KITCHEN BESPOKE OR DIY KITCHENS/WREN/HMKOC

[charlotte300]

Hi, we are in the process of kitchen planning and we have discussed a design plan with Wren.

Post meeting at home with Wren I began to look at reviews of Wren and most were negative. And I noticed HMKOC being mentioned and I would really appreciate some feedback regarding your experiences please. thank you

We bought ours from Wren, and honestly can't fault the service we received. The kitchen did have a couple of issues on delivery but new parts were delivered no questions asked really. Yes, it's not the best quality in comparison with other handmade kitchens, but it suited our budget and we got the kitchen we wanted.

I never considered it before we bought, unfortunately, but have you thought about a pre-loved or ex-display kitchen? You might find a design that sits on a Wren budget but is much more bespoke. Look at Rehome to get an idea.

We got ours from DIY Kitchens. Excellent quality units which are very good value for money. We went for bespoke colours, solid wood. We were able to choose to have some units delivered dry assembled (unglued), to allow our fitter to adapt them around wall nibs. All units are delivered fully assembled too. Can't fault DIYK.

At our previous house we went with HMKOC which we were delighted with as for the quality the price was considerably less than we'd expected.

It came in at less than 10k for a reasonably large kitchen, although OH built the island combining HMKOC cabinets with his own shelving/framing and we incorporated a vast vintage larder (£385 eBay) into the kitchen layout too.

This time we have a much smaller space to deal with. After moving the kitchen to the old living room we opted to repurpose some of the 1960s solid wood drawer units etc from the kitchen that we inherited when we bought the house.

In addition we found some solid oak, painted, in-frame cabinets - including two sets of pan drawers - on eBay that set us back a total of around £360 including hiring a van to collect. I've been busy painting them a new colour and imo they look great.

I'd definitely recommend looking for preloved/ex-display bargains.

I’m getting a Wren Kitchen & so far service has been excellent & v good price. Obviously can’t comment on quality yet

I can highly recommend Masterclass Kitchens x

My son used Wren, they got a pretty good discount and reduced price appliances I think and most of it was OK, though his quartz worktops were more expensive than expected. The planners were not great, they ended up with the bin on the opposite side of the kitchen to the dishwasher for example, and some of the end panels and filler panels were not right. Also they have a deep American style fridge which does not fit far enough into the furniture (which seems only to be available in standard depths). He didn't use their fitters as they seemed expensive and he had good tradesmen in the house doing other work.

My neighbour also used them and for both kitchens not everything was delivered at once which was frustrating as it extended the fitting period.

It's probably worth mentioning that they got quotes for identical kitchens from two different Wren showrooms which were at different prices, so if you want to go with them it might be worth going to another showroom for a second quote,

When you look at the overall price including the worktops and appliances I think that you might find that you could go to a more upmarket company that can provide a better product for really not much more money. Many companies seem to have special offers, and you might be better off buying appliances at a discount elsewhere unless there is a really good deal from the kitchen company.

I wouldn't touch Wren with someone else's barge pole.

IMO You can't do better than DIY kitchens for the quality @ the price.

if you have the money & desire to go for handmade a local cabinet maker is your best bet.

Who are HMKOK

@Worriedparents Handmade Kitchens of Christchurch 😉

No wonder I hadn’t heard of them, we are a long long way from Christchurch

The DIY kitchen showroom is superb

Surely that should be HMKOC?

I'm going for DIY kitchens - seen a bunch in situ from other friends and they looked great, showroom was good, choices are good and it's very decent value.

I've heard negative reviews of Wren as well, but no direct experience. I didn't like their showrooms/ranges nearly as much though.

My friend has had no end of problems with Wren - sending the wrong items, wrong colour & sizes, bashed up items. Took an extra 3 months to finally get all the correct parts and they refuse to collect the wrong/faulty pieces. The bad reviews are there for a reason.

So were we when we purchased @Worriedreparents - our last house was in Wales 😎 But they have a fairly big online presence so we were very aware of them (and we'd visited the showroom in 2014 when we lived on the Wilts/Dorset border).

@gilletwoes yep, they are 'Handmade Kitchens of Christchurch', but everyone on here seems to refer to them as HMKOC 😆

For people who used HKOC where did you go to get a kitchen plan? I went to one of the popular kitchen companies who charge £2k for their plans. I appreciate the time and investment needed to make the plans but it’s quite a lot of money

We designed our own, but OH has design experience which helped!

Very expensive for plans - ikea do it for free

Hmkoc 100%.
Design appointment online was really helpful. Worked out similar price to diykitchens in the end by careful choice of units.
Was a pita to paint but i LOVE it.
Like devol without having to sell a kidney.
They have a showroom on the m25 somewhere as well as christchurch and deliver nationwide.