New Kitchen - where do you begin?

[BaileysforBreakfast]

Help! We need to install a new kitchen and have no idea where to begin, which brands are any good etc. We have a pretty tight budget and would ideally like to have some bits covered by interest-free credit or low-interest (eg the units). We can pay some of the upfront costs, but not sure we can fund the whole thing. We've found an excellent builder/kitchen fitter who did work in the office where my daughter works. Obviously, we aren't expecting him to enter into any credit arrangement with us, so are expecting a hefty proportion of our cash funds to go to him. Wickes does credit but are their kitchen units any good? We haven't heard great things about Wren, have heard good things about Howdens, but I think everything would have to be paid upfront if we used them.

I have literally no idea to start with any of this, or what we should expect to pay for a kitchen. We don't even know what ballpark we're looking in. Our kitchen is 13 ft x 8 ft (approx) (4m x 2.5m). Has anyone had a similar-sized kitchen done in the last year or so? What did it cost?
Help! We're clueless!

The kitchen fitter could cost thousands, ours is a larger kitchen but we were quoted £6000 for fitting. My husband fitted ours as it came ready assembled in units so it was just a case of levelling everything. I would have a look at DIY Kitchens as they sell units ready assembled and consider fitting yourself. Think about how you would use your kitchen and what equipment you have, where you want the plates, cups to go etc. We decided to have lots of deep drawers, very useful. A pull out bin near the worktop you will do food prep, a full size larder with pull out drawers, a drawer for stack baking trays etc upright under the oven.

I had an IKEA planning appointment this week. I run of units including 4 tall units plus a small island with three drawer units comes in at £5000. This imcludes pull outs for 2 of the large units,

We are fitting it ourselves but fitting would have added £1700. They also offer 0% credit

We used IKEA when we were in London as it was close.
Since we have moved to the 'burbs, we used Magnet this time.
They were not too far away and had a colour and style of kitchen we loved.
When a bit was missing the Magnet designer actually brought it to the house- IKEA was a nightmare to chase up for bits- and to queue for!
Not impressed by our local Howdens although builders like them due to the mutually beneficial pricing 😒.
So I'd say- get brochures, go in and get a design, and choose the one that gives a really good service and attention and is easily accessible.

Keep in mind flat pack kitchens, aka IKEA, will add up the cost of the fitter, as they will have to build all the cupboards too. Ordering assembled will be sturdier.

IKEA do offer a 0% finance, and I've found them a great deal cheaper than most kitchen places (I'm talking 5k vs 15k at Magnet!) I recently went to the Ikea Greenwich showroom and was impressed by the quality considering the price - although there isn't the same choice in colours for the doors unlike somewhere like Wren, Magnet or Howdens.

Another thing you can consider with IKEA and to some extent Howdens, is getting replacement doors from another company like Husk, Noremax or Naked Doors. These, along with a stone countertop, will elevate the kitchen quality with a cheaper IKEA structure.

Another vote for Diykitchens. Units are ready assembled, with lots of options like reduced depth, mid height and more. They also offer bespoke colours, meaning they will colour match any colour out there. I think that's just for painted kitchens though, so not high gloss. Fantastic quality and great service too

Sounds like prices have gone up a lot in the last year. I can imagine the Ukraine war could have affected their supply chain.

I also emailed Karen at OnePlan. She was so brilliant. I sent her my current kitchen plans and she gave me a one hour phone consultation absolutely free. I didn't use her as the designer because she was so booked up but she opened my eyes to a few possibilities that really helped with my final design.

We went with Howden's in the end because our builder used them. Their designer was very good and happy to make some last minute changes when I decided to move the oven across the room. The units are holding up well but I don't rate their laminate worktops. They stain so easily! I'm saving up for a lovely recycled glass worktop that will probably cost more than the entire kitchen did.

What's your budget OP?

If you know any contractors who have a trade account with Howdens, it'll cost you 15% less. We have our kitchen re-done with Howdens and went through a family friend who has a trade account and our kitchen cost us a total of £9,500 (£15,000 without trade discount) and they are brilliant!

I did a similar sized kitchen last year through Wren on 0% interest free. My kitchen came to just over £6k (mid range kitchens) and I got my own builder to fit it. I had a few little luxuries (for me) wine fridge, bin draw, Belfast sink, nice taps and handles. The design process was great, delivery awful and kitchen so far, I've no complaints. My builder had to tweak a few bits here and there due to their measurements.

I also looked at Ikea - through the units looked and felt really cheap. B&Q, again cheap. Wickes were really expensive in comparison and flat packed. Magnet weren't interested in my small budget kitchen.

