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Original poster

Kitchen company help!

26 replies

Wewereonaspringbreak · 25/09/2021 07:49

Has anyone had kitchens supplied recently by Wren, Howdens, Handmade Kitchens of Christchurch or DIY? Any good ir bad feedback? Have had quotes from all and I am finding it hard to make a decision!

OP posts:
NotMeNoNo · 25/09/2021 07:52

We had a DIY kitchen a year or so ago. The quality is excellent, better than Howdens, and I like the transparent pricing so you can decide exactly what you want. Also had their quartz worktop.

NotMeNoNo · 25/09/2021 07:58

Wren are a company with mixed reviews. HMKC are a very different product if you want an all timber/country look. Howdens are OK, but watch out for a lot of plastic coatings not actual paint.
There are 2 questions for quality of a kitchen: how solid are the units/ hinges/back panels and what are the doors actually made of and covered with? If you can’t find this info then they are being cagey for a reason.

Autumngoldleaf · 25/09/2021 18:32

I've ordered through DIY as well having been around all the houses. Unfortunately I can't comment on it as its not arrived but having gone through the design process with howdens, magnet ikea, b and q etc I feel ikea was the most innovative but with my particular kitchen and concerns we went with DIY.
I felt much happier browsing myself and finding what I needed in the end!!

Eg magnet said I couldn't get an oven cabinet with under draw and that a different cabinet didn't have a drawer etc!
So peculiar!

isseys4xmastinselcats · 25/09/2021 20:19

our 1 year old DIY kitchen still looks as good as it did the day it was installed we have gloss units and duropal laminate worktops we were very impressed with the service and they were £2000 cheaper than wickes for a better kitchen

Sweetsaremyfave · 25/09/2021 20:45

I have had a kitchen from B&Q and one from Howdens. Howdens planning/customer service was good and i feel the quality is better

maofteens · 25/09/2021 23:50

My first post Covid visit to a friend and was really taken with her white handleless kitchen. She has owned the house for three years and it was there when she bought it, even though it looked brand new - Howdens! Their rigid cabinets is a Which? Best Buy. The kitchen design quality is variable between stores, so I'd recommend getting the cabinet book and do specifying exactly what you want. I had an awkward stair angle above some units which they just couldn't get right, so I'd recommend a home visit rather than in store.
I'm happy with the price, it includes Bosch fridge freezer and dishwasher, double larder cupboard with over door wood spice racks, white granite sink, Quooker tap etc, and was under £12k. I am going elsewhere for my countertop so I can pick the slab.

LittleG69 · 26/09/2021 09:27

Have you got your own fitter? My friend had a Howdens and it’s been a nightmare. They sent the wrong units, wrong plinths, the worktops need to be replaced as they were scratching easily. Plus her fitter was the best.

We used a local independent and it was relatively stress free but not completely

Another friend used Wren but her builder fitted it

I would look at the unofficial Facebook groups for Wren if you are seriously considering them!

LittleG69 · 26/09/2021 09:27

@LittleG69

Have you got your own fitter? My friend had a Howdens and it’s been a nightmare. They sent the wrong units, wrong plinths, the worktops need to be replaced as they were scratching easily. Plus her fitter was the best.

We used a local independent and it was relatively stress free but not completely

Another friend used Wren but her builder fitted it

I would look at the unofficial Facebook groups for Wren if you are seriously considering them!

Should say WAS NOT the best Hmm
maofteens · 26/09/2021 16:22

Yes agree any kitchen is only as good as the fitter! You get a detailed list of what (should be) included from Howdens and it does need to be checked (no matter where you get your kitchen from). A friend had a crap fitter and it had to be refit TWICE.
A good fitter can cope with wonky walks etc.

HasaDigaEebowai · 26/09/2021 16:48

HMKC are a very different product if you want an all timber/country look.

Although HKOC (handmade kitchens of christchurch) are not all timber. Only the outside frames are timber. The rest is MDF or laminated MDF. Plus they come unpainted so add another few thousand on top for painting.

Sprat123 · 27/09/2021 12:40

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SunLovingMum · 27/09/2021 13:07

My beautiful, ans I got kitchen comes from handmade kitchens of Christchurch. I have had it now 3 years. I love it. Very thrilled with their service especially as my plan had to be tweaked a lot during building works (RSJ / steels impacting height and width of room, plus underfloor heating shrinking height too). As the cabinets are customisable, I still have the same layout.

I’m currently having a laundry room put in now using Howdens (work started last week, took delivery of the units today). I’m painting the units with same paint I used on my kitchen and bought same handles as used in my kitchen.

What struck me was the lack of customisation / can’t tweak sizing of cabinets. Luckily I could move the wall a bit back (partial garage conversion for laundry room). So I was not left with lots of filling in gaps and small fairly unusable cabinets or open shelving due to lack of various sizes of cabinets.

The finishing of the Handmade kitchens of Christchurch is amazing (oak interiors, not laminate oak), hinges are very sturdy and excellent quality. The level of product is much higher than howdens and wren (we looked at wren). We would have used handmade kitchens of Christchurch for our laundry room but due to timing only are using howdens. Very hard to get workmen in our area and I only have this window of opportunity. Howdens could deliver product with short notice. When we did our kitchen, we placed our order (so our build time in their workshop was secure) 6 months in advance. We could change our order/tweak up to about a few days before our workshop time.

