Olive and Barr Kitchens - review?

[Ummaumma]

Hello, we are planning a kitchen renovation this summer and love the Shaker style. Just had a quote from Olive and Barr that is notably cheaper than similar style kitchen providers (De Vol, Higham, Naked etc). But, I cannot find any reviews for Olive and Barr though - has anyone used them or got any feedback about them? TIA!

[RenoPro]

Really surprised to read the negative comments in relation to Olive and Barr. I don't often leave reviews, but as I was so impressed with our dealings with them, from start to finish, I thought I'd get online to post how great they were. I am in the process of purchasing my second kitchen from them and everything has always been great. I strongly believe you cannot get such a beautifully made kitchen at such a reasonable price.
Covid has made it very difficult for a lot of businesses, creating supply issues and staffing shortages. I think it'd be a terrible shame not to give Olive and Barr a chance based on a bad review, I highly recommend them.

[SF100]

Check out JohnJames Bespoke Carpentry. John and Jamie are amazing. Everything is completely bespoke and made to your needs. You deal directly with them as they design and build it all. Couldn't recommend them highly enough. They have a website and instagram and are lovely guys to have in your house. Serve the South London area

[Smallgoon]

@uplne Sounds awful. Sorry it's been so terrible for you. What made you opt for them in the first place?

[Smallgoon]

Curious to know why my post was 'withdrawn at poster's request'... I certainly didn't request this. Not that I can remember what I posted in the first place, but I've never asked for a post to be removed

[PROBJAMS]

Hi - we are looking at O&B kitchen and whilst still a lot of money, its not as much as some of the other painted kitchen companies by a long way. Would love to see some photos of your kitchen in situ. Did you get quotes from anywhere else?

[MarianGW]

Sorry it has been so long until this response. Our kitchen installation started and then got stopped owing to the lockdown! The bulk of the cabinetry was supposed to arrive the morning after Boris announced lockdown. The kitchen has now been installed and we are really pleased with it - it has definitely been worth the wait.

Everyone we have dealt with from our designer, James, to the guys who fitted the cabinets, to the couple who did the final painting in situ has been great & easy to deal with. There have been the odd snags as you would expect but fair play O&B have dealt with these very well. Follow up by the production manager has also been good too and very responsive. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. I know someone upthread had a bad experience with the final painting but we keep marvelling at how good it looks - we have a really dark blue (F&B Hague Blue) on the base cabinets and creamy white (F&B Wimbourne White) on the wall and tall cabinets. The blue in particular has a really nice sheen to it and not a brushstroke to be seen. Maybe the painters have changed.

The cabinets are well-made, drawers run well. I was a bit worried about us having several 1200mm drawer base units but they are rock solid. We had to have a couple of doors re-made - they had been stuck in a van for weeks as the weather varied between cold & hot so unsurprisingly had warped slightly. Replacements were ordered by the fitters before we even knew there was a problem - can't complain about that.

If you have any questions or would like some photos just let me know.

[Mitzimccormack]

I would recommend DIY kitchens. I have used them 3 times and am about to go again later this month. If you know what you want and are confident in your measuring they are amazing. Our builders reckoned they were the best cabinets he had come across. My last kitchen was a wood shaker door with a bespoke F&B paint job -Hague Blue. I bought extra pelmet and kick boards, and a couple of side panels so that my joiner could make the fridge/cooker/larder area look bespoke. They send extra paint for touch ups. I usually source my own worktops, but when I did buy their oak ones they came will the stuff to treat them. Within reason they will also adjust stuff to suit, and they will send stuff unglued if you might want to do a bit of customising. Have a look at their website. I download the graph paper planning sheets then spend happy hours moving stuff around till I am happy.