Personally, have never bought a brand new kitchen- and never will! Unless you have a huge budget to pay for a solid, well made and fitted kitchen, MDF carcasses etc are just not worth the extortionate prices they quote you. A carcass tends to be a standard size, so even buying them second hand and the doors new would be a huge saving rather than take out credit in this climate.

we’ve always bought second hand, high quality. Our first kitchen was off of Gumtree and our current kitchen is from The Used Kitchen Company. They have amazing kitchens for a fraction of the price, not all second hand- ex display too! Ours is Chalon- my dream kitchen. Or for more modern, expensive ones Used Kitchen Exchange (which I believe is their sister company)

you do need to be more creative with your space

This thread has given me a lot of food for thought, thanks! While I like the idea of ready-assembled units, this has made me think of the practicalities. We live in a small Victorian terrace with a hallway that's less than a metre wide, so self-assembly is probably a better bet for us. We have a good builder lined up, so that's probably the best bet. We can't do any of the work ourselves, whatsoever, so there's no point pretending we can. There's no direct rear access to our kitchen either, so everything will have to be manoeuvred up a narrow hallway with a sharp turn into our living room and then through to kitchen. Access is always a nightmare here. The lack of transparency around Howden's pricing really bothers me, although I understand their units are sturdier than some. I think we might get someone else like Wren or Wickes to come and give us a quote/design too, without necessarily using them in the end. That feels so bad, but I guess it's business and they're used to designing/quoting and then work not materialising, though I know I will feel guilty...

Just a thought, op - do you have a timer merchants close by? We've just updated our kitchen and were in a similar position in that we had a good tradesman already lined up. He suggested the local timber yard, who I had no idea did kitchens. They did a free design and we managed to get solid timber carcasses (which would've been way out of our budget with the likes of Magnet, Wren et al) and some really nice looking composite doors. Thrilled with the appearance, but more so the price!

*timber

Damn autocorrect!

We have just had, last week, a kitchen fitted by wickes, interest free credit, and very impressed with the service. Also love the new kitchen. The kitchen fitter when looking at the plan, suggested a couple of different size cupboards to what the planner had proposed. Galley kitchen, but had the oven, microwave and hob built in approx £14k. We are having a bathroom fitted by them next week :)

I had mine done a couple of years ago. I also had a builder/fitter in place.

I went online at ikea and used their design service to design the kitchen. When I was sure of the layout I wanted I printed it off and took it to B&Q who transferred my plan onto their system. They then provided all the kitchen, including appliances. The total cost of the kitchen/appliances was £6000 and the builder cost me just under £5000. The builder took out the old kitchen, knocked down the utility wall, re plastered, fitted kitchen including all plumbing and electrics, tiles and lighting, then decorated.

Any difference between ikea and B&Q units @nokidshere ? Do you prefer the B&Q units- I think that price is similar to what you would have paid at ikea 2 years ago.

The kitchen looks great btw.

I didn't use the ikea units so I can't say what they are like. But the online planner is really good and definitely worth using before you do anything else.

+1 for IKEA kitchen planner, you can fiddle away with it to your heart's content! The only problem I find with IKEA is they only do their cabinets in 20, 40, 60cm widths, so if you have a smallish space for your kitchen it may not be the best use of it. It's still worth a play in case the sizings do end up working.

Sheraton kitchens are well made, solid and quite attractive if you have a local branch of RGB builders merchants (mostly in the south I think). I have an excellent builder/joiner who recommended them as a little more expensive than Howdens. Our was fitted four years ago, and looks great even though I used the cheapest work surfaces.

FWIW, I think all the high street brands (IKEA, Howdens, wren, b+q, etc) are much of a muchness in terms of quality. There are differences in what cabinet sizes they offer - we were choosing between Howdens and B+Q but went with B+Q as they offer shorter corner units with pull-out storage (also the B+Q salesperson we dealt with was much more helpful than Howdens, who went out of their way to make things difficult) - so worth looking around if you want something particular.

Our kitchen - one tall unit, two corner units, seven base units and eight wall cabinets - was just over 3k with B+Q (they run a 15-25% discount at certain times of year). Howdens did match the price, but we preferred the B+Q cabinet configuration. 🤞 it arrives on time and looks ok once fitted!

Thank you for all your answers. We've made some progress. Found a highly recommended builder who has been around to have a look and giving us a quote for installation and have Howdens coming around on 1st April to measure and design.
😊

@BaileysforBreakfast - if you can afford it - experienced fitters are worth the candle. DB had a friend who helped him do it. It's a bit like the thing where people say better to spend more on the making and fitting of your curtains than the price of the fabric.

All best Baileys and hope it looks lovely

Wanted to update, just in case any of you are still thinking about the design stage. Had my design week with Karen at OnePlan and she's bloody amazing. Should get my finished PDF later today. Can't wait to send it places to get some quotes in. She came up with four designs first, nothing like what I had come up with. And I could choose which I liked or bits of various ones if I wanted. I'm going to get a walk in pantry that I had no clue I had room for. I'm just blown away. The zoom edit session was great and was 3 hours long. I tried out lots of colours and floor finishes and different worktops. I did three rooms ( kitchen, utility and dining/lounge) . Over a five day slot . Cost less than my plumber charged for installing my new understairs loo and that was just three days labour. Totally worth every penny.