Cheapest and easiest way to get a new kitchen

[chikagirl]

I know this has probably been asked a thousand times on here, but I could really go with some advice.

I'm a ftb and I moved into a house with an ugly, old and broken kitchen, seems to be chip board and wrapped mdf doors.

I can salvage the sink and the built in oven as they seem in good nick and I'm happy for them not to end up in landfill. I've also got under counter fridge & freezer which are old but again in good enough condition to keep.

I'm new to the area & have no family or friends or partner here to help with any design decisions or practical help - there's no way I could do any of the DIY myself apart from painting either.

The house is a nice 1930s semi and I've managed to buy it because it's in a bit of a state, and sadly because of an inheritance, but I need to be careful with spending money - like most of us I guess!

I went to Wicks and they drew up a plan and costed everything up - it comes to about £5k & £3k fitting and I'm sure I could find better quality, but cheaper - but is that impossible if you haven't got any connection with trades?

£8k just on the kitchen seems very high - but maybe I'm wrong, I don't want to buy the cheapest stuff - I'd like wooden doors at least.

The main cost seems to be the fitting, how on earth do I find a good fitter in this climate if I want to try and buy a kitchen independently? I find dealing with trades people quite difficult, I'm a bit socially awkward and I also hate that they often seem to mess you around or have low standards - how do you find ones that are competitively priced, but reliable?

Any advice gratefully received!

IKEA kitchen can look really top end, but IMO only work out a good price if you can fit them yourself. They don't have a recess void at the back, they go against the wall which means you need to make cuts in the sides/back of the ground units for all of the pipes etc. which sounds like something you don't have the time/knowledge/skills/tools for. & all of that bumps up the fitting price if you can even find a fitted prepared to fit one.

I had a small kitchen fitted by ikea. Excellent quality and for. Cost 3k for the kitchen (included sink, extractor, and cooker/hob)and 1k for the fit
paying it off on IKEA finance (after initial payment of 1k) which is 0% interest, so essentially it’s less than 80 quid a month over 3 years

Yes, the point about fitting is a good one. A number of builders warned me off IKEA kitchens - they’re very nice to use (inherited one in a previous property) but they are apparently more difficult to fit.

Well if you don't feel confident to do it, that's up to you. But what advantage is visiting the site?

If you intend to fit a kitchen yourself, it's probably not the best idea if you're not confident enough to measure the bare walls & if you're using a fitter they'll measure up for you.

the 'sheds' made pretty pictures, but with about as much sense as a 4 year old. Theo put a draw pack in front of the gas meter, cupboard doors that would have clashed. A wall cupboard that would have covered most of the kitchen window, all kinds of other things, it's absolutely no guarantee the kitchen will 'work'.

@chikagirl whoever you go with, source your appliances yourself. Better quality at a better price.

pre covid certainly, they'd definitely look over your plans to check if you'd missed anything (like kick boards/side panels etc) I suspect they would still now if you ask.

you can get many of their kitchens in bespoke colours for a very reasonable price They'll colour match to most paints & will do extras later on if you need a door or whatever replaced, but obviously that takes a bit longer & is a bit more expensive than getting one of their standard range colours.

I really should see if they want a sales person/showroom down south 😂😂

best of luck!

The advantage of visiting the site or showroom ( don’t know the setup there) is to see some examples of their cabinets etc. Getting a few small samples is not the same as looking at the actual products in my opinion

It's great when you have a husband, partner, family member who is competent! I live alone now & sadly don't have my wonderful Dad anymore, so I need to rely on tradespeople these days (after an accident I can't do as much DIY as I used to be able to). Which is frustrating & expensive!

good luck with the new kitchen!

Ikea kitchens are fine. DIY kitchens are better. I have both.

And I'm in France so getting it here was a challenge. Cost a fraction of the price I'd have paid for the same kitchen here.

Just looked on which: DIY, IKEA, Howdens and John Lewis are highest rated.

B&Q, Homebase and Wren are the lowest.

We got an IKEA one which was about £8k including fitting and a quartz worktop, we looked around a lot. I can see why they drop stars on customer service though, I found them hard to get hold of when it was being fitted and the worktop and main fitters were disagreeing. I love the end result though. We bought our utility from there too. All pipes in the right place so we fitted it ourselves and was fine. Just needed to watch some YouTube videos for how to fit the sink.

Thanks @WinterMusings if I was on my own, I would be getting a fitter, I did mention getting one this time but DH wants to do it, he will do it bit by bit, we will just get new cupboards put in the same place so the only major bit is where the sink is, we have a freestanding range cooker so nothing to fit there, he will be doing it next year so we plan to go into DIY kitchens to look at them before then when we go to that area in our caravan. Sorry about your dad

I would look into the cost of Ikea fitters OP, maybe they might still do the interest free, DIY don't have their own fitters so it would mean finding one

IKEA kitchens are good quality. We had one put in ten years ago. We then extended our kitchen and so it no longer worked but we have reused practically everything in our utility room. It’s stood up to being taken down, stored in an outbuilding for a year and then re-erected in a different configuration.

