Kitchen renovation advice?

[angela71]

So we are thinking of doing up the kitchen. We went to John Lewis and Magnets and they quoted us £5k for MDF, and £11k for solid wood cabinet options. Obviously there is the installation costs too.

Should we be looking anywhere else?anyone with good experiences with things to do and things not to do?

many thanks!

So I did some more digging around on mumsnet and google, it looks like other than the high street vendors, there's these 2 sites:

solidwoodkitchencabinets
handmadekitchens-direct

They both seem cheaper, but does anyone have experience with them?

Have you looked at Howdens?

You can try diy-kitchens or unitsonline.co.uk

Ikea kitchens are surprisingly good quality and they will build and install if you want

Howdens are not solid wood. Doors are partially wood. I'm looking at the moment and like a local independent joiners have you considered that?

Alright I've done countless hours of more research.

We have decided to go with diy-kitchens. They provide solid wood cabinets at over half the cost of just say Magnet. Also we subscribed to which.co.uk, and they rated diy-kitchens above everyone else in the market.

Some of the money we would be saving, would be put towards hiring a higher quality contractor, so that way they can take care of everything and if anything goes wrong - I know they will make it right.

So the total for our kitchen on DIY-kitchens is £6k (including VAT), it includes cabinets and granite worktops. The same quote from Magnet is £12k, and John Lewis is £13k. The difference is big enough that I am starting to care, hahaha.

Hope this helps anyone looking. the Which.co.uk review really convinced me.

We've gone for DIY Kitchen's Norton. It's solid wooden doors, but I don't think that they do solid wood carcasses, but then neither do Magnet! Do you need it straight away? If not I suspect they will probably have an Easier sale which will save you 10% on cabinets x

Ps search #diykitchens in Instagram. There's some great examples on there x

Oh thanks I'm off to have a look. Howdens for ours was £6 plus the fitters. Independent is completely solid wood, four coats of paint including at least one in situ and they provide all tradesmen and price includes everything. Trouble is they are double for first plan and more for final of 3. Which we like best of course. However I would be cross if I had Howdens then found final price was same as the kitchen I want. Decisions, decisions!
I haven't looked at DIY so will now thanks.

£6 I wish! 😁 £6 k ha, ha! 😄