Howdens vs wren or someone else?

[Janel85]

Looking to get our kitchen done, budget of £20k absolute max. Trying to decide what is going to be more value for money out of wren and howdens, used wren ages ago when budget was £3k and wasn’t overly impressed with service but I hear they are much better now days. Not had any experience of howdens whatsoever.

Not sure who does better quality units, open to other companies, but I need someone to do the design for us, it will be fitted by our own carpenter. I absolutely love tom Howley kitchens but we can’t stretch to it, really want a framed shaker style kitchen as close to that look as poss.

Any experiences of wren or howdens?

My parents have used Howdens a few times in the past and love the quality. The only thing is that your carpenter will have to purchase the units, you can’t buy them yourself. For this reason, finance isn’t an option either.

Our Howdens kitchen is nearly 14 years old and still immaculate, says it all!

I have just bought a timber framed kitchen from benchmarx. They beat the howdens quote easily.

I've used howdens and wasn't overly impressed. One of my cupboards was without a front for 8 weeks because it was the only 400mm wide one in the design and the 400mm wide door was 6mm shorter than all the other doors. It was really noticeable but they couldn't do a simple swap because all the stock in the warehouse was the same and they had to manufacture a new batch which took ages.

If you do go with Howdens be aware if you don't plan on buying their (shoddy Lamona) own-brand appliances - the casing they sell for an integrated eye-level microwave is just a smidgen too small for most main-brand microwaves on the market. Our carpenter had to do some clever adaptation.

Still I have heard terrible things about Wren so it may be that Howden's is your best bet despite this.

We had a wren shaker style kitchen fitted in Feb. Absolutely love it and our kitchen fitter was really annoyed as he wanted to find something to whinge about and couldn't. He said it was a dream to put together and they thought of everything.

Looks lovely and is really good quality and they will actually match the Howdens price (although ours was lower in the first place and the wren kitchen had far more extras).

Literally couldn't fault it/them but we were told by our kitchen fitter that they're on a mission at the moment to improve their reputation - so I know they had lots of problems in the past.

Mum has just had a Howdens kitchen and it really does look smart and made the absolute best of a really tiny space!

DIY Kitchens - take a look at their website and see all the threads in Property/DIY.

I always buy Howdens kitchens and have never had any issues. DIY kitchens were more expensive when I got a quote from them for the same units.

How many kitchens have you had?!

I renovate house so probably 10 or so over the years. All in different houses 😀

Like @EmmaC78 we've done up quite a number of places now and Howdens are also our preference. If you can hit the July sales it makes a big difference to price and also note that depending on your fitter you may end up paying little to no mark up or a very high one (which is how some people find them so much pricier than others!).
I never get the handles from there though, and definitely definitely never appliances - you can buy more stylishly, more cheaply and at higher quality for yourself online!

If you know a good carpenter I've had friends who've done well with IKEA units and custom made doors too.

Did those of you buying from Howdens use your own trade accounts to buy from them? For most householders buying a kitchen the extent to which the trade discount is passed on depends on the builder they are using.

@wowfudge we used a builder, but we've known him a long time and he passes it on to us at cost -agree, this is one of the many reasons why picking a decent builder/fitter is key to the whole process!

No I don't have my own trade account. It was done through a builder but I do give them a lot of work so get a decent proportion of the discount.

Our Howdens kitchen is 10 years old. Cats, teenagers, etc have not dented it. Still looks really good. BUT do not get their appliances, they are dreadful. Every single one had to be replaced within 18 months, they didn’t give a shit. We had given away our old ones that had lasted years, and they were still going strong when our new ones failed, so wasn’t down to us being heavy handed.

I also didn’t use their handles, I wanted to customise it a bit. We went to a specialist shop which just sells handles and locks! probably added about £50 onto the cost but was well worth it.

As my builder says, its not the cost of the kitchen, its all in the fitting. I have a b and q kitchen in this house and it looks like a toddler built it, whereas the same kitchen in my old house looked immaculate and vastly more expensive. (B and q fitters didnt fit that one!) I do have a howdens utility though and im impressed with that......but then my builder fitted it and hes bloody good. 😁

We used Wren for our kitchen 2 years ago. We went premium with oak tops, Belfast sink, solid wood doors etc and were impressed with the price for a 16unit kitchen which came in at £6000 including integrated Bosch dishwasher. We purchased the 6 ring range elsewhere and paid our own carpenter to fit for £1k. In the end we had a fab kitchen for £8k that we budgeted £12k for. All the Wren goods were spot on. I believe getting your own carpenter to fit like we did is the way to go. They were also cheaper than Howdens.

We have just about to have a Howdens fairford kitchen fitted...I love that range as it comes in so many colours (including every shade of grey :) ). Can’t vouch for the kitchen yet, but we have the same range units just fitted in the bathroom in a lighter colour and I am really pleased with them. For a budget of £20k, you should be able to get Howdens kitchen + worktop + any applicances you need (our new kitchen is quite big and we are buying all appliances elsewhere to get better ones, and a quartz worktop and we will definitely still be under that...so if your quote is not doing, then haggle :) )...I also agree go elsewhere for apppliances...we also went elsewhere for our worktop, (went to somewhere they had more choice) but for wood or laminate I would have probably gone with a howdens as they have nice ones...... I have seen several lovely Howdens kitchens that friends have and also a couple of really nice DIY kitchen ones..... if my budget was bigger I would have been tempted to get a John Lewis one but I reckon they are double Howdens....

who's best for kitchens

We desperately need a new kitchen but I am torn between Kitchen Depot, Wren and Howden.

any advice would be great

Janel85- can I ask who you picked in the end for your kitchen

Try the Property/DIY thread, there are lots of kitchen discussions on there. This one is over 2 years old so the OP is unlikely to looking at it still!

thanks Zinnia

I found this article online might help, medium.com/@am51rmm/wickes-howdens-wren-and-tkc-kitchens-how-do-they-compare-4c0c22abf57

My dad is a joiner and fits a lot of kitchens, he prefers Howdens. Just an idea have you priced up having a kitchen handmade? We had ours done and it came in just slightly more and its soild and can be repainted.