budget kitchen

[poppy20]

Hi

I would be very grateful for some advice on ikea or wickes kitchens.

Have jsut moved in to a new house and very grateful for ir but we need a new kitchen quickly. Don't want to pay too much but something that is reasonable quality and looks nice...thank you so much

Wickes takeaway kitchens are worth looking at and if you team them up with a decent worktop they will look even better.

I have Wickes Heritage Grey and love it. We got it from Benchmarx (check out your nearest one) and it was the same thing (they supply Wickes) but much cheaper. Benchmarx also supply the cabinets ready made, which saves extra money on installation. We didn't have the Benchmarx people to install it, though and I don't know how much they charge. You'd probably be better off getting some local person to do it.

As I understand it the Benchmarx ones are also in stock whereas Wickes Heritage Grey you have to order in advance? However, Benchmarx is trade only but I believe hobnob or someone else here said they were pretty leniant about this???

Can you get prices for them? I've looked on their website but can't find any and our closest one is a long way away so I don't want to waste time if they're too expensive as our builder would take a whole day just to collect it.

Sparky - Yes, the 'trade only' thing seems to have been lifted, at least at the Reading branch where I got mine.

Rebl - you could phone them for prices. To give you an idea, Wickes were having a 'half-price plus an extra 15% off' offer and Benchmarx was significantly cheaper even than that. If you have a Wickes nearby you could get them to do a design, then get Benchmarx to price up the same units. You wouldn't necessarily have to go there in the flesh.

Ooo, might well do that then hobnob. Will call Wickes and get a kitchen design slot.

Have had ikea kitchen and have moved and chosen exactly the same kitchen because we loved it! If it makes any difference to you we have quite a big kitchen area and I have ordered 12 metres worth of units with all the extra's on the inside and both base and wall units which was very reasonable (think under £2000 - bearing in mind one of the pull out units that I wanted from homebase was £600 in the sale and I have 2 ikea ones in this kitchen!). Putting a more expensive top on can make a world of difference but again they do a nice wooden top that isn't expensive either. Don't know much about wickes but have heard about Benchmarxs too and heard they are good. Also ordered ikea kitchen on a friday which arrived by wednesday (not sure it would always happen but there we go!) Got a local carpenter to put it in too rather than ikea one as wanted it sooner rather than later. (My kitchen was hanging off the wall, doors wouldn't open etc so it was quite urgent!!!)

If you want to have a granite work top I suggest looking at local suppliers rather than online - got an online quote for more than double that of a local supplier.

Another vote for Ikea. Really pleased with ours and great customer service. Like Doodleydoo the extras are a big plus as they price for a unit with the carousel or whatever so you can see the total price immediately rather than with other suppliers who just have a price for the unit and then you have to find out how much the rest is going to cost you which always comes as a bit of a shock. We had Ikea fit it too as you could pick and choose which bits you wanted them to do and it wasn't any more than getting someone local to do it.

Would definitely go back to them again.

I havwe Wickes and pleased with mine.

I've had three Ikea kitchens and love them! They look really expensive if as everyone else says put a decent top on. You can customise them at Ikea I had a lovely grey with an oak trim and everyone admired it. The one thing about Ikea are the inserts they really make a kitchen work well and waste no space.

we had ikea in our last house and i was very pleased.

Thank you all so much for your advice...probably go with Ikea as it's a bit cheaper.

Was fitting ok? Probably go with an independent fitter as seems cheaper but I have heard Ikeas kitchens are a bit more fiddly to fit! Thanks

Key is straight walls, and a good chippy! But the inserts are fab!

Let me put it this way - there is no way I would ever buy an expensive kitchen now, a friend bought a john lewis one that cost £20K (shock] she came around to my last house where I had a budget of 5k for everything (incidentally was trying to add value and estate agent told me I was wrong ) work top, floor, wall, building, fitting, all fixtures, cooker, etc - imagine starting again!

Well I did it with granite work tops and all the trimmings - range cooker etc (like to think clever buying on internet )

Any way point was she spent 20K on the units, and said to me "I know where you got your kitchen from as we had it too" she actually cried when I told her...........felt pretty bad and incredibly smug all rolled into one

Her next house unsurprisingly has an ikea kitchen!

