Please could you recommend a kitchen brand or company?

[NataliaOsipova]

We are having an extension which means redoing our kitchen.....and I'm not quite sure where to start! Our builder reckons Howdens are as good as anywhere, but not sure whether or not it's worth going for something a bit more upmarket. Any thoughts or suggestions gratefully received.....

I’m losing my mind trying to find a supplier I’m happy with.

It depends what design you’re looking for really, there are a LOT of Shaker styles around that are quite nice. High gloss are plentiful if you’re after a darker colour, lots of the white/light colour doors aren’t great quality.

I’ve looked at LOADS.

Howdens
Benchmarx (most, if not all, Wicks kitchen are B’s if you want to look at them in a showroom)
DIYOnline (went to the showroom)
System6
Various German ones in local showrooms

Wren, & whilst I quite liked their kitchens, I’m not taking the risk on their delivery & after sales support. The reviews are DIRE, as was the bloke who came on here a couple of years ago.

What's your budget?

Budget - not helpfully, I know! - is as much as necessary without being totally ripped off. It's quite a big space, so we are probably looking at 30k plus?

My kitchen was built by Higham, after a recommendation on here. It is 5 years old and still looks pretty much brand new (at least when clean ). They hand build everything in the UK. Pricier than howdens etc but considerably cheaper than most of the fancy German brands.

They were really lovely to work with

Www.higham.co.uk

More pictures here
www.houzz.co.uk/pro/highamfurniture/higham-furniture

My neighbour had herringbone kitchens in- bloody beautiful!

We used Units On-line (based in Somerset) and are really happy with the results. They were significantly cheaper than most other suppliers. We avoided Howdens because their prices are so opaque!

Thanks for all of these....feel a bit daft, really, as I just don't know where to start.....!

We are going with howdens.
My budget is about 10k including appliances.
We have about 15 units plus a range cooler and a dishwasher

Depending on your style, Cotteswood Kitchens and Neptune are good. Well made and do not date.

You could buy Kitchens, Bedrooms and Bathrooms magazine for design ideas and suppliers. They do not necessarily cover budget ranges but give you a starting point. Sometimes they do a directory so you can have a look at web sites.

Kitchens always cost more than you think and it is always installation that give the biggest headaches! A good manufaturer with a showroom gives you ideas about layout and design, taking into account where you have water and your lifestyle of course!

Your builder will recommend Howdens because he can take a cut if he wants to - depending on how much he spends with them he will get a trade discount. He may choose to pass this on to you, he may not. He may also be experienced at fitting their kitchens which should make fitting straightforward. Don't buy Howdens' own branded appliances. They get poor reviews generally.

We bought our kitchen from DIY Kitchens. The quality is excellent. Units are supplied rigid, already built, so fitting does not include costs for building them. Once you know what design you want, price it up with them. We spent £8.5k on a couple more units than Magnet wanted more than double for. Ours is a painted woodgrain in-game kitchen and we have lots of curved units which are always more expensive than flat fronted ones. I think there's only IKEA that DIY can't beat on price.

DIY kitchens has an excellent showroom in South Yorkshire.
I’d prefer to buy from them but I want an easy life so I’m sticking with Howdens.

more important than the brand is the quality of the fitting. If you can find a good chippy by personal recommendation, he should be able to fit it beautifully, including cutting and trimming to fit wonky walls or strange dimensions.

Don't be too proud to have a professional plumber and a professional sparks do their bits before the new cabs go in, and a professional tiler afterwards. Despite what kitchen fitters may want you to think, nobody can do every job to an excellent standard. They are notorious for hiding shoddy and non-compliant work behind cabinets and under worktops where you won't see it.

I had professional plasterers in to do the ceiling first. It's like a billiard table.

We have an independent kitchen company doing ours - they said they'd beat Howden's price and do far better quality. They are a small company based on East Midlands, if that's any help - I can pm you their details

Thanks so much for all these recommendations.

Maggie we are a bit further south, but if they go as far as the Home Counties, that’d be great - thank you.

PigletJohn Interesting perspective re the the fitting. Do trust our builder, so that may have been his thinking re Howdens too. Will ask - thanks!

We used diykitchens and it's a fab kitchen. sil used them too. Real wood cupboards and great fittings for much cheaper than the others, and we got prices up from Howdens, magnet and wickes.

www.allwood-kitchens.co.uk/
Gary is the manager and Rick fits them. Like Pigletjohn says they will work with your builder and plumber and electrician

What sort of thing are you looking for? Traditional country style, modern,? Are you looking for a decent mid range kitchen, cheap and cheerful or top end solid wood? I would get a rough design sorted first and then look at suppliers. Howdens are an OK brand but you can get better quality for the same mo eye if you shop around.

I think, on reflection, we'd be better off going for a wooden painted style NotMe. Lots to think about though - and thanks all for all the helpful input so far.....

Benchmarx is who I’d recommend, my hubbie is a carpenter and always uses them for quality and ease of fitting. heads up builders tend to say they know what they are
Doing but I wouldn’t cut corners, pay an experienced
Kitchen fitter to
Fit it
For
You, my fella has to go
Back on so
Many ‘builders fits’ that are
Sinking etc, false economy as you get what you pay for. PS I’m not touting for business as my fella is fully booked for next few months 😉

We've gone with DIY Kitchens. We loved their showroom and they seem very good quality, especially for the price. We've bought 29 cabinets (8 are tall cabinets) in the Norton which has solid wood doors for £8.7k. That includes a pull out bin unit, 3 sets of pan drawers, a larder unit with internal drawers and tandem pull out unit. Plus a lot of tongue & groove end panels & a bespoke colour for the island. If you have £30k I'd probably look at a local bespoke place, but DIY Kitchens will enable us to have a gorgeous kitchen for a lot less than we could have got it elsewhere

DeVOL, we’ve just had a new kitchen from them and are very very pleased. We’ve had so many lovely comments from friends and family who have seen it. With your budget of £30k it’s definitly worth looking at their designs.

We went with diykitchens. They sell branded kitchens so you can go to a local kitchen shop to look at the styles then order online.

Great quality and amazing value for money.

Yellowfairy Haven't heard of DeVOL - had a quick look on their website and looks good! Thanks.

Lots of mentions of diykitchens.....will have a good look at that. Thanks for all these great ideas and suggestions.....

Have you had anymore thoughts?

I forgot to mention in my last post that I have been to the showroom of DIYonline (twice, from down South 🙄), they seemed reasonable enough, but they didn’t really have what I wanted. They were about the same price, just a little bit more, than the Benchmarx quote.