[Sourdoughstarter]

Does anyone know if they have their own workshop or buy in from a third party? If the cabinets are of a good quality it would be interesting to go direct to the joiners. Cut out the O&B installation team and dodgy painters. Might even be able to get a spray finish. We're in the market for an in frame kitchen post lock down, we have researched a few companies in the Bristol area. May have posted this twice, sorry

[Smallgoon]

funny how @Bkop 's post appeared immediately after the director came on to cover his arse. Not suspicious at all

[boredboredboredboredbored]

Bkop are you the director by any chance

[boredboredboredboredbored]

Crikey sounds like a nightmare company to deal with under which ever name they trade.....I'll cross them right off my list!

[applecrumbler]

@ummaumma - our experience taught me that spray painting off site would be hugely preferable (not that I've tried doing that, but painting on site was awful and we really haven't got a good finish as a result). So that would be my one tip to you.

[Ummaumma]

Still a bit up in the air as we were due to start our project mid-March but Covid-19 has completely changed our timeline and if, for lack of time, we have to go with a smaller, quicker project then I really need someone reliable. I have had a recommendation from a friend of a carpenter her mother used and will look at McClark too (if budget allows) but I keep on hearing good things from people who used carpenters so that sounds increasingly persuasive!

[applecrumbler]

@ummaumma who are you going to go for?

We went to see The White Kitchen Company in Northhampton which did a similar product for not much more. I think they also paint on site though.

The one that i'm drooling over, if you're London based, is an independent joiner called Mcclark Bespoke. His stuff looks incredible, no idea about the price though!

[applecrumbler]

@smallgoon - I can't prove if it was them or not, I probably shouldn't have put it in but I'm still so annoyed about it!!! The other builders that were on site that day didn't take anything else during the year plus that they were working for us though....

[Smallgoon]

@applecrumbler the worst part of your post for me was that they stole your Dyson (if indeed it was them). That alone would deter me from ever using them!

[Ummaumma]

Yikes - OK thank you so much for the helpful information. I hope that everything eventually gets resolved for you, as that does sound very irritating

[applecrumbler]

We used Olive and Barr last year for a new kitchen - I've just seen this post as I did a search out of curiosity to see if others have had the same awful experience we did (!) Incidentally when we went for it, they did have reviews online, all 5 star but not very many. They have since disabled their reviews on Google - I imagine after the totally shambolic summer they had last year. It might be too late for the original poster, but wanted to add my two cents.

In short, the kitchen is actually good quality in terms of the build (interiors, drawer movement etc), although this is only the case after quite a few complaints on my part about cupboards that didn't close, trim that wasn't attached, edges that weren't sanded etc etc. They have also made some pretty fundamental errors such as installing the cupboards so close to the range oven that the doors of the range can't fully open.

Where it really started to go wrong for us with them was with the painting. At the outset I asked them about spray painting because I really wanted a perfect finish. Their response was that it was better not to so that you could change the colour down the line, and they assured me that the finish that would be achieved by their painters was so good that I would never know the difference. Sadly that turned out to be wrong - it took about 4 or more months and several visits of 2 days each and it still looks crap to be honest. Having originally had the kitchen installed last June/July, by November we still weren't happy so let them have access for an entire 4 day period while we went away for a wedding and our anniversary - we got back, hoping to find everything now finished perfectly, to find that they had done less than half the remediation, left a broken glass and spill all over the worksurface, and our brand new Dyson hoover had gone missing (though they weren't the only people on site so who knows about that).

Eventually and after my husband really lost his shit they sent someone else back, however even now because they had to come and rectify mistakes after the worktop had been installed, there are marks on the worktops, and paint marks on the underside of cupboards where it should be wood coloured. We also had to pay our builders (and buy more paint) to touch up the wall paint around where they had made a mess of it by using tape that peeled the paint off. These things are pretty frustrating and annoy me every day during the day, but when the lights are dim and we are eating with friends in there it looks good overall.

I am still awaiting a final piece of the kitchen that was supposed to be included in the price, and they've just stopped replying to my emails now :-/

In summary, honestly I would look elsewhere! They were cheaper than the competition but they honestly were the worst company in terms of customer service that I've ever dealt with, maybe it was due to teething problems in their first year...