New kitchen advice please - Wren, Ikea, magnet, something else?

[noodleaddict]

Looking to redo our medium sized kitchen. Like the wren stuff and they've quoted around £10k (though that includes £3k for the quartz worktop ) but have just been put off by some of the terrible reviews on here!

To be honest we were looking at more like a budget of £7k but we want good quality too. Is this unrealistic?

Any advice on who to go with, best designers/fitters? Is it best to source your own fitters or use the kitchen company's? Source worktop separately perhaps? What about appliances?

Any advice would be gratefully received!

TIA

Ikeadyounot
Thank you so much. Share your love of obsessively tidy totally necessary extra fittings.
DIY have all the usual stuff. We didn't go for a pullout or carousel as have no corners or tight spots (boo) but got all the cutlery inserts and a robust waste sorter/disposal thingy.
I did go to IKEA for the plate organisers/stackers and pot lid holders for my deep drawers. I think it is required by law to do so. 😀
The shallow depth, multishelf tall units are not gimmicky but incredibly useful and not what one necessarily thinks about when planning. They house a mahoosive amount of crap in my utility room without encroaching much on the space.
But my bestest bestest discovery was a children's hanging wall display unit from Flying Tiger. If you like a tidy drawer, my goodness they are fun when laid flat. For a fiver each.

Oh wow, that drawer looks absolutely fabulous! Love the coloured backing. Was it really just a fiver? I love things like this, though I don't think I'd ever have your vision to 'see' the new use for it!!

I am basically spending my evenings at present in a World of Internal Drawers. You know the ones that sit concealed inside of another drawer, or cupboard, allowing you to use some of the space at the top that might otherwise get wasted? I LOVE THEM! I absolutely hate rooting around in cupboards trying to find things, so I am basically trying to ensure that as much as possible can go in a drawer and be pulled out! I am on a mission to plan a place for every last teaspoon I own. I am boring friends and family and any stranger that has the misfortune to sit by me on public transport with discussions of various cutlery organisers, in-drawer spice racks, and folding trivets, and worries about whether my colander is too deep to fit a medium drawer above it. I am now officially a Storage Bore.

I also found that Ikea do a special box for storing chopping boards in a drawer. And this made me stupidly happy.

We had a moment in Ikea at the weekend where DH pointed out that the corner carousel units wasted a lot of space. Which I have to admit is true. But his alternative idea was that I could keep stuff in boxes and remove them only the floor to get at the things deep in the dark corner. I gave a very stern look, dear reader.

whattodosithaminute

Voxtorp was my original choice. 😄Yep, the surface is stainless steel. I cook a lot and wanted a hygienic surface that could be used to death. It's magnificent . We split the surface of the island with an oak worktop from Worktop Express as I thought it would be too clinical if all steel. Plus the smaller working area stops me being too messy.

It's a Smeg linear hob PX140. It has slightly poor reviews but I am quite shallow and just wanted it. 😳 Works fine.

The ovens are two identical full singles side by side. The combo doesn't actually cost much more than a higher end double oven with fancier features, and makes sense for the house which is a large family home. I rarely rarely use the microwave, so it has a place in our utility room, alongside btw, our dishwasher. (I think that's a bit of a thing on Mumsnet but I was desperate to separate cooking from laundry and after 25 years of marriage I realised neither of us was ever going to load or empty the dishwasher in a timely fashion. So we built a room for the dishwasher, the pile of dirty plates and our laundry instead.) 😳
We designed it ourselves as we were building an extension so had a blank canvas. And had to tell the builders where services should be pronto. Two walls were glass, so the basic option of where to put the kitchen and what shape were actually pretty fixed. I won't lie, there was an obsessive amount of research and measuring, hair pulling and mind changing involved. Pinterest really was my friend. I never know how best to share my pinterest boards but try pin.it/E0lQ-0N for inspiration.
We also did the full IKEA consultation when we were still thinking Voxtorp, but we walked in with our own plan which they broadly validated and costed up so a useful exercise. Good luck with your planning!

Ikeadynot we might have to start up a storage porn thread rather than hijack noodles kitchen planning 😄 The kids inserts were definitely about that - inexpensive - I got 3. There's a little fox printed in one of the boxes but I can live with that, it's cute.

I am loving this thread!

And yes to Pinterest. My dh has turned off all notifications from me on the house boards we share, as I appear to be pinning to much

Ooh no I'm loving the storage solutions! Little details like that give me pure joy

I don't need any encouragement to talk about boxes.

