DIY Kitchens - Advice Please!

[swl17]

Dear all

I simply love the stuff out there on DIY Kitchens, looking at getting a Linwood kitchen painted in F&B Railings, however the prospect of designing and ordering it all myself makes me really worried i'm going to miss something off!

Does anyone have any tips from past experiences, or common pitfalls to avoid? I'm 99% there on design (having been into another manufacturer and asked them to give me an itemised quote) but I'm still worried I might mess this up!

Happy new year all! x

Had ours done from DIY last year. For me it was the end panels - despite thinking I had it nailed, I still miscalculated how many we would need.

Thanks Stumbleine, did you just order additional panels once you realised? I think for plinths, end pannels, cornices and pelmets I'm going to do my calculations and then over-order just to be on the safe side..

Send the design to DIY and ask them to check your shopping basket against it - they'll do that for you and make sure you have everything you need, have ordered cabinets with the correct side opening doors for the location, etc.

Once I’d ordered they called me several times about different things before it went into production. I found them great for checking and double checking my order.

Our DIY Kitchen is great, BUT we did not find them particularly helpful and they actually refused to check our order before we placed it despite assurances on here that they would. Which meant we got quite a few things wrong.

What I wish we had done was gone back up to the showroom and gone through the plan with someone in person but we just didn't have the time to trek back there again.

The quality is great and it was much cheaper than our comparable quotes, but it was more stressful doing it this way.

DIY did check the order for me once it was placed (and picked up that I had ordered the wrong microwave), but it was the joiners who pointed out my end panel error when they arrived. I just requested additional end panels and DIY sent them out a couple of days later.

I spent two months developing my list of what to order with DIY-kitchens. Measure, measure, measure. Cut out bits of papers to the scaled down cabinet sizes and constantly place them on squared paper. Once you have the layout, write on the piece of paper exactly what is needed to make that cabinet work. Get someone else to check your measurements. Do a 'logic walk through' with questions like 'if the cupboard opens this way will the handle hit the wall, if the dishwasher is there can people walk past while it is open' and all that.
Do a shopping basket and print it off, then walk through it with someone, checking each item.
Then do it again with someone else. Email them for advice prior to ordering, they're very helpful. And they don't try to up sell - they had a much cheaper option for a particular issue I had.
Put the order in. They will email you if anything looks weird (I was ordering a couple of incorrect doors, and an unnecessary door, both were picked up at this point). Once they receive the order they don't actually start processing it for a week. You get an email 24 hrs before they begin putting it together.
Once it arrives, you have a few weeks to add to the same order, if you forget something like cornice etc.
I cannot speak highly enough of them. I put the order in early October, the kitchen came early November, all our electrics and plumbing were already in place by then and DH was doing the cabinets so about 3 days later my kitchen looked fantastic. And for less than £5k including appliances.

I found them really helpful too! I lost it at one point trying to work out which end panels I needed & how many and they checked the order for me and told me exactly what I needed!
They emailed me to question a particular configuration of drawers, suggesting something else would look better and their after sales were brilliant, we added an extra unit which they delivered really quickly!

I messed up on wall cupboard end panels. ordered ones the same depth as the wall cupboards, but didn't take into account that the wall was wonky. So I actually needed bigger end panels (cut down obviously) to hide the wonkiness.

Also messed up on whatever that thing is called that goes along the top of the wall cupboards (plinth?). Basically, when it arrived I decided that aesthetically, the kitchen looked a lot better without it.

I ordered from them 1.5 years ago and they were not helpful at checking the design.

I forgot an end panel which the kitchen fiter discovered when fitting so ordered that which came 5 days later.

They give you 5 days to amend the order once placed.

It's a great quality kitchen and you won't find cheaper.

I have a high gloss white kitchen it's gawjuss

We went for their kitchen which was installed last month.

The mistake I made was with the width of wall so ended up with bigger gaps needing filler when I could have got a slightly wider cabinet and cupboard. But this was because I was going from measurements before the walls were plastered.

I got the end panels fine - no errors there. I drew a detailed diagram and marked where the end panels and filler would go.

Ended up with too much plinth!

We got the bespoke painted units for the island and that was the bit I was most nervous about but it was fine.

Very happy with the larder unit. I went for a tandem one instead of a pull out because the shelves are more practical.

they now have an online planner - google diy kitchen planner. The planner calculates automatically how many end panels cornices etc you need.

If you are near to the showroom, take your plan and go there for opening time. Be brave and ask to go through the order with someone there (they won’t offer as there’s no hard sell in my experience, you have to ask!). They will add everything into a basket for you, step by step checking everything, then email a code to you so that you can go back in at home and place the order when you’re ready.

I found that process very reassuring as I was also worried about missing things like plinths or end panels. The guy was really knowledgeable but you need to be there early or it gets too busy!

Good luck!

