Howdens vs Wickes design service

[taybert]

Howdens have done a design for my proposed new kitchen and I’m a bit disappointed with it. It feels as if she’s not really designed much, it just feels a bit thrown together. I’ve gone back to her with some notes/ideas so we’ll see what she comes up with but I’ve also booked for Wickes to have a look.

Has anyone changed their design with Howdens successfully? How does wickes compare in terms of design?

I’m feeling a bit deflated with the design, I was really excited!

I dont have time to look at the design in detail but its so worth being as picky as you need now as its better to get it sorted now rather than be unhappy onces its in.
Couple of suggestions, I had good service from Benchmarx, more so than Wickes or Howdens and it was much less costly to buy from them.
I also suggest having two integrated appliances - either larder fridge and freezer or two fridge freezers - rather than an American FF.
The American FFs are too bulky to fit well into most UK kitchens and the freezer space if often a big compromise. I bought one and am changing it as I cant make it work for our family.
One other suggrestion I have is to consider having slightly deeper than standard worktops as it gives you much more workable space,
Is there an IKEA near you? They offer a 2 hour kitchen design appt if you have your measurements.

Alas, ikea is a long way away. She’s invited me in to go through it all, which I hope will be better, I just thought I wouldn’t need to have this much input in to the design.

No bother, it's a quiet time of the year in the showroom; we haven't posted our January offer yet so chatting on boards like this keeps me busy. :)

The fridge placement is optimal imo; it's the same general layout that I would design for a room shape such as this; sink under the window (because that's where sinks go!), oven in the centre of the run, and tall appliances at the end of the run.

There's a principle called the working triangle for kitchen design; it incorporates the sink, cooker and fridge in a triangle with enough distance (but not too much!) between them to allow the kitchen to be both functional and aesthetically pleasing.

In terms of appliance placement, I don't think there's much of an improvement that can be made aside from perhaps integrating the dishwasher to make the aesthetic a little better; it's a shame to be walking into a tall panel when entering the room, but that's unavoidable with the room shape that you have.

The dining table looks rather close to the larders; (visually, I'd say ~600mm) .. I'm not sure if that's an accurate rendition of a table that you own / are planning to buy, or if it's just decoration added by the designer, but the general guideline is to have an 800mm gap between "pinch points" to prevent the kitchen feeling cramped.

That's a lot of pan drawer units though (3 x 800mm, I'd guess?), and your cutlery tray is on the opposite side of the room as the sink.

The latter could easily be resolved (swap the cutlery drawer unit to the one left of your oven) .. it looks like a 2-pan drawer unit with an internal cutlery drawer so aesthetically would be identical to the standard 2-pan drawer unit on the right of the oven and would maintain the symmetric look.

You'd then be able to do away with the "extra" drawer unit near the fridge/freezer and change it to a standard base unit in the same size as your sink unit (again, symmetry of door sizes).

This is where integrating the dishwasher would also help visually; the two sides of your kitchen would "balance" .. each would have 600mm dishwasher/unit, 800mm sink unit/base unit and 500mm door on the corner units.

I suppose it depends on how many drawers you feel you need; they're one of the most expensive units in the kitchen (drawer mechanisms are costly) so I try and keep them to a minimum just from the cost perspective.

Currently this room is a living room, we have our chairs and tv in the “kitchen” side and and the other side is a study area/wasted space really. I suppose I’d envisaged having the kitchen all at that one end, but the fridge and associated units seem to go all the way into the other side, which is where the dining table issue originates. I find it difficult to get a feel for the space and how the size of things will fit, but it feels as if there should be enough space not to have the fridge in the dining area- the wall is 3.45m we where I thought it would end, but the CAD design looks likes she’s gone another meter, that’s why I thought the fridge was too far away.

It does look like she's used ~4.4m of the wall (difficult to tell from pictures) I'd guess that the fridge run is currently comprised of the following:

1000mm/ 500mm Corner Lemans Unit (+197mm with wasted space + corner post)
800mm 2 Pan Drawer + Internal Cutlery Tray
500mm Base Unit
18mm Panel
400mm Tall Larder
18mm Panel
1000mm Bridging Cabinet
18mm Panel
400mm Tall Larder
18mm Panel.

Yeah, I think you’re right. I’ve got wickes coming to look and I’m going in to Howden’s tomorrow so I can see how things can be worked, then decide between the two depending on price and design. I’d like a better solution for the corners too if it’s feasible.

Who bets I can’t make it work better either and end up with exactly the same kitchen?!

For the corners, have you considered L-Shaped units?

I much prefer them when designing kitchens; no wasted space (Corner cabinets typically lose 130-230mm) and I find them far more accessible (no twisting around a corner post to get to the back of the cabinet)

I'll attach an image of one I have in my showroom.

Yes, if we can fit them in I’d prefer those. On the original design she’d put those swing out things in, which I think are fine but if I could just open the cupboard and get to the shelves I’d prefer that.

They'd certainly fit with Howdens cabinets though it would require a compromise on the size of the pan drawers either side of the oven.

With an integrated dishwasher and an additional cupboard at the end (ideal for an integrated bin?) it'd allow for the sink to sit central in the window and change the run to look something like the attached picture.