good value for money. We ordered worktops elsewhere though (had a local firm measure up and fit once the units were in place).

Thank you so much for all your responses, everyone! Very helpful and useful advice as I always find here! Sounds like I should probably avoid Wren.

I spent 2.5 hours at their store at the weekend. The sales person advised us not to go with Howdens because apparently they mainly sell their furniture through their fitters/builders and all warranty related dealings with them will also be through their fitters because apparently they don't sell to individuals. I don't know if it's true or it's just the usual sales talk. Will probably have to try and confirm that with Howdens.

I've never heard of DIY Kitchens until I came here but will definitely look into it now!

Thank you again for all your replies. They are all very helpful and useful! 😊

We have bought two kitchens in the last few years as moved house
used Howden’s first time and they were ok, mostly the (self-employed) joiner was excellent but that can vary. I recall them making a big cock up- put wrong handles on all the doors and ended up having to replace almost all of them. To be fair this was sorted at no hassle or cost to ourselves.

Last year though they were very inflexible when it came to the second kitchen- possibly because it wasn’t a “from scratch” job, we were making major updates to what was already there.

we ended up using an independent kitchen shop which used a range of different hardware and budgets- not sure where the eventual kitchen came from however this approach meant we got exactly what we wanted. And the kitchen designer was somewhat friendlier. Obviously independent shops vary a lot but they’ll all have access to a wider range of hardware.

Hijacking to ask if anyone has thoughts about IKEA kitchens? I used them in the past as they’re slightly taller and you get more usable space-the pipes etc have to be run underneath the units rather than behind, and got this reason some fitters don’t like them. It was ok, but the corner units always looked a bit crap. Still they’re coming out the cheapest for my preferred design. Would love to hear recent experiences.

We had a Wren kitchen fitted in 2017. Still looks as good as new. Solid, good quality units. I had to do a few tweaks and chase their fitters to get it right, though. Nothing wrong with the units, just needed a good fitter .

The only (and biggest) mistake we made was using their recommended installer.

By all means look at Wren. But order what you want, don't listen to any promises that the sales person makes and get your own fitter.

I bought my Wickes kitchen almost 15 years ago and it still looks like new. People who come into my house for the first time often say they love my kitchen. The units came already built. I used a fitter the man who planned the kitchen recommended to me. He advertised in Wickes on the notice board.

Yes that is correct about Howdens @coldiris

WE used Howden's, our very lovely experienced kitchen fitter hadn't fitted a Howden's before and went from being a little sniffy to a convert. Most of the units arrived pre assembled to there was less fitting time. They were brilliant about taking a couple of units back when we'd changed our mind and swapped out some other stuff for us too where we realised we needed something different.

It's good quality and looks great.

I live in Spain so my experience may not be typical but we used IKEA and their fitting service. They were marvelous all the way through. The fitting was so good, one bloke assembled the units whilst the other fitted them. They were so quick as they only did IKEA. They took all the rubbish away. One thing I did was to have big deep drawers rather than cupboards. Much easier to use.

We're literally taking delivery today of our DIY Kitchens units so I'm encouraged by the positive comments on here. We didn't even consider Wren's due to reviews of them. Our ndn is an interior designer and she chose DIY for her own (very lovely and much, much bigger than ours!) kitchen so I thought that was a pretty good recommendation 😀

Good luck to all kitchen renovators out there - we're doing it ourselves, so it's a slow process...DH currently channelling in the electrics. Good job we like DIY (lower case 😀).

For anyone interested, I’ve just put my design in to DIY kitchens and it has come out about 1k more expensive than IKEA (up on 4k-it’s a simple, base units only L-shape with appliances). If I wanted a traditional look DIY kitchens would still win because of the solid timber doors, but as I’m going for something more modern and it’s mdf vs mdf I’ll go with IKEA.

@Arabels diyk units are delivered fully assembled though.

Came here to recommend DIY kitchens as well. Got ours done in 2018. We had gone back and forth with them on few of the cabinets and they were very good to advise us and help us out. We also went to their showroom and our helps give you a clarity on what's avaiable..

Yeah, if you’re paying someone to fit them that should be taken in to account, but in this case it’ll be me and my dear old dad, so I’ll trade our time for the money!

In a nutshell. Wickes great for products and speaking to human beings who can help. Wren: heard horror stories. B and Q expensive but ok with returns, I do believe there is a little troll or violent hobbit that gets into the warehouse at night and smashes everything up, with focus on the corners unbeknownst to staff. Worktop express were fantastic. Kitchen cabinets from company called kitchen door workshop, they were very good. Heard good things about DIY kitchens. Can't offer advice on their fitters, used local tradesmen for things too specialist for me (worktop joining, gas safe stuff and electricals). I lean towards Wickes in general.

We went with howdens as recommended by our builder and are very happy with them. Had a good experience with the design side and the builder liaised with them for delivery etc.

one thing I would say is to haggle with them. We got magnet to do a very similar design which came out a couple of 1000 cheaper. We found a bit on Howdens website that said they would price match for an equivalent range and design from elsewhere so we're able to quote that and they honoured it. Sourced all our white goods ourselves though and had to try to match delivery times

We fitted a DIY kitchen at the end of last year and having nothing but praise for them. Much cheaper than the quotes we got from Wren and B&Q.

I know a lot of kitchen fitters say their quality is much better than Wren, B&Q etc and Which Magazine recommended them

We had a Wren kitchen installed in 2021 and happy with the decision. We chose the range that comes already assembled.
The customer service has always been amazing, we had an issue last year with the tap and they sent someone really quick to check it. I wouldn't choose the installer they sent, as he wasn't good with his time management but he did a good job.