Kitchens

[needmorecoffeeandcake]

Advice please! Where is best to look for a new kitchen?

We looked at all the main companies, B&Q one we liked going out of sale, wickes, Expensive and could only see one door glued to a backboard in the colour we wanted benchmark, didn't even turn up to give us a quote ikea didn't like any of their units and pricey , a local independent cheaper but couldn't fit in with our timescale , and because we live near enough to go to the showroom DIY kitchens and are going with DIY, liked their units and £2000 less then Wickes

Following this. Very tempted by DIY kitchens. Our builder has told us to stay clear of Ikea but we don't like their kitchens anyway.

I have gone to an independent who use second nature kitchens.

We looked around for ages and settled with Wickes. Couldn't see quite the right kitchen anywhere else - tried Homebase, B&Q, Ikea, local independents (who quoted in the region of £22k for a 8ft x 8ft kitchen ), and we also considered Wren and Magnet.

We're very happy with how it all turned out - the only problem we had was that our Design Consultant only worked part-time, so that caused a couple of delays with sorting incorrect tiles (dark greyish brown, when we wanted white!). Cost was OK, not the cheapest, but definitely nowhere near £22k!

What sort of size are your kitchens and roughly how much did it cost you including fitting?

our kitchen is 11 ft wide 14 foot long so not massive and talking 12 units, sink top worktops and handles. we are going for drawers at the top simple cupboard underneath for bottom cupboards standard doors for top cupboards, with laminate worktops and DIY quote is £3000, ours needs rewiring plugs £1000, replastering right through another £1000, flooring vinyl and tiles behind base units will probably be around £500, joiner son in law is charging us £800 for fitting so around £7000 total, not getting appliances as we have those all freestanding ones already

I have a Howdens kitchen - though purchase has to be through a builder. I thought it was good value.

Mines 23 ft x 13ft. Kitchens probably taking about 16ft length one side and a bit less otherwise with a breakfast bar.

Units were about 7k I think. Worktops £2.8k for 20mm quartz.

With flooring (which needed levelling) fitting appliances etc etc about £23k

The fitter makes the biggest difference.

All kitchens are basically chipboard boxes with doors put on them.

Skill, accuracy and detailing turn a good kitchen into a great one.

I favour pulling out the old, and having the wiring, plumbing and plastering done by an electrician, a plumber and a plasterer before the boxes arrive. Jack of all Trades, they say....

Good design makes a difference too. You don't (often) get good designers in cheap places . but there's nothing to stop you getting a great design done and using that to shop around with . It's a bit cheeky to ask a Stufio to do a design if you have no intention of using them though .,

We are getting a B&Q kitchen. It's a fairly basic design nothing too fancy, we dont have a huge kitchen either but we have been quoted just over 3k and their service throughout the design process has been top notch.
Went to Wren for a quote, what a joke that was.. 30k! God knows where they plucked that from.
(I've attached a couple of pics of our B&Q
CAD drawing)

@HighOnStilts
I’ve had b&q in the past and was really happy with it but I think that’s mainly because they subcontracted they fitting to someone really great. It was also a small kitchen. Good luck with yours!

@HighOnStilts Wren can be absolutely shocking; I've had customers tell me that they dropped a quoted price from £25k to £15k when faced with a cheaper comparison quote from a competitor.

B&Q is a very mixed bag. Some of their doors are decent quality for the price (Stevia's a nice door, 18mm MDF with a PET wrap) but their new Goodhome Caraway cabinets are very flimsy. I much preferred the old Cooke & Lewis furniture.

(I worked for B&Q for many years)

By the pictures, yours looks like Garcinia Gloss White with an integrated handle?

@needmorecoffeeandcake B&Q had some fantastic fitters back in the day; it's a real shame that their entire installation process self-destructed.

@mtjtd oh really? It went bad? I still have the contact details for the subcontractor so I am hoping to use him again!

We recently got a wickes kitchen. Very happy with it. We got a lot for our money as my dh negotiated hard and we went in at the end of the month and they were keen for the sale. We got a 2.5m x 1m island with induction hob. 3 tall larders equalling 1.8m long x 2m high and then a back wall of 3.2m including fridge, sink, dishwasher, and eye level cooker. Appliance are AEG which we're very happy with. Wickes also offered 3 years interest free credit.