SunLovingMum · 27/09/2021 13:12

@HasaDigaEebowai
Handmade kitchens of Christchurch are not laminate. you are confusing laminate and veneer. Veneer is real wood. Laminate is not wood at all. It is a thin sheet of wood put over the tulip wood carcass.

Maneandfeathers · 27/09/2021 14:31

Ours is howdens and we found the whole thing much easier than dealing with DIY or B&Q.

The fitter we chose had an account with them, howdens sent a fitter and measured everything. Everything was delivered on the morning of the fitting and it was between the fitter and howdens to make sure everything was right. We had an extra bit delivered by mistake which howdens collected.

I think DIY works out cheaper but there’s no way I would have remembered every piece and if something is missing I didn’t want the delay of waiting for it.

Happy with ours. It’s decent quality, came assembled and everything was as they said it would be.

HasaDigaEebowai · 27/09/2021 14:47

@HasaDigaEebowai
Handmade kitchens of Christchurch are not laminate. you are confusing laminate and veneer. Veneer is real wood. Laminate is not wood at all. It is a thin sheet of wood put over the tulip wood carcass.

My HKOC kitchen is sitting in my garage at this very moment waiting to be installed. The carcasses are MDF. They have a very thin veneer of wood over the top but they are MDF. The centres of the door panels are also MDF (not veneered just plain MDF). Only the frame of the doors are tulipwood. Yes I accept most people will use laminate to mean plastic. I didn't mean that. It's a veneer on mdf.

Im not saying there is anything wrong with it. We bought it knowing it was mdf and mdf is more stable anyway than wood as long as it doesn't get wet..

SollaSollew · 27/09/2021 15:40

I've had 2 DIY kitchens and 1 HMKOC kitchen in the last 6 years (different houses!) what I bought totally depended on the house and the budget as they're quite different propositions.

I would recommend both companies but if budget wasn't an issue I'd go with HMKOC as the quality is in a completely different league and it can be totally customised to you.

Also I think you can specify solid wood for HMKOC at the same price but they recommend you don't because mdf is more stable so that's what I went with. However the veneer is beautiful and I don't regret my choice at all.

PissedOffNeighbour22 · 27/09/2021 15:52

I used DIY kitchens. Would not recommend. The finish quality was poor - dented units, scratched and chipped paint, cracked units etc.
The delivery service is rubbish. Ours came with footprints all over it, items missing, we got other people's items and they caused damaged to my property bringing it in. They also damaged every single cornice, footboard etc. Took us months to sort it out with them and they literally couldn't have given a shit about dealing with it.

FuzzyPuffling · 27/09/2021 15:53

I'm having a Howdens kitchen fitted soon by an independent builder/fitter who works with them a lot. As a pp said, he already had an account with them, which makes life easier. The Howden's bloke did a home visit and design, and then we discussed changes I wanted (and a few I decided against).

I was sent a full supply list with costings and negotiated a bit of a discount. Howden's have been very easy to deal with/get hold of etc. and have a good reputation round here. I'm hoping the kitchen is lovely!

shauabs · 27/09/2021 15:55

Very happy with our Howden's kitchen.

FillyerBoots · 27/09/2021 15:57

We have just had a Howdens real wood kitchen fitted with a quartz worktop from another supplier. Our kitchen fitter said what good quality it was. We really like it - it feels really solid.

They were good to deal with, the designer was good, we bought the appliances (NEFF) from them too. Some stuff arrived damaged and was swapped out without any hassle. There was a glitch in the design due to something we'd changed in the build and that was fixed by them taking an appliance back.

Liked the choice and colours.

Our kitchen fitter passed on the cost to us that he'd been quoted. So we didn't have any of that lack of visibility on price.

EssentiallyDisorganised · 27/09/2021 16:00

We had a Wren kitchen fitted by our own fitter this summer and have been very pleased with it, the design service was excellent, everything arrived when it was supposed to, one incorrect item was couriered to us next day delivery. No damaged items.

outnumbered77 · 27/09/2021 16:13

Very happy with my diy kitchens kitchen. Customer service great too.

Autumngoldleaf · 27/09/2021 21:00

@PissedOffNeighbour22
Oh no was that recently?

PissedOffNeighbour22 · 28/09/2021 01:30

@Autumngoldleaf yes, within the last 6mths. We're not that far from their base, so that's the only reason we eventually managed to get most of what we ordered. Dread to think how badly it would have gone if we'd been at the other end of the country.
We have a large kitchen and ordered an expensive style so wasn't like it was a small, cheap order.

PissedOffNeighbour22 · 28/09/2021 01:47

Oh and another thing we didn't like about DIY kitchens was that when you design the kitchen online, you can't just order what's on the plan/list.
You have to order it separately - so need to search for each item and keep referring back to your design. Very easy to miss something if it's a very large order like ours was. The colour when it came was nothing like the colour online, but we do like it and it suits the room.
Be aware that when you order end panels they don't come cut to the size of the unit ordered, so leaves a messy finish having to do it yourself. We made a couple of shelves with the offcuts though.