New kitchen - where to buy?

[Ladyof2024]

I have never bought a new kitchen before and wondered if people who have bought one recently could recommend a range or company that they were 100% satisfied with.

I need new kitchen base and wall units, worktop, hood and extractor, as mine are falling to bits. Don't want anything too cheap but don't have money to burn, either!

Ikea? B&Q? Wickes? Howdens? Wren Magnet? Another specialist kitchen company?

Many thanks for any replies!

I've just ordered mine from The Olive Branch.

I wanted DIY kitchens, but I didn’t like their oak doors, so I ended up with IKEA and bought the doors elsewhere. IKEA is mega easy and have millions of options for drawers and things, but if DIY had had doors I liked I’d have been tempted.

Another vote for DIY kitchens 👍 ours is fab, still totally love it, and will be using them again when we redo the kitchen in our new house

Another vote for DIY Kitchens we got ours three years ago got Wickes to do the plans as we were changing the layout, and used their plans at the showroom as we live nearby DIY was £2000 cheaper than Wickes for better units , still looks like a new kitchen now

We have IKEA and are very happy.

Mine is from DIY kitchens and I'm very happy with it. Downside is they don't offer a design service, but they have a great easy to use design planner on their site which I used as I had a very clear vision. Then I got a local builder to check it before ordering and then fit it.
https://www.diy-kitchens.com/

IKEA.
they have a 25year warranty.
I purchased mine during lockdown and then only finished building it this year (because I didn’t start iy, not because it was too hard to do)
i built my own.
fucked up a few drawer assembleys, and went to the store to see if I could buy the parts I fucked up.
they gave them to me for free.
they will replace all the components of the drawers and units for 25years.

i like that I could change the internal fittings easily if I change my mind in 5/10 years time just by going into the store, you can’t do that withhowdens or wickes etc easily.

i like the drawer dividers etc that fit in their drawers.

Go to somewhere like Howdens to design for you. Then use the design to order the units off DIY kitchens instead for a fraction of the cost.

Though to be honest the design Howdens did for me was pretty crap. I did a much better job designing myself on the DIY kitchens design tool.

They don't have the colours of doors/drawers I want.

Our kitchen in our previous house was Wickes and was very good quality. Kitchen in this house was DIY kitchens and excellent quailty too - we've used DIY 3 times now (for a utility room and in my MILs house) and have always been pleased with them. Tbh I think a decent fitter is very important though.

Used wren for our last kitchen, about 5 months after fitting one of the doors literally fell apart when our granddaughter opened it falling on her head, ended up in a/e, they tried to say she’d been swinging on it, several other doors have come away since, wouldn’t touch them with a proverbial barge pole, DD used b&q, no issues with them

Aww that's a shame @Ladyof2024 was there nothing else that you liked?

I've had ikea and howdens. Ikea was much more durable and looked as good as the day it was fitted 10 years on. Howdens is falling apart after 8 years.
But I'm sold on diy too either way all these recommendations!

@Ladyof2024 As others have said is there any others you like at DIY Kitchens.

We fitted a full DIY Kitchens last year its brilliant, the quality is excellent.

We actually went to IKEA a couple of months ago to have a look around for some things, whilst we were there we decided to check out their units and kitchens. Quite frankly the quality at IKEA was shocking compared to what we had bought.

I would never touch an IKEA kitchen now when we have compared to what we bought from DIY.

has Anyone had compact laminate work surfaces? I’m struggling to get the things I want in the suppliers I want to use!

@Ladyof2024 DIY will do bespoke colours for a slightly higher cost. We wanted a particular navy blue as we have navy quartz worktops and wanted the colour to match .... and it does! We didn't pay much more.

A picture may help!

We went with DIY Kitchens 7.5 years ago. Happy with the quality and cost. Only thing is you need someone to check measurements very carefully! DIY will not do this for you.

We missed off a side panel and half a dish rack by accident and had to order these after which added more time and cost to the kitchen fitter because he had to come back.

We measured ourselves and the spacings were extremely tight we only just managed to squeeze in our dishwasher and washing machine. We didn't have the experience to understand how much gap we should have factored in. If we had an extra 2cm it would have been a bit more comfortable as now they are difficult to pull out for maintenance.

I'm also voting for DIY kitchens. Two kitchens, two different houses and I'm still recommending them. Mine is 10 years old and going strong.

If you don't find what you like please don't use any of the major retailers for kitchen fitting - I don't know anyone who has a good experience. They generally use subcontractors without any effective quality control. Any good kitchen fitter will be overwhelmed with work word of mouth - they don't need to take subcontract work from one of the nationals.

Take the advice of the kitchen fitter you have found.

We've just had our DIY kitchen fitted. Obviously I can't speak for longevity but feels good quality ( we went with the painted wood, in-frame Helmsley) and the couple of small issues we had with the delivery have been rectified promptly.

Downside is that, due to us having to tweak a couple of things in the build and the space being slightly different, I've had to order extra end panels and another unit which will take more time than, say, nipping down the road to Howdens.

The price was £3.5k less than Howdens best price for the equivalent range (the Chilcomb in-frame).

They'll colour match any colour you want.

@MissFritton65 your kitchen is absolutely stunning.

We did ones and got them to install it. V happy. Lots of virtual meetings with the designer and then the kitchen took a week to install.

@Ladyof2024 thank you and it's been installed 3 years now and still looks like new!

It looks great and very clean