Ps. I am DELIGHTED with my DIY kitchens kitchen!

This is so helpful - i’m just trying to do my DIY design too @swl17

It was a bit daunting at first but i’m quite enjoying it now... i’ll probably change my mind when I get the order wrong though!!

I’m thinking of the Norton or Helmsley...

Do you know if you can mix and match a bit? I prefer smooth drawers without the shaker bit but like shaker cupboards. And I prefer the cornice of Helmsley but the price of Norton!!

Finally... we’ve decided to go for laminate (maybe the quartz stone colour??) on the main worktops to cut costs and solid wood on the island (i’m not so keen on wood effect laminate). Am I best to source this independently or does DIY offer compeititive prices?

Thanks!

I'm not sure if you can mix and match - you might have to place separate orders as the basket defaults all to one style or colour.

Their prices are not competitive for worktops or door handles.

We bought our worktop from Lunastone (www.quartzworktopsdirect.com/). This is the manufacturer website which is about 30% cheaper than other companies we approached for Lunastone.

We bought the cupboard handles from Screwfix.

You can mix or match I think. When you’ve selected everything in one colour/style, you then change it and add the new cupboards etc. This worked for me.

We looked at DIY kitchens but ended up using Units On Line who offered the same ranges at a slightly better price and a free design service.

Hello everyone! Just resurrecting this thread in case there are any new experiences /advice etc for DIY kitchens; I am in the process of designing my kitchen now with a pencil and paper. Hard work! Any tips /pitfalls to avoid are greatly appreciated!

Well as the original poster, all I can say is that DIY were amazing - and our builder (who as most builders based in SW London primarily fits bespoke german kitchens!) was incredibly impressed with the quality of the kitchen and ease of installation as a result.

The only thing I wish I had done was involve my builder a little earlier in the process, as they were able to point things out that I had missed (although our build was quite complicated as it required widening a chimney breast and taking out a wall).

As for the kitchen design process, there is no harm in going into high street vendors and getting them to come round and do measurements/suggest design etc. - its all part of the process, and only the expensive ones will charge for this service (even then, if its £100 it can be money well spent to get your measurements/design verified by a professional). DIY kitchens also have an excellent online planner (beit in BETA version) which has most most units, but can render items in 3D allowing you to see your design come to life!

Carefully plan out the extras (plinths, end panels etc.), and don't be afraid to be adventurous. Worst comes to worst, you can order additional items and pay a small delivery fee.

Thanks so much for the reply , so glad your kitchen project was a success OP! I've spent the last week back and forth emailing DIY's pre-sales support team for help with particular questions, and they have so far impressed me with their thorough and helpful responses, but also how flexible they can be with their units (these can all
be adjusted to suit my needs in many ways that are not obvious on the website). The design is coming together but my problem now is in actually visualising it (all I have is my hand-drawn floor plan). if anyone would be willing to share their planning account with me (if you are all done with it) just so I can check how the design looks I would be so grateful. unfortunately they have closed their design software to new registrations for now. I am in my 3rd trimester and with bad SPD struggling to drive/walk, a trip to the high street kitchen shops to get my design drawn up is unfortunately not in the cards for me. So If anyone can help with the DIY software I would be so grateful, please PM me 💗💗💗😄

DIY Kitchen - is it really cheaper than the rest?

Hi ladies - after reading loads of positive things about DIY kitchens on this forum, I finally contacted them with the plan I had from another kitchen shop and to my surprise DIY's quote was higher or the same as the 3 other quotes I got! What am I missing? DH is laughing at me - help!!!

Oh that's alarming to hear, Aparnaishere. Tbh I didn't even stop to compare prices before placing our order with DIY kitchens. We've used them before and that time (around 3 years ago) it was cheaper for better quality and I liked the fact they did lots of different size cabinets and they come ready built which is a huge advantage as we're fitting them ourselves. This time we've gone for the DIY kitchens Stanbury in Dove Grey and it's due for delivery this weekend. We economised where we thought it wouldn't matter, like having plinths in carcass material and not getting things like the Magic corners (which I think could turn out to be a pain) and not drawer line everywhere (which are more expensive). We're hoping to get the worktops from Ikea - they look nice and are cheap.

I do still sometimes drool over Wren's advertisements and wonder if we made a rash decision, now you've got me wondering!

They were definitely cheaper for us given the quality eg pretty similar to the price wickes quoted but that was for flat pack units vs diy’s rigid build. Similar to independent designer but hers were foil wrapped, diy are painted wood. Etc etc.

So I would check that you really are comparing like with like.

Thanks, sdaisy26 - that's very true about like for like. I think it was your lovely dove grey kitchen that lured me away from the Light Grey. I can't wait for delivery this weekend. I think you went for white worktops too? Though I think yours were quartz or something equally gorgeous.

It's nerve-racking though. I still mull over the details of my order even though it's too late to change anything.