Howden Fairford kitchen

[MiniCooperLover]

Does anyone have this? Are you happy with it? Ideally we'd like the Tewkesbury but as that's a full wood door it's another price bracket from the Fairford which is an MDF door. Hmm ...

Their mdf doors are pretty solid, i decided the solid wood doors weren't worth the extra expense. We haven't had ours long but we love it, it looks great and feels nice and robust.

Thank you, that's really helpful. We felt the same when we were in the showroom but when the lady came up to measure today I wobbled. What colour did you go for? We are thinking graphite but the new catalogue has a lovely blue that's tempting me.

Ours is charcoal. I liked the navy too but decided it wasn't right for the light in our kitchen. Which worktop have you chosen?

We went with the navy on the bottom and the dove grey on the top with copper coloured handles. Love it!

I love the Navy but DH wouldn't hear of it, said it was too dark so we compromised on the Graphite (which I liked anyway so not exactly a tough compromise) but now the new blue one (I think you'd describe it as 'French Blue' (colour swatch attached) is confusing things. We want a white worktop, white backsplash and warm wooden/parquet floor.

we have the copper handles too, they are lovely!

That's a very pretty blue...

It is 😊 I'm torn between it and the Graphite ...

We have fairford graphite. Love it. We've got it with a white granite worktop and oak wood floor.

KippertheFrog, that's exactly the combination we are thinking. Would you mind posting a pic of yours?

mini if I can work out how, I'll pm you a photo.

Thank you 😊👍

Can't work out how to pm a photo so here's just a section of our kitchen.

That looks lovely KipperTheFrog 👍

I've got a Fairford Navy sitting in the living room of the current project waiting to be installed, it looks absolutely fine quality-wise. We had a Burford Tongue & Groove in the last one, which is also an MDF door, and after a year of holiday letting it still looks brand new. Coffee stains wipe off the doors very easily :)

Thanks mini I'm a little bit in love with my kitchen

I have a Tewkesbury and it’s beautiful.

Sorry

Friend bought a house with a practically new Howden Kitchen, the pvc wrap is peeling off the mdf. it looks awful. She is just glad the kitchen is to be replaced soon.

I've had a Howden kitchen for about 8 years. The kick boards literally disintegrated without a scrap of damp, the backs of the cupboards all fell out, the sink cupboard peeled and the ones nearest the built in oven (in the correct unit, which can't be altered to accommodate a double, by the way) scorched. I am fully prepared to accept that the builders were shit, but they were hardly working with anything of any great merit in the first place.

It's a bastard to clean as well.

I'm pretty happy with the Howdens design which I got this morning. The lady did me a graphite example and a Navy too (because I told her that was my favourite and the graphite my DHs favourite 😊). Now just need to see the price they've given to my builder

@MiniCooperLover how did you get on in the end? Do you mind me asking how much it cost?

We've just had a Fairfield kitchen installed: a single run of Dove Grey cabinets across the back wall and a Navy breakfast bar / peninsular in front.

We went with marble-effect quartz worktop from another supplier, and bought appliances, sink and tap separately too. We got better quality for not much more!

Very happy with it (but a bit concerned now having read about MitziK's experience! )

Sorry, *Fairford. Darn you, autocorrect!

I have had the solid wood door Howdens kitchen for six years and it is fine. The wood doors do "drop" though and the joiner came back and re-adjusted them. I think the worst I have found is that the hinges arent that great. Told Howdens and they supplied a load of new ones which I keep just in case.

I was always warned that their cheaper ranges weren't that great, but my dearer one was loads cheaper than any show room ones and I have got to say we have been pleased. We paid £4,500 for the units (in the sale) and there are a lot of them. Fitting was £1200 - a week's work with two men.

PalindromicUser, we are going with Benchmarx! The Howden lady just wasn't that helpful in the end, whereas Benchmarx were incredibly helpful and their units seem basically identical to Howdens: I think our final quote for the kitchen units, worktop and units in the utility room is about £8.5K which I'm happy with 👍

Thanks @MiniCooperLover. Interestingly I had a great initial experience with Howdens but Wickes (from whom we had our current kitchen) have been infuriating so far. The new one is for the utility but we need a few bits to top up the existing kitchen. I have to say after my experience they will get the kitchen top up business but not the utility!!