New kitchen, have £10,000 to spend

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I'm totally lost trying to buy a new kitchen. The one we have is falling apart (new house). I had an appointment with Howdens and it was very disappointing, it was just so dull. The colour choice is really poor unless you can afford the custom colours.

Any suggestions? I looked at Wren and wasn't convinced by the quality. Our fitter doesn't fit IKEA.

I really want warm and inviting, must have handles and if there is a grain it needs to not feel not add a weird grey tone to the cabinets (like Howdens pink which I quite liked).

We went DIY kitchens during Covid so completely unseen. Much better than a Wickes kitchen we put into the last house. No delivery problems or after care issues despite PP's experience.

Quoted £18k by Howdens (it's is a big kitchen), spent £8k with DIY. The transparent pricing means you can plan to your budget - our most expensive item was a curved wall unit.

We went to the DIY Kitchens showroom yesterday but weren't impressed. All the doors have a plasticky top coat which makes them feel cheap. Even the solid timber ones had this coating. I can see how it would give them a lasting finish but I don't know why I'd pay for solid timber when it looks and feels the same as the coated MDF? The construction looked solid and there was a reasonable amount of choice but we'll probably get ours from Ikea as originally planned.

I have a Howdens one £8k all appliances and fitting and loads of other bits included too.

Largely I'm happy with it, but things I would change:
I chose a square edged worktop, steam has gotten (yes, I used 'gotten' I know MN hates it) under this above the dishwasher and caused the worktop to expand up and over the trim. A round nosed worktop has trim that goes all the way around rather than just stuck on the face

I bought a cupboard with a bin attachment, when I got the itemised bill at the end this cost £££££ and I would have preferred to buy the fitments from Amazon for less than £40 and do it myself. I do like having my bin in the cupboard though.

There's another posting on here at the moment, and a lot of people have had problems with DIY kitchens.

My Howdens quote for just units and oven, hob, extractor and plinth heather was nearly £10K @HPandthelastwish. No fitting but I know our fitter can buy for a discount. The only fancy thing I asked for was a small pull out larder. The design was just 'fit as many cupboards in as possible' and that's not what I wanted.

I don't even like being given more than two choices for toothpaste so this all feels overwhelming.

It’s not ubusual to get discounts of up to 80% at Howdens. It’s part of their smoke and mirrors pricing policy. Quote a completely ridiculous price, give a big ‘discount’ and the buyer thinks they are getting a bargain. Even though they could probably have still got it even cheaper by going somewhere that doesn’t employ such tactics.

That's fecking ridiculous and I can't be arsed to work with that @Doris86

Unfortunately most of the big name kitchen suppliers operate in the same way.

DIY Kitchens is a breath of fresh air in that respect.

🤣🤣🤣 depends how deep your pockets are.

I got a quiet last week from Ikea, £6k including fitting (and includes a dishwasher but no other appliances).

Avoid wren like the plague. They heavily monitor all social media and trust pilot reviews and take down anything negative. So its not a true reflection. There's a facebook group called wren kitchen disaster which is worth a browse. Its also good for suggestions of alternatives. Diy kitchens are good. We have a howdens kitchen that came with the house. Its okay. But nothing special.

I used DIY kitchens some years ago, and appliances from AO. The quality was great, we've moved now but when we left, it still looked like new. I also bought a wooden countertop from IKEA which I loved.

It was tricky to do the measuring etc myself, very nerve-wracking! But actually it was spot on.

We've fitted two lovely kitchens from DIY Kitchens, and had a nice overnight trip to their showroom which was well worth the journey.

The quality is excllent and five years on it still looked brand new.

Our fitter said the DIY kitchen was massively better quality than Howdens etc and their customer service was fantastic - we had one unit with a small issue and they couriered a replacement out the next day.

Yes same experience here. Fitter was amazed at the quality and price we paid.

I'd find a fitter who does ikea. You get a lot for your money and the quality is great.

I hooked the diy group on Facebook but some of the reviews about issues after delivery put me off. But the actual kitchens seem to get a good rep.

What about English Rose Kitchens.

Look at second hand kitchens. My friend got an amazing one from someone who was very rich and barely used theirs. It was twice as big as my Howdens one, a higher spec and the same price

We have a modest size kitchen as part of a kitchen diner. We went with Wren. £14k including fitting. Their infinity plus range with quartz worktops and upstands. Includes neff large gas hob, neff built in combination microwave, single oven, dishwasher. We have a stand alone fridge We are keeping. Very pleased with the design.
I'll let you know how the fitting goes!

I got a new kitchen in September and we looked at howdens/wren etc and we got a quote from a local kitchen place that I saw recommended on fb and we ended up going with them. Roughly £14k for kitchen including all appliances and we got a new ceiling put in by them and to be honest the quality of the cabinets is better than the big places we went to and our old kitchen was a state so we needed a lot of extras done. I recommend looking locally just to see what's available you might be surprised and we negotiated a bit and got about £1k off.

We made the long journey to the showroom, well worth it and very happy with our custom colour kitchen. It looks way more expensive. Although we did opt for an expensive dekton countertop.

Diy kitchens meant to say

We moved into a house with a Magnet kitchen that was good quality. Thankfully my DH does all the fitting. We looked at lots, even a relatives fancy £50k one, apart from solid wood worktops, they are much of a muchness. Last one was IKEA, old cottage, shaker style, butler sink, range cooker, this one wicks fitted 11 years ago, still immaculate.

We went to visit DIY kitchens - it's 2 hours from us too but we combined it with a weekend in Sheffield.

Oh my goodness it's an amazing place.

My DP was shocked at how fabulous it was. We got lots of ideas and although we didn't end up getting the kitchen from there it's definitely worth a look.

You can get samples sent to you so you can see the quality.

Ive had my last 5 kitchens utility and boot room all from d.i.y kitchens. They were fantastic. There’s a showroom Oxfordshire way as well now.
This is my current kitchen.