Definitely DIY kitchens. A fab product at a fab price. We have had ours for 2.5 years now and it’s looking great. It was the first time our builder had encountered them and he recommends them to his clients now, he’s done several since. Re: fitting, you’re going to need to find someone local, a recommendation is best - try social media or ask around at work. Having said all of that you’re still going to need around £5k I reckon including fitting and everything. If you’re not changing the layout at all then I’d consider just getting new doors for now, we did that in an old flat a friend had, with a 1980s kitchen. A small change but a world of difference.

@Grintyphop Thank you x.

pre covid, the showroom was great to visit! It had a great atmosphere, I haven't been since, but there are so many kitchens there it's brill!!

it'll save you a good chunk of money with DH fitting it & give him something to do/sense of achievement x

@FurAndFeathers can i please ask roughly how many units you have?

We used Wren last year and were very happy with them (used our own fitters - the which report has Wren as good for supply but poor for fitting which brings down their overall rating). The design service was excellent, as was delivery and one faulty unit was replaced the next day by courier after reporting it through their portal.

I'd say the only drawback with Wren was timing the special offers as they seem to have a different one every month.

I have an IKEA kitchen. Cost about 3k for the units and worktops for a fairly big kitchen. If I remember rightly, fitting was going to be about £2.5k so we did it ourselves with the help of a friend who is a plumber and had the tools. Building the cabinets was easy and they hang on a rail so it was fairly easy to fit. Even cutting the hole for the sink was fairly easy.
I would maybe see if you could build all the cabinets and then get someone else to fit them to save some money.

From experience and direct comparison between magnet and ikea
IKEA are cheaper and better quality
I had a client who insisted that they sort out their own kitchen (not unusual) (magnet)but let me do the utility because it would save money (ikea)
They have virtually identical doors but the IKEA ones were slightly thicker, the ikea carcasses were better built and the worktop cheaper and smarter
The magnet planner was awful and put in an awful lot of filler pieces so wasted a lot of space.
The only thing that was nicer about the magnet kitchen was the handles but so they bloody should have been for the mark up they put on them.
End result was they looked like they matched but the IKEA one was cheaper and in my (& the fitters) opinion would wear better.
I have experience across all price ranges for clients kitchens and I find that for budget options ikea and diy kitchens the process takes a bit more thought but you get the best kitchen for your money.

You can get quotes for the same layout from several companies then get them to beat each other! We did this with a design from Wickes, Benchmarx (which is the same stuff as Wickes, just supplied ready assembled rather than flat pack) and Howdens.

Went with the Wickes one in the end as the price ended up very reasonable and they had the best customer service. Bear in mind this will all vary branch to branch - our local Magnet was awful and we gave up with getting a quote from them whereas the Wickes designer was excellent and really listened to what we wanted.

A decent fitter will make all the difference so ask around for recommendations. Ours was installed by a local builder who also did other work for us. If you've got any local connections (work, toddler group, school WhatsApp) ask on there.
Ours came to £5k for the actual units (not huge kitchen but had some more expensive bits to maximise the storage) which came down from £8k. It cost £15k in total but needed some building work to reconfigure a window and soil pipe, new back door and window, plumbing was in a different position.

I have had IKEA kitchens fitted for several clients and have fitted one myself and although I've heard of people having issues I've never had a problem finding a fitter to do it or them have problems fitting them. Yes they are different but that's not usually a problem for a competent fitter and a bit of thought.

We've just had a new Magnet kitchen fitted. 100% happy with it. Would definitely recommend.

I'm in London, and I've just had my DIY Kitchens kitchen installed.They deliver nation-wide - the only drawback is visiting the showroom, but there's plenty to do near there to make it worth staying overnight.

I'm happy to take a trip to Yorkshire to look at DIY kitchens (I'm about as south as it's possible to be!) as I've always wanted to go to the Wakefield gallery but I've got no time to go during the week - is the showroom rammed at the weekend?

What do I need to do before I visit to make the most of it?
Measure the kitchen, design one on their planner, anything else?

I've had a WICKES kitchen in for about 17 years and it's still in really good condition.

As you are doing the kitchen the same set up take all your measurements with you (we got wickes to do plan they were £2000 dearer so just got the print out and took that with us) one of the assistant will be able to go through it with you to refine it, go with an open mind on which kitchen you want we went with the intention of getting a dark grey matt kitchen and came away with a light blue gloss one, they have mini kitchens set up so you get a pretty good idea of what it will look like and if your thinking of laminate worktops i can highly recommend their duropal ones we have the carrera marble square edge one really thick and not plasticky looking what i did was put a door sample against the worktop sample to see which one looked best , we went on saturday due to me working and it wasnt packed maybe ring them to make a timed appointment