Anyone recently installed a new kitchen?

[Jasper]

This is still in the realms of fantasy for me right now, but I do take ages to make up my mind about a major purchase! I am looking to refit my kitchen at some point in the next year probably. I have already had lots of great advice here regards getting an aga or similar and that is definately a major part of the plan.. Basically I want a medium priced kitchen (Better than B&Q's cheapest and nowhere near Smallbone and Devises!). Nothing too fancy, and I won't be buying any new fitted appliances. I have seen one I quite like at Magnet. Also have looked in IKEA.They seem reasonably priced but it is hard to tell if they will fall apart after a short time.It all seems very complicated, working out what you want to put where etc. and of course it is an expensive decision you will haev to live with for a very long time.
Anyone been through all this recently and got any advice and recomendations?

We had an Ikea kitchen at our old house, and I wish we could have brought it with us!

We had it fitted over 3 years years ago, and it was still going as good as new. All the drawers and cupboards worked really well and we had a solid wood worktop. It was from the Nexus range, not sure, plain beech or birch with big handles.

I would certainly recommend one to anyone.

message withdrawn

We had an Ikea fitted 8 months ago. We are thrilled (we have friends who have theirs for years and are also very pleased). We did our own planning thanks to their special Kitchen catalogue. We then went to the store where they "corrected" our design somewhat (actually making it slightly cheaper!). But clearly they had the experience.
We were delivered exactly when they said they would (free delivery and 3 weeks after purchase) but we discovered that they had another 2 kitchens in the van which they could not deliver on that day (it was 1600) so I am sure 2 unhappy customers.
The trick is to have it installed by an experienced builder because it is one hell of a job. Ours took several days (he did other things at the same time) but it is PERFECTLY aligned and even the kitchen tops are rounded off.... Really good job. He had fitted an MFI kitchen a year ago for his sister and some of it had already fallen apart (this may have been a problem with that particular model). He did say that Ikea kicthen were slightly tricky to fit and so he felt he had to fiddle (something like they don't take into account that you might have pipes running at the back) - hence the experienced builder - so added costs.
Anyway I recommend IKEA (I have the stat model and we paied 1200 GBP I think for something like 8 big cupboards and 4 small ones and 6 drawers + sink, etc).
If you do go for IKEA or any other cheaper model, "knock" on the cupboards in the display model to hear how it sounds... some are really hollow and cheap (just a tip!).

Um, as a John Lewis fan I must suggest that you could check out their range. Although we got our kitchen 3 years ago from a shop in Hatch End (outskirts of London) called Chaplins and had the worst service I have EVER come across. No one should have to go through that experience! We only got the kitchen from them as they were the only ones doing the kitchen I fell in love with.

Anyway, Jasper, I hope you enjoy the planning and shopping stage which is at least half the fun!

I knew I could count on you all to give good advice!
Went round lots of shops today.I liked the ADEL birch one in IKEA, but the help from staff was not very good,( They were really pleasant, just not enough of them) although it is not as though we are at serious planning stages yet.I asked a staff member when I eventually found one for a kitchen catalogue and she pointed me in the direction of a desk and said someone would be along soon and would give me a catalogue as they did not put them out on display. I waited about twenty minutes ( both children crying at this point) to be told they had none.
I asked when they would have them and they did not know....I asked if they would post me one and the assistant gave me a post it note and told me to write my name and address on it, and then she disappeared!So I stuck it on the computer screen but I won't hold my breath for a catalogue!
Pupuce thanks for the advice re. fitting. I too feel it is worth paying an experienced builder to do the job, but my dh and fil insist they can do it between them which sounds like a nightmare to me!They are both painter and decorators and seem to think their manly abilities spill over into unrelated areas like joinery but I am not convinced! I will try to dissuade them.
Also went to MFI ( did you know it stands for More Furniture Ideas?)and they had a sale on, and they have some lovely stuff. However, RobinW my mil has an MFI kitchen , loves it, but also pointed out they are not good at making sure everything gets delivered at the right time! They went back and forward to the store about eight times to collect missing parts , including large items like doors.As we live some distance from the store this would be a serious drawback.
As for John Lewis - my friend has just had one of the loveliest kitchens I have ever seen fitted from JL.
So it is looking like IKEA is winning but I would still appreciate further advice.The IKEA designs have a kind of chunkiness which I think suits our house and would go well with the proposed Aga....isn't fantasy a wonderful thing!

It took 11 yeasr to save up for our kitchen and we went 3 times to change the plan. We had a john Lewis kitchen last year - you paid £50 for the planning (which comes off the total price), but it's wonderful. the Fitter was brilliant spotting scratches and re-ordering doors for us. Coming up with pratcial suggestions to any minor problems he came acrosssuch as moving a light. It was delivered on time. Took 4 days to install and they have had one trip ack to fit the new doors and we have had no problems in the 18 months. It was middle of the to upper end of the range but the fitting was fantastic. The MIL had a Magnet & southern kitchen for 20 years and a couple of years ago just changed the doors as the basic cupboards were so good!!!

