DIY Kitchens

[BG2015]

We have just moved into our new home 2 weeks ago. We knew that we were going to change the kitchen eventually so went up to the DIY kitchens showroom to have a look what was on offer in June before we moved.

We live in Staffordshire so it's a trek for us but we were in Sheffield for an event so travelled a bit further to take a look. We were impressed.

My DP, who does a lot of cooking declared this week that the kitchen was a nightmare. I agree, we have very little storage and it's hard work. We have downsized so we knew it would be tough. It doesn't flow, we have stuff everywhere.

We've been to Wren this morning as a starting point. We liked the design we were shown and he made good use of the space. We have a small u shaped kitchen. We now have a list of base units, appliances etc, a 3D photo and a price.

If we go up to DIY kitchens do we need to book an appointment and could they work off the Wren design to cost/design the kitchen? I'm presuming they could.

We have an amazing fitter who fitted our last kitchen. He prefers Howdens kitchens but will fit anything really. He says DIY are cheap but unreliable.

Any decent designer will come to your home and measure the space.

They can then go off what you want/need regardless of the other designer. By all means show them - they want your business.

You can always ask the fitter to check everything has arrived before starting the job.

Oh and can we see it?

This is our very small kitchen. I took a photo of the screen. I'm glad I did as the 3D image/photo isn't a true colour.

The colour is Cashmere

This is our current kitchen

had our kitchen planned by a big company then sent the itemised list to DIY who listed their equivalent units. The whole thing was easy and I love my kitchen.

Screenshot

@angstridden2 was it loads cheaper?

The design looks lovely and you are free to ask anyone to see if they can us3 the ‘design’ I suppose.
The ‘new’ one gives you even less work surfaces though?

Curious about this (have never redone a kitchen but going to in the not so distant future). Do the big companies know people take the designs off elsewhere? Do they give them to you anyway knowing that?

Tbh, it doesn't look much different... What changes have you made that means the new design will change the kitchen from a nightmare to amazing?

DIY kitchens have an online planner. If you use that, they will check it over for you. All correspondence can be via email/messaging. And they make recommendations wrt you order.

I didn't find them unreliable btw. A couple of things were wrong in the order, but they replaced them free within the week. And I forgot to order a drawer insert, which they sent out first class for me. Is your fitter sayinv Howdens as he gets more money? I know most say they pass on their discount, but Howdens are so obscure about their pricing that it wouldn't surprise me if not all the discount is passed on tbh!

It looks to me like you will have less cupboard space and less worktop

We will have 3 pan drawers - massive plus for us.

Eye level oven, this is our retirement home, bending isn't great 🙈

Dishwasher - currently don't have one.

Extra wall units to the left by the fridge - none there now.

Extra worktop by the sink, there's a gap currently so this is where the dishwasher will go. We will lose some worktop space by the oven but gain it on the other side.

Pull out larder unit in between the fridge and oven.

If you’re on Facebook there’s a very useful group. It’s not an official page, just people who have used DIY kitchens-there’s a wealth of knowledge and experience on there plus some kitchen designers who are happy to comment/advise on your plans.

I’m thinking if using them too and am actually going up to the showroom tomorrow. Any tips?

We have DIY and our fitter said it was the easiest kitchen he's ever fitted! We had no issues at all, all arrived when it was supposed to and their customer service on the phone when I needed help with my order was great. It was less half the price of the howdens equivalent.

@Sanch1 how did you go about finding a fitter please?

We’ve just fitted a DIY kitchen ourselves and I love it. We got the Linwood in the colour cashmere.

the showroom is worth visiting to see all the colours and worktops options together, however they won’t help you design it in store, you need to do that yourself online.

We've had an itemised list. No individual prices on it.

The appliances come to a third of the total cost. Sat this afternoon and tried to beat them on cost but they were £400 more by sourcing them ourselves - I was gutted 🙈 convinced I could find them cheaper.

Going to email the list to DIY and see what they come up with.

I did notice a coupe of odd things slipped in e.g cutlery drawer and a glass holder for the dishwasher- neither of which we need so they need to come off.

I went to Magnet & Howdens and my fitter then redrew it using the best ideas from both. He placed the order with DIYK and I paid for it. I'm also in Staffordshire and I love my kitchen !!

Ive just had a wren kitchen fitted, shaker cashmere in fact, just like your design but different work tops . Really impressed with the design and process and in love with the result. A few people recommended DIY but I just wanted to have the smoothest most integrated process possible. We used the wren fitting service.the only niggle we had with thay was that we needed some electrical and plumbing which has an extra charge and the first guy they sent took the piss with the quote.so we demanded a second fitter quote But the second guy that came was excellent and it worked out actually cheaper than the private fitter quotes I got.

@Sanch1 our fitter is a very well known local whizz.He lives round the corner from my parents, he fitted our last kitchen. He's booked up until next February- that's how good he is.

@Yorkshiredolls curious as to what worktop you had.

It was just the carpenter from the local builder that was doing our extension.

I’ve planned and bought two DIY kitchens and they are fantastic. Both fitters were v impressed too. The service from DIY was excellent.
I drew a plan on their online planner then visited their showroom during a day trip from London. One of their planners looked over it and improved a couple of things.
I recommended them to our friends who are property developers and they have used them ever since.

we got Calcutta cloud gloss worktops with the shaker cashmere cupboards and the American copper cup handles, so a completely different look. Its a premium laminate but its beautiful and looks just like marble. The cashmere is more a subtle creamy grey colour in real life, its actually nicer in real life than it looks in the Wren mock up images

I saw a brilliant bit of advice recently, which was to fit your dishwasher higher. As this is your retirement home I would really consider it, makes unloading much easier.
Sorry to be that person, but I don't think your new design is brilliant. I'd definitely get a few other ideas before commiting.

Also, I suspect Howden give good trade prices, hence the reason an awfulmlot of fitters seem to recommend them. They give two prices. One for your fitter, one what the fitter charges you.