Kitchen

[DIYmumerella]

We are on a very tight budget and need a new kitchen.

I've been quoted 4k for a kitchen from Howdens and 2k for something very similar from Ikea.

It's the Howdens Glendevon glossy white units with long handles and a wood worktop.

Is this a bargain or rip off?

Any tips for how to save money.

My builder only wants to fit a Howdens kitchen. Hurrumph.

Your builder will only want to fit a Howden's kitchen because, 1) the carcasses are already built up, and 2) he'll be paying around £750-£1250 for the materials, i.e. very little work for him and a big fat profit.

FWIW, Howdens are better quality than Ikea, but unless you plan on stuffing the cupboards with bricks or swinging on the doors etc. if you need a cheap kitchen then Ikea, or somewhere like homebase etc. is probably your best bet.

Also, look out for the handy man ads in the newspaper, usually, they work out a lot cheaper then a specified kitchen fitter.

I think Ikea kitchens are great - and agree with NJ that lots of builders are keen on Howdens because they get them at cost and make a huge amount of money on them. Ikea also do interest free credit so you can pay off the kitchen at no extra cost over a year if that helps your budget.

Ikea kitchens aren't popular with all kitchen fitters because they don't have a service void at the back. That means pipework and cable routing is more difficult.

And as others have said, the fitter will get the kitchen from Howdens at a big discount so will make a stack of cash on the kitchen as well as being paid for fitting it.

I have this exact kitchen and it's great. My grandad is a kitchen fitter and got a huge trade discount which he passed onto my landlord. He installed it all by himself in one weekend. My old kitchen was a wreck and tbh I nearly had a breakdown when I saw the state of the walls. But the great thing with Howdens is that the units come ready built, so you really will save on labour costs. It'll be a short sharp shock as I totaly underestimated the mess and work involved, but once it's done it's so worth it.

We are about to have a Howdens Glendavon white gloss kitchen with long silver handles and a (laminate) wood worktop (Howdens Wild Walnut) fitted ! All the units and worktop have been delivered into our garage awaiting fitting and I have to say I am very pleased with the look of the worktop, even though it's laminate - even better than the small sample we looked at in the Howdens showroom.

And it was £4k altogether. We got quotes also from Wickes (almost exactly the same price as Howdens) and Magnet (several thousand more for what looked like the same stuff), so I don't think the prices you give are a rip off (our kitchen is about 3m by 3m btw). We decided not to go for Ikea as we want this kitchen to last until the next ice age as I wasn't convinced Ikea would be good enough. But if you search Ikea / Howdens on threads here there are plenty of satisfied customers of both. Have you been to actually see both kinds of kitchen in the showrooms?