Kitchen advice please

[SunAtLast]

Building an extension and started looking at kitchens. Our budget is limited so was thinking of going for an IKEA kitchen. However, our builder has suggested we look at howdens.

Just glanced at website and they offer full design service which our local ikea do not. Like the look too of how dens gloss integrated handles design. Anyone used them?

Afaik, only trade customers can buy Howdens kitchens which means they are very popular with some builders who will then charge you extra for them in the final account. If you builder is offering to buy it on your behalf and give you the full discount, then I know people who are huge fans of Howdens. I've used Ikea a lot and think that the quality is very good at the price (they have a design tool on the ikea website that allows you to figure out the layout at home).

Think you are right about trade only. When I rang them they asked for our builders account. There are no prices on the website, how do they compare with ikea?

I was keen on ikea but online tool not working on my iPad and you have to go I store to design. Which would be doable if I had childcare...

Borrow someone's laptop that has flash player and design it yourself.

The only way you can compare Howden's prices is by having them give a quote to your builder - I just find the whole thing needlessly cloak and dagger which is why I have always used Ikea.

Sounds like a good plan.

Glad they are comparable quality. I think I will do an ikea one on work laptop, get a price, then I will get builder on the case with howdens and compare. Thanks.

A friend of mine replaced his kitchen with a Howdens one and to be honest the design was rubbish. They replaced it like for like but they do not do corner cupboards (i.e. where the door is at a 45 degree angle) so they added another little cupboard to do an L: the end result is that there is some space that is unusable as you cannot reach it. Any half-decent designer would have highlighted that point and not added the extra cupboard.

The guy who did the design was young and nice enough but obviously had no experience of designing a functional kitchen.

Lol @ cloak and dagger

My sister has had an IKEA kitchen installed and they did a good job. She did spend hours on the design though, and hours in the shop too...

That's interesting about the design rattitude.
What was the quality and value for money like?

I put Howdens units in my utility room - they have been in for about 8 years and are still looking good.

I have heard good things about the quality of ikea, just wondering how howdens compare

The quality of the Howdens one is pretty good. I think it cost my friend £2500. That included an oven and hob and the appliance that sucks the fumes (the name escapes me!). It is not a massive kitchen, but not too small either.

Re. my sister, the IKEA fitter did a really good job. The quality seems pretty good too. Apparently, there is not that much choice re. worktops though. However, they seem to have a lot of options for innovative fittings, which I am not convinced are available from Howdens.

Check out the Ikea page for your local Ikea store. Each Ikea store runs itself slightly differently and has different offers on.

I live halfway between two stores, one of which was offering 2 hours free childcare in its creche if you booked in for one of its kitchen design slots. There is also an offer on at one of the stores for 20% off all ovens during September so we went there and got £70 off our cooker and then went to the other one to finally buy the rest of the kitchen.

I went to Ikea with my measurements for them to do an initial design during a 2 hour prebooked slot and then, because our kitchen was still being built, tweaked the design at home to suit my needs and the ever changing dimensions of the kitchen. I really like that you have the flexibility to do that at home. I took three trips into Ikea, on each occasion using the help of the incredibly friendly and useful staff (the last two times just on a drop in basis, rather than pre-booked), to finalise the design and buy it and I can honestly say the whole process was pretty enjoyable and pain free - the promise of icecream kept DD very happy throughout.

I also went to Howdens (on a Monday morning). They took my kitchen measurements and we had a discussion about what I wanted where but it took them until Friday afternoon to e-mail me with any pictures. I only had that one week off work to sort stuff out so they missed their chance there.

I didn't like that there is no breakdown of prices with Howdens, they will just give you an overall price. With Ikea, I liked that I could see that if I changed from unit with larder interior to one with just shelves, for example, it would save me, say, £63.

I just loved playing on the Ikea planner - let me come and design your kitchen for you - I'm sad that I've finally bought mine and have no excuse to play anymore!

Thanks soozleq. Good advice there about shopping around. I'm in London so Branches are a gridlocked hour or more from each other. Good point about the crèche is it over 3 s only ( have a 5 and 2 yo).

I must get hold of a laptop so I can have a play around on the design programme.

£2500 is a very good price rattitude. Especially with a couple of appliances. Thats the other thing I was wondering how their own brand Appliances compare although I notice howdens have range master cookers too.

I'm going to read the big kitchens thread on here for more top tips I think.

My sister paid 1500 euros for the IKEA cabinets and appliances and another 1300 euros for the fitting. I suspect the fitting costs would be cheaper in the UK.

Her kitchen is not that big, just a mini L (2.5m x 2.5m or so). The appliances she got were oven, hob and extractor hood too.

Make sure you get these things that slow down the closing of doors and drawers too!

Our builders can do the fitting.

Definitely need the soft close door option with my lot!

I asked someone from Howdens to come and design my kitchen, she didn't listen to what I said and I hated the desgin she made. We ended up just changing the doors and floor (was an insurance job). The doors are good quality but the floor is already damaged and I have to been chasing them up for weeks to resolve it.

The Ikea drawers automatically come with soft close fittings and you can buy the damper hinges for the cupboards separately. You only need one damper hinge per door and they come in packs of two at a cost of £4 per pack - these are the things the Ikea staff were brilliant at explaining and sorting out when it came to finally ordering the kitchen. When I was in Howdens, they asked if I wanted soft close fittings - I asked how much it would cost and they said about £30 per unit. Ha ha.

The installation costs, I think, are far too high. You can build the flat pack cupboards yourself at no cost and the cost of then getting someone in to fit to the walls and do the worksurfaces will be far less than the Ikea cost. For our kitchen, costing £4kish (all appliances and cupboards etc but not worksurfaces), they were wanting to charge about £2,800 for installation. We're doing it ourselves with a bit of help from a mate who fits kitchens and then getting a proper joiner in to do the wooden worksurfaces (which we are getting from a local timber merchants because they had a wider range, it's cheaper and the lead time is 2 days max, instead of Ikea's 4-6 weeks for bespoke shape).

Sorry, I'm not sure of the age range of the Ikea creche facility. DD's 1 and I just let her sit in the back of a trolley with loads of little pencils and paper and she was happy as larry.