@MTJTD Heard so many bad reviews about Wren especially when it comes to delivery and installation (items going missing etc etc) we have a fairly small kitchen to work with so when they told us 30k I nearly choked. Told them it was way out of our budget (baring in mind our budget was 6k but the kitchen designer didn't want to know initially) then we got bombarded with calls/emails/text messages telling us they will re-design and fit to our budget.. why not do that in the first place? 😫 I'm pregnant also so was stressed out with the constant pushyness from them.
B&Q on the other hand have been fab I honestly can't fault out kitchen designer. The units are Garcinia yes. I'm due 22nd March, the kitchen is being delivered on the 25th and the kitchen fitter they've recommended us doesn't seem phased having it finished within two weeks at most, and that's including electrical work and having a radiator moved.

@needmorecoffeeandcake Yep; the entire installation service was a shambles and was running at a (considerable) loss, so B&Q scrapped it in it's entirety. They only do supply only kitchens now.

Keep that number handy; good fitters are hard to find.

@HighOnStilts 30k is insane for a kitchen that size.

They're infamous in the industry for being pushy; comes from being commission based and heavily targeted. I was approached with a job offer from them a few years back and couldn't decline fast enough.

Glad you're having a better experience with B&Q. Garcinia's a decent door, on a par with Howden's Clerkenwell Gloss or Magnet's Luna. Two weeks for the installation seems entirely workable.

Hope everything goes well!

I have just had a DIY Kitchen installed and it is beautiful. But with hindsight £300 spent on an indepedent kitchen designer wouldn't have gone amiss!

My fitter is great and everything looks perfect. I got my worktops from Worktops Direct.

The issue is more me - lots of, so where exactly is the veg going to go? And what where are we putting the microwave?

We did make a trip to the DIY Kitchens showroom and it was definitely worth going - for starters I completely changed my mind about what kitchen I wanted when I saw them in real life. We aren't near but booked a short break and went to the Royal Armouries, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and some other attractions. It was a good holiday

Wrens were like vultures with the hard sell, couldn't even walk round to have a look without being harassed even after telling them multiple times we were not buying today they did not leave us alone!

Had a quote from howdens last week for 7.5k, went to the DIY kitchens showroom this weekend just gone and the dance kitchen in a higher spec door came to 4.2k.

Howdens lack pricing transparency.

What I enjoyed about the DIY kitchen experience is you design it all yourself and the kitchen designers fix any little blips for example adding a filler panel or a backing panel which has been missed off.
No selling tactics as they prefer you to go home and order it yourself using their quote number and the kitchens are made in their attached factory and delivery is a good price.
They don't offer fitting but all the units come ready built so a joiner would just need to put into place and sort the worktops onto them.

If you google 'DIY kitchens planner' you can go from there.

Another diy kitchens fan .... I read all the kitchen pros and cons on Mumsnet and got some great tips ...
I didn't get exactly the style I was originally looking for but did get the colour I wanted
My builder fitted and were impressed with them arriving ready built and sturdy! Although the huge juggernaut delivering on our tiny Victorian street was a bit scary

@MTJTD Thank you! 😊
I'm genuinely excited for the kitchen to be fitted now, from the samples we were shown the units definitely seem pretty good quality. Our kitchen designer is a real salt of the earth, no bullsh*tting us and has been honest and open with us from the initial consultation so I can't fault the service whatsoever.

+1 for Diy kitchens also. Showroom is lovely and so are the staff. They are actually helpful and don’t ram sales stuff down your throat. Units come already assembled too, which my hubby loved. Their online planner was also invaluable and probably saved us a few hundred in design fees too!

We are mid kitchen refurb so it will be another 2-3 weeks until I can give you the full verdict, but we have done: independent kitchen designer, DIY units (£2k cheaper than Howdens), separate appliances (appliance city), local quartz retailer. I agree with @PigletJohn re: most kitchens being chipboard boxes and the fitting making a difference. First wiring fix has been done, space is being plastered, plumber in today. Kitchen will be fitted by our builders but they are the same builders who refurbished our last house and I’m confident they will do a good job.

The design/layout is really important so I would always recommend spending time on that. We used a kitchen designer but we also visited the big kitchen suppliers too and there was some additional input from them. Sometimes kitchen designers have preferred layouts but it important to push for what you want and not necessarily what they recommend. You will have different orders of priority.

Our last kitchen was from Wren, but it was a Linda Barker kitchen and they don’t make them any more. Having been to Wren as part of this I would steer clear, the hard sell is even harder and the price eye watering. Wren aftersales were dreadful last time too. I saw a Magnet kitchen I really liked but their foil wrap shaker door worked out to be more than double DIY’s price for a solid wood painted shaker

That online planner looks fun, but I don't think it will ever replace a good designer. When you are spending vast amounts on your home, an extra £400- £600 on a professional design often only equates to the price of a dishwasher or a cupboard. Compared to the price a fitter or plumber charges for a week it's positively cheap. You live with that design for years . Why risk getting it wrong for the sake of that small amount ?