Small kitchen Wren v B&Q v Ikea

[Bluededoobeedoo]

Hi

Any advice welcome.

Looking to get a new kitchen fitted. Understanding prices is proving to be so difficult. Kitchen is small 3m x 2.5m. Ikea appears to be cheapest and Wren most expensive and B&Q in the middle, but friends say Wren should be cheapest.

Anyone any direct experience and what did you choose in the end?

I've no personal experience of wren but have seen enough, just here, to say they won't be the cheapest but probably would be the biggest headache.

Ah. Thanks. Good to know.

Not a clue why I'm posting in two names? New here.

Correct name back.

I have heard terrible things about Wren, both in RL and on here. I was totally put off using them.

B&Q want the full amount upfront, which put me off, as I think that aftercare / customer service tends to be a lot better when you can withhold the cash until you are satisfied with the end result.

I have actually heard wonderful things about ikea kitchens recently. Of course, they aren't the highest spec, but are apparently decent quality for the price.

How about Wickes? Or a local independent might be worth considering?

I love Ikea but one thing to remember is there's no service void in the cabinets – the space at the back for plumbing, electrics, gas pipes etc.

It's not actually a problem – on the Ikea planner it'll plan your units flush back against the wall & try to sell you its metal railing thing that you fit them on; but your fitter will actually just set them forward from the wall 5-6cm and secure them to the floor instead.

But this does mean you'll need to buy worktops from elsewhere as the cheap Ikea ones won't be deep enough, and if you're doing a galley, you'll lose an extra 10cm or walking space. But sounds like you have enough room!

Thank you for the replies. So grateful. Think Wrens are out now. Such good stuff about Ikea and the gap thing.

I’ve just had a Wren kitchen installed by my own fitters. Wrens fitters have a poor reputation not so much the kitchens themselves.

We've had a new Ikea kitchen fitted in the last 18 months. I love it now but their fitters are appalling. They came back maybe four times and the entire job ended up taking months rather than their estimated week. They're really non-communicative even onsite and we've had a number of issues with their work (not the units). I'd really recommend using your own fitter.

I've got a similar size kitchen to you @Bluededoobeedoo

I had an Ikea kitchen installed 18months ago (my DP is a chippy so he fitted it, vv lucky me)

I BLOODY LOVE it!

He on the other hand didn't love fitting it!! Yes there is no void at the back of cabinets, and he ended up having to cut off the backs down one side to make them fit.... But an experienced kitchen fitter should know what they are doing. If you like I can ask him later what he had to do?

(Although I wish at the time we'd used one of their planners to help design it 🙄) It would have been worth paying the fee, which if you purchase the kitchen from them is knocked off the price (I think it was only like £50 or something?) And it had nothing to do with them fitting it.

Also (at the time) they had interest free credit over 3years....

I just love ikea, and I love my kitchen!

Just mid Ikea fitting. Used their home plan service which was excellent and came up with ideas we'd never have thought about. We spoke to our planner about the service voids and elected to get a custom worktop to solve this issue although our fitter still had a bit of cabinet slicing to do.

Their problem solving afterwards is amazing - phone up and they send any missing bits or swap things out with no issue.

I know my friend got a B&Q kitchen and has nothing but issues with the quality, but that was about 2 years ago.