10k kitchen budget - who would you use?

[GardensandGrandDesigns]

Hi

It's a large kitchen with 2m island so I need to budget really well. I am budgeting another 4k on top for appliances as we like gadgets! Currently looking at DIY kitchens and is pricing up at 11k. Anywhere else I should look? Experience of DIY kitchens?

Thank you!

My sister is having a nightmare with wren, she has ended up with a kitchen that isn’t heat or waterproof, the doors are bubbling where they’ve got wet or are too near to the stove.
They are being extremely unhelpful and when they have sent replacement parts (the problem is reoccurring) she’s having to pay a fitter. The kitchen she replaced looked in better condition and it’s only a year old.

Had a dreadful experience with B&Q. I've subsequently used Howdens 8+ times with several builders. They all have a preference for Howdens, and I find them good quality with excellent customer service.

Please keep all clear of wren. We were looking in spring and their showroom, ie where they are trying to sell you stuff, to entice you, the doors were all falling off, filthy and rude staff (this was MK). Also appalling car park to try and get into! But very poor quality. Our fitter said if we had bought wren he would not fit it.

Howdens quoted for our kitchen at £12k without appliances or labour.

DIY Kitchens came in at just under £8k for the same. Actually better as we went for an increased door thickness for that price.

B&Q felt small and shoddy in person. I hate Wren for their sales techniques. I had a Wickes kitchen last time and they kept adding more to the fitting price...

DIY Kitchens is almost certainly the cheapest you'll get. I'm happy with the quality; it's as good as Howdens etc.

We have just had a new kitchen through wren. Highly recommend, the whole process was easy, great service and after sales were brilliant - we were missing some hinges and a piece of decor panel and they were sent straight away so cannot fault them.

We had consultations with b&q whose design was terrible and we are still waiting for a quote from howdens despite chasing several times!

Neighbour has had a Wren kitchen and the customer service has been terrible.

I'm so surprised about the Wren bad reviews. Our last kitchen was Wren and we thought they were really good but that was in 2014.

We've just had ours from diykitchens installed. Excellent quality, everything arrived undamaged. Our fitter was very impressed. We went for one of their solid wood ranges, and opted for F&B colours. Units came in at around £8k and we have quite a large space.

We've had a terrible IKEA kitchen. It was the new range in 2004 and we've already replaced several door fronts..(one has been replaced twice). The carcasses are good but we are now looking to have all the doors replaced by a different company.

Ikea might be cheaper than DIY, as might B&Q. Howdens seems to be a similar price if your fitter gets a decent discount. Wickes more expensive.

Shop around, but you may find you have to compromise on some of your choices.

My partner is a joiner and won't take any jobs to fit kitchens bought from Wickes

Check Trustpilot before you go near Wren. My poor Dad had a nightmare with them - they contract out to local fitters and it’s just luck if you don’t end up with an utter cowboy. It was so stressful & Wren couldn’t care less. Think about how much of your 10k goes on their sales staff, commissions and giant showrooms.

Howdens or IKEA and a highly recommended independent fitter - check Rated People or Checkatrade - seems like a better use of budget.

Don't touch wren with a barge pole, we had no end of problems with them and their customer service is appalling.

We had a mid range B+Q in our previous house, not a great experience. They constantly discontinue items at no notice so they can take your order and pay and between that and the order being fulfilled an item will be discontinued and you'll be left having to choose from alternatives which may or may not suit. Our independent fitter said they do this all the time. So we had a few last minute changes and if it causes you problems they don't much care, nothing we can do, says the staff.
Get your own fitter if you can, the price you pay for fitting doesn't all go to the fitter of course and usually what the fitter gets is less than they could get if they worked for themselves so they often are those who can't get repeat business (🤔) but need regular work, or hate the admin that comes with managing your own customers. One of those options is potentially going to give you problems.

BiL had a dreadful experience with Wren.

We had a brilliant one with DIY Kitchens.

DIY are fantastic. We are on our second. The quality is great as is after sales service. I'd avoid Wren like the plague. Had a wicks one and b&q previously and I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole, the b&q one fell apart after 18 months.

Second DIY kitchen, in a different house! We haven't had to replace it.

The build quality of our new ikea utility room is great but the stress of dealing with them is huge. They cancelled the whole fitting with four days’ notice for reasons that made sense to them but nobody else. They couldn’t get hold of the sink although we were able to drive over and collect it ourselves. You deal with multiple people who don’t seem to communicate.

But the units are good. And I love the bloody sink. Just as well, as I had to lug all 24.4kg of it into my house! 😆

Check out betterkitchens.co.uk. similar to DIY but even better quality. All online, great customer service and they will also produce a plan for you if you send measurements and photos. Ours is a couple if years old now but still looks brand new. Really impressed with them. They have a showroom in Weston super Mare.

I love our Magnet kitchen, ours is medium sized and it cost far less than quotes we had from Wren and Howdens (around 8k), that included fitting, range oven and dishwasher. The quality is brilliant, it comes ready built and feels very solid. I wanted laminate worktops for ease of maintenance and cleaning so that did help keep costs down a little. I've also heard very good things about Benchmarx.

We got a wonderful kitchen from Wickes - we tried Howdens, Magnet and Benchmarx but the designers there didn't listen to what we wanted, whereas the Wickes one she really listened and came up with a brilliant design. Had expected to choose Howdens as our builder really raved about them (probably because he got a discount!) but the designer produced a design that ignored what we asked for. I think a lot is down to the designer you get - the Magnet one we tried was a trainee who wasn't well-supervised. We popped into a different Magnet whilst on hol to ask a few Qs and they were so helpful in that branch!

Wickes ones are the same as Benchmarx except they come as flat pack whereas Benchmarx are ready assembled which was why our builder was keener on Benchmarx! He was still happy to fit Wickes though. And there was no problem getting a replacement door for one that arrived damaged.

The price was fairly similar across them all and you can get them to try and beat each others' prices for a similar design.

[quote Shadowboy]@GardensandGrandDesigns they have a fantastic showroom! No pushy sales tactics. We had a yore of £10k including some gadgets on a very very tricky kitchen (with 5 doorways) so design was crucial and theirs was the best. Plus the doors being solid wood. We also opted for quartz at that price. By comparison wren was £11k and only wrapped doors, not real wood.[/quote]
@Shadowboy may I ask if that £10k included the fitting? They're close enough for me to look at, thank you.

I am coming to terms with not being able to afford a Devol kitchen

And five doors! Mine is bad enough with four...

I used the design B&Q created with me but bought Howdens units. Then I found a builder who customised a few Howdens units and I did things like use a wall cupboard as it was narrow as a floor cupboard in the dining part of the kitchen and a matching plate rack above it and made a customised dresser.