2m of utensils under control....
High quality storage boxes (2 for £10) and 'fiddly wee bits' drawer units from The Works - there are two there. (2 for £28). The drawer units are a bit rough and utilitarian but get all the screws, bolts, fuses and rubber bands out of the man drawer.😉

I have found my tribe!!

I know this is totally ridiculous, but I have been living with a kitchen that is a total nightmare since 2008. It is literally the most horrible, poorly designed hole you can imagine. My new kitchen represents so much more to me than just a kitchen: its the first kitchen I've ever had a chance to design, and it (along with the extension it is in) represents a quantum leap for me from living like a student in an ex-rental house (I'm in my mid 30s, so this is not cool but wearing) to living like a grown-up. I want the whole thing to sing with joy! I want every drawer to feel perfect inside and out! I want to have light, air, space and to feel like I'm gliding through instead of struggling to find things in spider-ridden cupboards where things fall out when you open the door!

Ikeadyounot dreaming of a joyful kitchen is not ridiculous at all. It is good for the soul and spirit to have a clean and orderly environment where you spend a good chunk of every day. What IS ridiculous though is the overpriced and opaque kitchen industry which seems to make that dream a real chore or practical impossibility for lots of folk. Enjoy being inventive! Good design costs nothing but time and thought. 👍

ikeadyounot - oh, I hear ya! We've been here 8 years and it was the owner before last that put ours in. Looking at the tiles, late 80s I reckon - and a DIY job to boot.

We have an orange pine ceiling, 'oak' cabinets and a black 'marble' worktop that absorbs every last shred of light. Even on a sunny day, we have to have a light on ... and the room faces south! Coupled with floor to ceiling tiles not on the horizontal (twitch) and cupboards that move when you sneeze, I'm shocked I've lasted this long in my orange hell.

I'm immersing myself in Pinterest, kitchen brochures and paint swatches, and I'm loving it.

May I introduce you to the cutlery drawer of joy and the pan drawer of happiness.

The different sections in both the cutlery and pan drawers can be adjusted. The sections in the cutlery drawer can go in the dishwasher.

whatashower where did you get the stainless steel worktop from? There is much envy from me on the great drawer solutions. snickers I might have missed it but where are your from?
We have been in rented (with various good-crap kitchens during this time) for all of my nesting years with the births of our 3 DS so I'm really excited about being able to plan our own kitchen but feel immense pressure around getting it right. DH does most of the cooking but not much of the planning so I keep trying to make his wish list work. An independent Free kitchen designer has been really useful to us in planning the orientation of the space.

My kitchen is from Benchmarx with an Iroko wood worktop from worktop express.
The drawers that come with Benchmarx kitchens are Blum, so the insert is Blum Orga Line.

ikeadyounot I'm just the same, the picture of the insides of drawers on this thread has been really helpful because I've been struggling to work out if I'll fit in the drawers what I have planned. I have a shopping basket with Ikea with plate holders and stuff.
whatashower is that a shallow larder? How deep is it?

ikeadyounot I'm just the same, the picture of the insides of drawers on this thread has been really helpful because I've been struggling to work out if I'll fit in the drawers what I have planned. I have a shopping basket with Ikea with plate holders and stuff.
whatashower is that a shallow larder? How deep is it?

Have a look at Units on Line. Similar ranges and prices to DIY kitchens with a showroom near Taunton.

Oooooooo kitchens!!!!

I'm in Ireland so have none of these options but am admiring all your photos! We are saving hard for a new kitchen hopefully next year, I hope it all turns out ok.

Not for the first time, wishing Mumsnet had a 'like post' function 🙁
Whattodo. Worktop made to order by Cavendish Equipment
www.cavendishequipment.co.uk
yorkshire the units are 30cm deep.
snickers 😁 if pandrawersofhappiness is not already taken as a username...... it should be! Marvellous.

Can we start a storage thread?
I need some help sourcing some storage boxes for our smalls underwear for a wardrobe I have just had made. Ikea can't help!

If we are talking about storage does anyone know where I can get a cutlery holder to go in a 30cm draw unit.
Inside of the drawer is less than 30cm.

A storage thread would be AMAZING. Though I might never get any writing done again. whatashower as Sultaness of Storage, will you do the honours?

Whatsoever/
Snickers- you're kitchens are beautiful

Whatashower yes please start one. I need help!!

Your wish is my command but not until Monday as appropriately I am currently knee deep in sorting clutter for a jumble sale 😀 Until then.......

Am with you IKEA