My breakdown for the kitchen was as follows:

£1,200 for Ikea units
£1,200 for granite work top
£600 for Range cooker
£500 for American Fridge Freezer
The rest was on electrics, labour, ceiling lights, under counter lights, tiles, flooring, some walls being put up, some w alls being chipped out to get fridge in.

And it came in just under 5K and we got some money back for not using everything from Ikea.

It also added at least 3x more its value onto the price of the property as had estate agent round post the work..........

And will admit that it wasn't a small kitchen at all so depending on size it could be reasonably priced - also you get to play with their planner on line which is quite fun and gives you an idea of how much you are going to spend!

Thanks for the advice....that's brilliant to get all that kitchen for £5000. Thanks for the ideas

Can't give advice on where to get units, we nicked my mil's old kitchen! Just stuck some cheap b&q worktops on top. We were very lucky, i know!

But i think a good plan is to get basics of things like sinks, then tart it up a bit with more expensive taps etc iyswim? Ebay is very good for posh taps, by the way

Thanks Poppy - it was a challenge as we found some problems with a floor joist which meant we spent more on labour and flooring than we were expecting so only just came in under budget without those issues it would have been less.

Its not something that we all do all the time but have done it twice in 5 years due to redoing our old house to sell and now because we moved to a home where the kitchen was lethal and ugly which wasn't a great combo!

Our friend of a friend electricians/handymen have recommended Howden's, who I'd never heard off but some googling throws up some useful threads from moneysavingsupermarket or whatever it's called which suggests they're cheaper and much better quality than flat-packed. Might be worth a look?

Howdens are good if you get the trade discount through your builder BUT after speaking to 2 kitchen fitters they have said Wickes and Benchmarx are better, Howdens can be quite expensive to start off with and bear in mind that your builder if he uses them a lot will get a 70% discount which realistically would be nice if they passed it on but they don't always do that. But they are also flat packed they aren't premade unless the vvv expensive range.

watching with interest as need to get a (very tiny) kitchen done on a budget in the next month or so. Having difficulty getting any kitchen suppliers/fitters interested in the job so might have to buy some units and try to get fitted by a local carpenter/handyman.

Doodley from looking at the brochure, most of their stuff is premade - our electricians said that this is why they are better, as they're much sturdier. They only sell to trade so you can only buy through a fitter and yes apparently the list price is astronomical but you should actually get them much cheaper.

Dita just going on the Howdens kitchens friends have had put in as they were def flat packed, but as I said different ranges etc, but they are astronomical (one friend said their original kitchen unit cost for 5 units was £30k but they got a 70% trade discount costing them £9k - which I did think was quite pricey) although they do throw in a good service of planning and offering you all the appliances in one place too - if you spend enough they also throw in freebie appliances (friend got a wine chiller worth about £200). But you can't go and look at them (only the brochure) but I think they recommend houses they have done. I think they would place themselves somewhere between bespoke and Wickes on a par with Magnet but wouldn't see themselves at the cheaper end of the market. Worth getting a quote from though.

I've been round at a friends house this week with an Ikea kitchen and she wouldn't recommend it at all. All the laminate/vinyl stuff that is put on the doors is coming off.

I've just bought a 2nd hand freestanding kitchen with granite worktops and solid wood cabinets on ebay of £210 . Rather chuffed with that purchase, even with the van hire its only £300.

Good buy there! That is so unfortunate for you friend and her kitchen, have to say having had one previously and now we have one we haven't had that problem at all, but the doors are solid on the one that we have so I guess it all depends on which one you choose. She should take the doors back - see what they say!

WE've had an Ikea kitchen for 5 years and it's not showing any signs of wear and tear.

I know a few people who've installed more expensive kitchens from Homebase, Howdens etc but tbh I can't see any difference and I'd rather have a few grand in my pocket. We put a solid oak worktop on and it looks great.

Doodley to be fair, almost all my information is from this thread here so I may be completely wrong