Shaker kitchen advice

[Girlsmum86]

Hi there, we're looking to redo our kitchen as part of a home renovation - any suggestions for good quality but not expensive shaker kitchens? We don't want to spend more than £15-20k but not sure if that's unrealistic for a wood shaker kitchen with a 3-3.3m island and units around, two ovens, a large sink with waste disposal etc.

We love the look of Tom Howley, Harvey Jones and Neptune (but obviously those cost more). Magnet Ludlow range is coming in at £30k (including appliances and a basic silestone Quartz worktop).

Handmade kitchens of Christchurch look good and cheaper than Magnet but I'm concerned about the painting aspect.

DIY Kitchens seems highly recommended online but I'm not sure how the quality compares to others for a £20-30k kitchen.

We have an appointment booked with Wren who ai think will also come in cheaper but they are not so highly rated on Which? as Magnet.

Very grateful for any thoughts / suggestions.

We have a handmade kitchens of Christchurch kitchen with a double width 3 m island. To give an idea of price, in the sale last year we spent about £11.5k to £12k on the cabinets. We paid someone to paint, which was another £2k, and money really well spent as it's quite tricky and involves knotaway, lots of coats, rubbing down, etc. Oiling the insides was easy, and we did that ourselves to save money,

We love it, it looks amazing, and so much more expensive than it was. I looked at DIY and Wren and they didn't come anywhere close on quality or look. We didn't want to spend Neptune or Devol prices (although loved the look) The insides of all of the drawers are gorgeous also, wood veneer, and it's so solid.

Btw I sent our plan to DIY and HMKOC and the price was very similar in the HMKOC sale.

The HMKOC has bespoke size cabinets, and gorgeous larders, countertop larders, drawers. Because it's bespoke up to a max size, a top tip is to go for wider units and drawers, as price wise it works out a lot cheaper. Have a look at their pricing book to see what I mean.

I love shaker kitchens, we have a cream at home, sage green rental property, and grey rental property, out of all of them I like the sage one, best which was from Homebase, it is really good quality, all the doors and drawers shut softly. It really suits the style of the property too. Wait until Jan for sales. Personally I would avoid Wren, and B&Q not heard good things about them. Enjoy choosing.

Our last kitchen was a cream Shaker style kitchen. While I liked the look of it I was forever cleaning greasy dust from the little ledges on the doors.

We had a new kitchen installed a couple of years ago and now have smooth doors with no indents. It is sage green which looks fabulous, and is much easier to keep clean.

Go to a joinery that specialises and cabinets. You get so much more for your budget and they can make bespoke changes.

We went for Magnet after looking a quite a few & went with a price comparison from DIY kitchens & asked for the manager's discount. They gave us 80% off the units. It's actually only cost a small amount more than DIY but Magnet give you much more support eg they will come around & measure up & check it all works. We can also make use of their interest free credit. Surfaces, sink, appliances we are getting from other places as it's cheaper.

Ours is a Magnet kitchen and I love it.

Avoid Wren.i can never understand people who use them despite their dreadful reviews. Howdens are good at mid range prices.

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 Thank you, that's really reassuring! Did HMKOC recommend someone to paint and install local to you? The painting aspect has me worried, but £2k sounds very reasonable taking into account the savings made in going with them. Are you based in London?

We are just outside London. Our builder installed for about £3.5k. The painter we just got a couple of quotes. I was wondering about the people that come and spray, that might be more cost effective? I'm not sure.

The countertops, we used Toucan Stone- they cover London also and were very reasonable and did a great job. Two slabs plus fabrication were about £5.5k in natural stone, but would have been about £3.8 k in quartz. Sorry to be so crass with pricing, but I found it really useful to know what people paid. We are just coming to the end of a renovation.....

We've had two Shaker kitchens now (different houses). The first was Wickes which wasn't as high quality and dust did get trapped in the indentations. Second was Howdens which was much better quality (worse designer though!) and the indentations in the doors are smooth so much easier to clean. It was about £8k for large kitchen and utility room units and worktops not including fitting. No island.

Thanks so much @A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 - so useful to get an insight into the pricing!

We got Wickes units off the shelf and our handy person fitted the whole kitchen for just a few thousand all in. Quality was absolutely fine.