which kitchen company to go with? reasonable yet good quality

[shari87]

hi we are naive to this renovation process. want to renovate kitchen please suggest which kitchen company to go for. reasonable with good quality and also should I go for English shaker style or should I go for modern handless. busy household just for reference
many thanks

We’ve recently had a Wren kitchen fitted and can’t fault them. We had a lot of meetings with designers from different companies before deciding.

We got our timber inframe shaker from DIY Kitchens. It's really good quality. Although the onus is on you to measure correctly and, if you miss something or need a replacement, it's not as easy as nipping to howdens. Butt Howdens couldn't come close to price matching. The units come ready built so are fairly simple to fit.

The style of kitchen you go for is entirely down to what you prefer! Our house is rural and old-ish so the in-frame shaker suits it. I didn't want something modern. Ours is wood so can be repainted and touched up if it gets bashed. Wrapped mdf possibly a bit less tolerant of bashing. Which is what most slab doors usually are I think.

A cousin of mine who has a house that's on the market for £1.95m <Yes not a typo!) had a new kitchen fitted by Magnet. She was without a working kitchen for 2 months. She was having quartz work surfaces fitted & when they arrived didn't fit. 3 months into later she still didn't have the fancy surface into the alcove for the cooker. It took 5 months before her kitchen was complete.

I've recently had a new B&Q kitchen fitted. My builders met me at the store & helped me buy a good quality kitchen that they then fitted in 5 days whilst making sure that I had everything that I needed every evening to make a meal.

So I recommend that you find a good builder who will help you.

I have just had a Magnet kitchen fitted and I am so happy with it!
They came out to measure up and suggested different designs etc and left me with several coloured doors so I could see them in different lights.
But I think what really made all the difference is that we had a really good local builder in to fit it - he wasn’t cheap by any means but his work is superb.
The trouble with just going to any of the big company’s and getting them to install it is that you don’t know who you will get - they may be good but then again may not be,

Has to be DIY Kitchens. Better quality AND much cheaper than the big name suppliers.

Also a much more transparent pricing policy, you can see the exact price of every unit you are buying with DIY. Unlike the smoke and mirrors pricing policy of the major suppliers, who offer a special ‘discount’ only if you sign on the dotted line today, which still ends up being double the price of DIY Kitchens.

I would not recommend Magnet at all. Kitchen quality is poor and the fitter was an utter bellend.

https://pineland.co.uk/

And get your own fitter.

DIY Kitchens were fab for us.

Howden did our last one and were brilliant. We needed to find a fitter but not sure if that's the case now.

Our kitchen is Wren but we used our own fitter. We had so many people tell us not to use them/poor reputation etc but we couldn’t fault our designer and our kitchen looks as good as the day it went in, five years ago.

Ours is a Howden’s kitchen, you need to find a fitter to buy it through, but I can’t fault the product going strong after 5 years. They may provide lists of fitters if you go to your local showroom.

DIY Kitchens with your own fitter. Cheaper and better quality.

I’ve just had mine fitted with Wren, good sturdy units, good design ideas and while the fitter’s communication wasn’t great their workmanship is excellent.

Definitely DIY kitchens. We have a solid wood shaker and it's beautiful. Builder said it was great quality. We got our quartz worktops from al-Murad, which was less expensive and they were a dream to work with.

Sorry to jump on thread, we are knocking a wall down to make open plan kitchen / dinning room so also looking for recommendations.

Seen a few people. Recommend diy kitchens.

Can I ask what the process from ordering to delivery was like please? If I use the kitchen planning tool, does that then tell me what all I need to order?

I would be a bit apprehensive about ordering from them as there is no show room to see kitchens before hand.

Been to wren so far and the design process was very polished but again, seen mixed reviews.

We used DIY kitchens in August and it was good value but.... it was hard to get a fitter to fit it and we measured something wrong ( didn't offset the cabinets to allow for pipes and the 4cm service gap whilst on paper was big enough, was not big enough!) The planner is good but not fool proof. We did manage to fix the issue but it was costly and very stressful. Ironically I would do it again as I learnt so much about kitchen design I would feel confident doing it again but it was stressful and daunting.

DIY kitchens were fab for us.

@mynamefor2025 There are two big DIY-K showrooms, they’re excellent!
After the planner stage, it’s ordered an checked by the DIY team. But it does mostly rely on you getting things correct. Look on the Facebook page. So much helpful advice!

@mynamefor2025 Yes at DIY you create a design and it then shows you what you need to order. You then add those items to your basket. A member of staff will then check your design against your order, and advise you if you’ve missed anything.

They do have showrooms near Oxford and Wakefield. If you can’t get to either of those, the the amount of positive experiences in here should reassure you about the quality.

The difference in price and quality between DIY and the major suppliers is incredible. You’ll save thousands of pounds and get a better kitchen.

We used handmade kitchens of Christchurch. They do 50% off sales every couple of months so definitely worth waiting for. All units handmade to measure. You have to pay for the design but get it off the units. It does come unpainted but they will recommend companies to paint. My kitchen still looks amazing 4 years later and the experience was good. It looks like a Neptune kitchen but for a fraction of the price.

This is from 2 years ago, so the prices won't be the same, but he compares, like-for-like, five kitchens, from Magnet, Wickes, Howdens, Wren and DIY-Kitchens.

It was this video that prompted me to go with DIY. They came out on top in almost all categories.

Our quotes ranged from £33,000 with no appliances (local independent company) through the £20,000s (Howdens and Wickes - also no appliances) to £16,000 including 8 new, integrated appliances (DIY). We bought quartz worktops elsewhere (£3,500) and paid £2,500 to an independent fitter.

We went with an independant after getting quotes from howdens, wrens etc. The kitchen ended up being from magnet. All the appliances are neff. Love my kitchen.

My parents just had a DIY kitchen fitted and it’s such beautiful quality compared to my handless Wren.

Do ypu have an independent ? We used one and the service was great as they project managed everything. The cupboards etc were lifestyle solo.

Another vote for DIY Kitchens here. Beautiful kitchens at good prices, lovely showrooms and zero sales pressure.