If you had a kitchen fitted in 2023...

[YukoandHiro]

Can you share where it was from, roughly how much it cost (a bracket if you like) and whether you're happy with it...

We need ours done and feeling totally overwhelmed by the options, cost and fear of spending so much and making a bad choice...

Avoid Wren at all costs. Seriously do not give them a penny.
After 3 years all our doors and end panels looked awful. Hadn't realised the doors were wrapped and it all started coming away. We had paid for the big end range (think it was infinity or something like that)
Absolutely awful and I know the same thing had happened to lots of others.

We moved and got a new kitchen this year from howdens. Too early to say if it will be better quality in the long run but I love it and the builders recommended it to us.
Was £16k including an island and quart worktop. Another £4k for fitting.

We've got a howden kitchen as well. Very happy with it.

I'd spent a long time on the DIY kitchen planner so knew exactly what I wanted - and was set on going with them. But Howdens then said they'd price match.

I've got 4 floor to ceiling units, 7 wall units, 7 under counter units, 2 deep drawer units, and breakfast bar.
Units were £4k
I sourced applicances, tiles, flooring and worktop separately - I found better deals and things I liked more than Howdens were offering. About another £3k

Our builders fitted it including all electrics, plumbing, (had to move pipes etc), did flooring, and tiling.
Total cost was under £10k

I like it, it looks good and seems to be long lasting. But it's probably a different style if you're looking at Handmade.

Harvey Jones, about £60k inc worktops, appliances and flooring. Very happy with it.

How do you go about finding a decent fitter? I know you can ask on Facebook or Next Door but people mostly recommend their friends or family. My bathroom fitter promised the earth but was dreadful so it’s put me off finding a fitter separately from the guys recommended by the stores.

Getting our Howdens kitchen fitted next month.

Kitchen and appliances £8500.
Local joiner to fit £2200.
Plumber £400.
Lighting £200.
Plastering (ceiling) £200.
Painting tbc.

Approx £11.5k total.

It's a medium sized kitchen, fairly low spec units, laminate worktops, medium spec appliances. It's quite a bit above what we budgeted but it quickly became clear we would not get cheaper as other quotes came in at around £15k+.

Local independent. Completely customised to our sizes and requirements. £13Kish fitted for all units, including utility. Then appliances on top. £1800ish for quartz, £1800ish for LVT.

We’re absolutely over the moon! The quality far outdoes any of the big names. We were set on DIY but so glad we went for these as they are all solid oak dovetails drawers etc, really great quality carcasses, the exact colour we chose ourselves etc.

I meant to say, check out local independents. Had my fitter not suggested this one, I would have honestly thought it would be out of our price range.

We've bought the units and it's getting fitted in January.
6.3k for the units including a large island this is from DIY Kitchens. We're getting all the features I've ever dreamed of. Pan drawers, built in bin etc
Quartz 2.1k
2.8k for fitting Inc plumbing, electrics, plastering. Fairly expensive as we are also creating a laundry room and he will move some of the old units in there for extra storage.
Flooring around 1.5k for good quality laminate.
Cheaper units and worktop for laundry room about 500 quid.
Other misc bits like pendant lights, composite sink etc around 500 quid.
Designer to create kitchen 300 quid.

So about 14k in total.

DIY kitchens for a medium sized (7m by 4m ish)
Mid/top end units - painted solid wood doors, cornice plinths kickboards etc. and cupboards came prebuilt saving on labour
It was £9k including utility room units which is 2.5m X 3m(£7k for just kitchen)

£2k for quartz worktop Inc fitting (we bought one sheet)

Appliances we were quite particular about so bought separately (things like xxl extra deep sink, pyrolytic double oven, induction and gas hob etc) I shopped around and we got these for about £3.5-4k (including utility appliances)

It's totally worth it BUT I would say work hard on your kitchen design. Lots of the things I considered cutting as they were wasteful MAKE the kitchen. I am thinking in particular about the worktop, the multiple pan drawers I wasn't sure we needed and the giant sink.
I fully expect it to last 20+ years

Oh I forgot appliances. Will have to get these on 0 % finance as we'll have run out of money. About 1k as keeping same fridge, washer dryer.

Absolutely gorgeous kitchen! Where did you get your quartz from? That's about how much we need and your quote is cheaper.

In 2022, Howdens. About £20k including boiling water tap snd appliances and installation. Very happy with it. Got worktop elsewhere though.

@LegoLady95 would you mind sharing the name of your independent? We're local-ish and would like to do similar. Thanks!

Another Wren - galley kitchen. All new appliances including double oven dishwasher and hob. About 11k.

Wren were absolutely awful, sent wrong parts, held up installation process m, customer 'service' was appalling.

So wouldn't recommend Wren!

We went with Wren too - a lot of damaged units. They were replaced quickly but it delayed fitting. We used an independent fitter.

Approx £12k for appliances, worktops etc.

Flooring tiled £1500

Fitting £2k

Painting ourselves.

we used Homebase for the last two kitchens we bought (for different properties). Good quality, not one damaged item, quick delivery would recommend.

Going against the Howdens grain, the last owners put a Howdens kitchen in my house - about ten years ago.

It's an a sorry state. The doors are all warping and peeling (vinyl covered) - even in areas that get little use and never in contact with water - and the cabinets seem really ill fitting. Gaps where there shouldn't be. That may be the fitter of course, but kind of seems not like just in how they are.

It's really not lasting at all. Maybe we're just hard on a kitchen but I've never had one go tatty like this before.

I'll need to replace it soon and it's really out me off Howdens when I do.

IKEA kitchen fitted this year - £5900 including sink, tap, oven, hob & microwave

Fitted by DH plumbing was expensive as we were re-siting the kitchen - around £1000. Electrics around £600

Handmade Kitchens of Christchurch for the kitchen - 5.5m wall run with 3m island. £16k for the whole kitchen which was units, quartz and all new appliances including induction hob, 2 ovens and American fridge freezer. This was bespoke sizing to fit our space and it wouldn't have been this perfect had we gone for standards sizing.
DIY kitchen units and wooden worktop and Wickes shelving for walk in pantry £1.3k.
Fitting costs were part of a larger extension project but from memory was less than £5k.
I absolutely love it.

We’ve just had ours done last month. Our quotes came in between 18-35k. Cheapest quote was Wren, most expensive was a local independent company. We went for Howdens which was in the middle at around £25k.

Thank you! We’re in the Northwest and it was an independent quartz and marble company near to us.

Wren, about £15k four years ago.

Biggest mistake was using Wren's 'fitters'. Paid for a 2-man installation team. Only two here at the same time for about 10% of the fit. Poor workmanship, didn't fit correct brackets for later unit so when full the door jammed. Inset sink, they cut through front of worktop to start hole, glued together and then face strip added but you could see the joint inside. Two of the three worktops not fixed down.

Happy with the kitchen itself, loads of cupboards (went double height to ceiling)

Apologies, you said installed in 2023. Still. same warning about using their fitters

About £40 k , but that did include knocking down a wall , RSJ ,new floors , ceiling , re wiring , decoration , the whole hog

local independent kitchen fitter / designer / made to order
Over budget , but I love it , so worth every penny

Are you happy with it? Did that include installation?

Thanks everyone. Not sure this has clarified my thoughts but it's definitely helped to reassure me that within our budget IS possible. Time to get some more quotes in.