New kitchen.

[allboysherebutme]

I'm going to have a new kitchen fitted after Christmas.
Any recommendations please, on good quality, good service ect.
TIA. X

We are renovating and read lots of reviews, listened to lots of recommendations from our builders/carpenters along with relatives in the trade.

ALL said to avoid Wren kitchens for a start
We went to Wickes, but found that their 1/2 price sale was FAR more expensive than we'd expected for a so-called sale!
We visited multiple other show rooms, independent kitchen shops etc and were losing hope. Limited styles or colours, thin doors, laminate which will peel in a year etc.

Our carpenter recommended an independent kitchen supplier. No shop, no staff. He was able to source the identical doors we'd seen in a bespoke shop for half the price!!! The handles he sourced were so much different to what I had scoured hours on the internet to find!

If you don't have any friends/family/trades to get recommendations from, ask on nextdoor.com for local kitchen suppliers. It can be a minefield so be cautious. Best of luck.

@MarmiteCoriander Thank you. X

Absolutely shop local rather than a national chain of stores. Look on Facebook local groups for reviews and recommendations.

Following this as we last had our kitchen renovated about 15 years ago - we bought the units from B&Q and used their design service but we were on a tight budget so assembled all the carcasses ourselves to save on cost then we had a local kitchen fitter come and fit everything. Still looks good but moving house so planning on changing the kitchen in new house next year

We have just had a Homebase kitchen fitted, very impressive quality for the price, lovely soft close doors and pan drawers. Everything arrived as promised, no damaged items. Very pleased with it. And would recommend.

Following as we just moved and new kitchen will be done at some point in the next year

Our excellent fitter recommended b&q. We used howdens in the end and it’s great. Went with an independent company for the silestone worktop. And upgraded to neff oven etc. the howdens designer was great.

DIY Kitchens seem to be very popular and have brilliant reviews. There are a few Facebook groups about them. It'll be a few years before I replace my kitchen but that's the first place I would try next time.

We’re almost finished a kitchen refit , we’ve used howdens , mid range , my BIL , who’s fitting it said it’s not as good as the benchmark one he fitted for our son at the start of the year . I will say it looks brilliant! All sage green draws and no top cupboards ☺️

My Wren kitchen got fitted last week ( by my own fitter) very pleased with the company and their customer service, good solid units, everything was designed correctly etc . Not sure why everyone is slating them

At least you are happy with wren so far. The issues others have mentioned about them is mainly- things missing on delivery and things breaking/peeling/falling apart within a year. Hopefully yours will be fine though.

We had great experiences with IKEA kitchens. It’s really easy to get the little luxury extras like drawers in drawers and lighting

Howdens have good quality, good value kitchens.
My partner is in the trade and they always buy from them. We got ours from them a year ago and it's been great.

Just finishing ours, local company supplied and designed, went for the best we could afford and don’t regret any of it, it’s stunning. It has however been far more disruptive than we’d anticipated!

We used a kitchen broker who gave a list of a few local very good companies

I had a really good experience with Wren and an independent fitters

We almost went with DIY Kitchens but ended up choosing a local kitchen fitter who gets trade cabinets and customises them. We also looked into IKEA carcasses plus one of several places that supply ply wood doors to fit IKEA units e.g. Plykea.

DIY kitchens. Loads of styles and colours. They do great worktops too.

We went with DIY kitchens last year. Excellent quality and customer support. The units come ready built too. They came in £4 cheaper than Howdens and no shady builder discounts either which was a big plus for us.

£4k cheaper

My daughter recently got a Wren kitchen fitted and it looks fabulous. She didn’t have her own fitter so they matched her with a company who could fit the kitchen including plumbing, electrics etc.
There were a few issues with a missing cupboard and the wrong sink sent but they were quick to replace them so overall we were fairly impressed.

Just had our kitchen installed from DIY kitchens and the quality is so good. Customer service also fabulous. No complaints at all. Love my bespoke colour too.

I just got my DIY Kitchen installed and it's great! Looks like a bespoke kitchen at fraction of the price

I’ve gone with Mayfair for solid worktops I was quoted over two grand but I’ve manage to get them down to 1700 which I’m pretty happy with. Units and doors are just from Wicks honestly think it’s much of a muchness if you’re gonna go with a flatpack.