Help - IKEA or Howdens Kitchen?

[ditchinthekitchen]

We've had two quotes from each, both match but in different ways: Ikea cheaper kitchen but more expensive appliances (which we may be able to find cheaper elsewhere) and Howdens more expensive kitchen but appliances cheaper.

We know Howdens is easier to fit and is better quality long term but whilst their design was okay, Ikea was able to do a design that suits us just that bit better. Plus, their inserts, pull outs etc are fab and give us flexibility to change.

Would be interested to hear pros and cons for both. Please help us choose!

I have a very small sample size of my family! My dad and I have Ikea kitchens fitted 1week apart almost 12 years ago. Mine wooden and his high gloss. Both still look new. My sister has a high gloss Howdens fitted 4 years ago. It’s half knackered. We all put our separately sourced appliances in them.
I was speaking to a friend in the building trade at the weekend and he was saying Howden’s prices have just drastically increased.

I was speaking to a friend in the building trade at the weekend and he was saying Howden’s prices have just drastically increased

Heh, a builder saying prices have increased at Howdens? Never in the world

@gamerchick I know where you’re coming from, but in this case it was general conversation and not trying to sell me something-I’m not in the market, and he knows I can check as my BIL has an account there

Are current house we have an ikea kitchen we put in 5 years ago and it still looks lovely and I still really love it. We did buy a washing machine with it though and hated it, it was so noisy and had no cycle less than 3hrs. Thats the only thing we had to replace.

We are in the middle of moving and getting a kitchen for the new house. My dad is a builder so had Howdens and magnet come round. Howdens was £2k more than magnet and I much prefer the magnet kitchens as well. He would happily use either tho.

Howdens are in the middle of their period 11, October sale. No builder will tell the truth about Howdens prices considering they hold the cards on the end price for a kitchen. Plus it also depends on who's serving you at the time and how much of a profit margin they have to get. Put a newbie on the sales counter and it's like blood to a shark for builders.

Then they quote you whatever price they like.

@gamerchick-you make a good point about Howden’s pricing-at least with Ikea you know what you’re going to pay

My ikea kitchen is 16 years old and still going strong.

Howdens is good. One advantage (particularly if you are in an awkward shaped house) is you can exchange units during the fitting, if something is missing it takes 24 hours to get it into stock whereas others take weeks to order kitchens. My dad fits kitchens and swears by howdens

Being the daughter of the fitter I got their amazing mates rates of course, dad is great friends with the branch manager! Apparently it's a £40k kitchen rack rate, I paid £9k

Not the question I know, just wanted to add my two penneth.....had my last Howdens kitchen over 10 years and it was still great when I sold the house. The current Magnet one I have is falling to bits after two years...

Our Ikea kitchen was in when we bought the house and judging by when the appliances went in is probably 12 years old. Only thing that doesn’t work now is the cooker hood which I’m going to try to replace this week. Everything else is great still.

I think the general consensus (from following various threads like this) is that IKEA is superior in terms of quality.

The downside is trekking back to IKEA if you need another part, and the fact that IKEA sizing is not standard so you cant add a high street door / cupboard later if you decide to change it / add to it. They do occasionally change their range entirely so for instance you may have difficulty getting a replacement door for instance a few years down the line.

Ikea just as good quality. Better prices. No need to have a builder order it.

And get your appliances elsewhere so find good bargains.

I think i read somewhere that certain appliances only fir ikea kitchens.
Is it their dishwashers?

The only negative we found with the IKEA kitchen is that there's no space behind the units for services. Which was a ball ache because we fitted it ourselves. Otherwise, we love it. They even sent out replacement hinges for a broken hinge after 5 years of daily use.

IKEA kitchen here- we ended up fitting it ourselves because the wait to get IKEA to do it was too long. But we love it.

In terms of quality: all kitchen cabinet carcasses are made of melamine faced chipboard. They all use the same material, it’s all the same quality.

The only point of difference will be cabinet design and door front. Don’t let anyone convince you this brand or that brand is “better quality”- they’re all the same. Door front and design are the difference. Ikea it’s worth noting that they don’t leave a space behind their cabinets for running services but it’s just something to take account of when planning your services run.

If Howdens or anyone else think they’ve got good prices, ask them to price-match DIY kitchens. I recently used Howdens for my father-in-laws kitchen. They swore they’d price match, but when I gave them the DIY quote they couldn’t. I had to use them because of their turn around time, but in terms of price, DIY don’t seem to be able to be matched by anyone (which probably explains why they’re so flooded with business at the moment).

Thats not strictly true, kitchens are not just cabinets and doors. Its things like hinges, drawer runners, internal fittings, all the extra bits like end panels etc. They massively affect the feeling of quality / durability of a kitchen.

My son fits kitchens
DIY kitchens... best value and quality if it all arrives correctly... which is rare
IKEA... good quality but annoying having to make the cabinets and no service gap behind them
Howdens... fine quality and reasonably priced if you have the best discount... quickest at getting extra pieces if missing
Wickes b and q .... expensive and not great quality wise
Magnets... absolute s*(his words not mine) refuses to fit magnets kitchens

Came on to throw DIY kitchen into the mix too but see they have been mentioned.

DIY was considerably cheaper than ikea and howdens. Our fitter said it was good quality and easy to fit. He said he wouldn’t fit an ikea kitchen as they’re a pain with being a different size to standard kitchen, not having the void at the back etc.

However, would I recommend diy? I really don’t know. Our kitchen is gorgeous and I love it, plus was a great price. However the customer service is SHOCKING (I keep meaning to write a full review on here actually). I don’t know if the stress of dealing with them (or not dealing with them as it’s impossible to get through, they take ages to email back, they’re all so arsey probably because they’re complete overworked) is actually worth it. We will need to do another kitchen in the next few years and I would have to think about it a lot.

With Ikea everything has to be assembled so you have to factor that in to the cost. Howdens units are assembled and more robust.

IKEA here, 5 years old and good as new. 25 year guarantee on the units too. The amount of options were second to none and their fitting service was fab - it meant we didn’t have to trek back and forwards, the fitters did it all. The fitters are contractors who also work for John Lewis etc. I really liked the straightforward pricing - I couldn’t be doing with the Howden’s magical mystery pricing.

We used all of our own appliances- I don’t think the reliability of the IKEA own brand is that great though.

The quality has dropped from Howdens and Magnet over the last few years, I think that you will get a better quality product by going to a local supplier. Good luck

Thanks everyone!

I feel reassured about our probable choice of Ikea. Once we've priced up all appliances separately, the overall cost of the Ikea kitchen v Howdens comes out quite a bit lower.

The builder won't be happy as installation is a faff but he'll do it anyway.

I love the flexibility you have with Ikea. If the inserts don't work, you can change them etc.

We haven't got time to investigate any other kitchen suppliers unfortunately but thanks for the suggestions!

Our Howdens kitchen is only eighteen months old but is perfect so far. The only bit which has caused us any problems at all is the pair of AEG ovens, which have been a nightmare.