New kitchen, cabinet supply only?

[NWnature]

Hi there

We are renovating and our builders have included fitting in the quote. I've got a detailed plan drawn up by OnePlan on Houzz with the cabinet measurements and have ordered my own appliances via John Lewis.

I was hoping on DIY Kitchens for the cabinets but they aren't responding to my enquiries and have taken their telephone number offline due to Covid.

I've sent the designs out with some enquiry emails to a number of independent kitchen companies in and around North London. I'm hoping to keep costs down as low as possible (classic!).

Does anyone have any tips or recommendations of other suppliers who might be able to help with cabinets only?

Many thanks

If your builders are fitting it they should be able to get access to Howdens kitchens for you.

Have you tried to buy the kitchen from DIY? As in selected the unit style and put the units into your shopping basket? We bought from them and every trade who worked on our project said how impressed they were with the quality. Howdens do trade discount for account holders which isn't necessarily passed on to you. That's one of the reasons builders like them.

Thanks both. My previous kitchen was Howdens and it was ok, my current builder doesn't seem massively enamoured with them though.

@wowfudge maybe I should try and do it myself first then. I just sent DIY the PDF as I understood they would then suss out every bit I needed and price it up for me. I agree the reviews on quality for them are really good!

I've sent the plans to a load of local smaller kitchen places via Google - it would be nice to support smaller businesses particularly given everything going on - but I expect they'll be a lot more pricey and its more of a risk on what the service/products will actually be like.

A lot of smaller companies will be buying kitchens from a handful of larger manufacturers, e.g. Symphony, if they don't make the units themselves.

My husband used DIY Kitchens recently for my stepson's kitchen. He said the cabinets are slightly thicker and better made than the ones we got from Wickes for our laundry room. It's odd that they took their number off though! I think my husband just placed an order for SSs units without speaking to them on the phone though.

Oh we have booked Karen next month! Did she suggest emailing the finished document to them? As that's what she said to me when I mentioned I'd like DIY kitchen to price it? They go through the listing and produce a quote that can be made into an order if you go ahead as far as I understand it?

@lookatmememe oh Karen is great! Yes I've done that for DIY, they came back to me yesterday with a shopping list which I need to check. I mean, I'm not entirely sure what I'm checking but it looks to correspond to the plans.

@TimeWastingButFun thats great. DIY do seem to get good reviews on quality. The phone thing is annoying as I just find you can often get to the crux a lot quicker that way, but I think its just a temporary Covid measure and hopefully they will reinstate it soon.

Thanks @wowfudge its a good point, because unless they say handmade or have lots of reviews, it feels like more of a gamble on the quality you might receive.

If you have your plans already drawn up send them to daveyandalger.co.uk/ - also known as Handmade kitchens of Christchurch- we’ve ordered from them. They’re extremely well made and so cheap for what they are. They’re comparable to the more expensive designer kitchens at a fraction of the cost.

DIY did mine perfectly straight from a web order, but I did have to do all the working out of interstitial bits, posts and end pieces myself. Perhaps best if you work with one of your fitters, get them to put the order together?