Jasper, do you have any small local kitchen suppliers? We have a nice pine kitchen (panelled doors, big pan drawers with 3 square panels across) that goes around 2 and a bit sides of a 12x10 kitchen; fitted, with Siemens cooker, hob and extractor, and Franke sink and taps, it cost around 4,000 2 and a half years ago.
The thing about a local shop (for local people!) is that if you want to add or change things later it is comparatively simple, and they sub-contract the plumbing and electrics to (presumably) reliable local contractors. And if you get any problems later you can go and camp out in their showrooms and put off new punters!
Do you have any friends locally who have bought a kitchen this way who could recommend someone?

Jasper, we have the Adel kitchen. I love it, but the HASSLES we had getting it delivered!! It took five deliveries to get most of it delivered, but we still ended up going to the store to get bits they had forgotten. The worst thing tho was that the doors were sourced from three different countries,and were very different shades...very obvious. Initially they refused to believe us, and sent out an independent surveyor, who wrote a report confirming the huge mismatch. But even then they claimed to be unable to do anything about it, as, apparently, the components are ordered from a warehouse in europe somewhere, and they said they could not specify which countries the doors should come from. In the end we gave up trying, and our drawers are much lighter than the cupboard doors, although through a process of trial and error we eventually got doors that all matched. The Ikea call centre was hopeless...hours to answer, and then frequently just hang up !! Don't let me put you off, as it does look great. I have a friend who has the same kitchen, and all her doors were O.K. Several deliveries tho' before she got everything! I got to know the delivery men quite well...they reckoned they would only ever buy stuff from Ikea if they could collect it. Although I love it now, I couldn't cope with the stress of buying another one from Ikea.

Oh dear. I just got an email from my sister. I asked her is she knew anyone who had an IKEA kitchen. One of her friends just got one fitted and the end result is lovely but she too had problems with deliveries and said their aftersales service was shockingly poor.
Faith, was it the light birch one?
Fairy, did you have a similar problem with the Nexus? I like it too.
Pupuce did you encouner any such problems? Which style is yours?
Thanks again

When we got ours fitted we paid our local builder to do all the hard work, so we had no problem with any of that. I think if you are taking on a task such as we did, gutting and starting again getting someone in is the only way to go.

Regarding aftersales, I never had to go back to them with problems, all we had were leftovers, like extra shelves extra, which I was able to take back and get our money refunded! Which I have to admit I was very pleased with.

The delivery of the kitchen was fine and free, we did make sure that we did not book the builder in until we had everything and we had double checked it all.

I think the thing with Ikea is that you do have to do alot of hard work yourself to make sure you have everything, but if you do overbuy as long as it is unopened/used, they will give you your money back, or credit note if you've lost your receipt. That makes an awful lot of difference I feel.

When we bought our kitchen I was damned if we were going to have some disgusting one from MFI, and the £1200 we spent at Ikea was well worth it and I would do it again, except I don't think I would have the solid wood work surface, it takes too much looking after, especially with children around.

message withdrawn

About 18 months we got a Poggenpohl kitchen put in our house, on the whole everything went okay but 5 of the doors came with scratches on them. A new set was ordered up and came about 5 months later and by that time when the new doors were installed it looked like different doors as the colours were not the same. We decided to keep the scratched doors. Poggenpohl were not very co-operative at all considering the kitchen cost in excess of £40,000. I would not use them again.

Jasper, We had a John Lewis kitchen fitted a year ago and are absolutely delighted with it. The fitters were superb, quick, efficient, excellent workmanship and great with dd who wanted to check what was going on every half an hour. We have had one minor problem since with one of the door handles and JL came out the next day and fitted a replacement. I would definately recommend them. Good luck with the hunting.

Ok, lets put the record straight, when I was looking for a kitchen I wanted something with simple clean lines, not something that was tarted up to look like something from a 'lovely little cottage', and thats all I could get from MFI, obviously Robinw, you have had a different experience.

My opnion was asked for and given! I'm sure MFI stuff is fine, but having had a similar problem with them when looking for a new bathroom suite, I personally would not bother looking there again.

Jasper, we shopped around quite extensively when doing ours two years ago, armed with the information from our builder that ALL the flat-pack kitchen companies are rubbish at aftersales service and NONE of them send everything you want first time round.
We looked at Magnet, Wickes, IKEA and MFI and liked an IKEA kitchen which we bought and were very, very happy with (have moved and left it behind now, sob). We had a few niggles over correct delivery but the store staff were helpful and responsive, a far cry from how they handle their other customers, and, as others have said, getting a really good builder to fit it for you makes all the difference.
Good luck!

I've got the STAT kitchen and had an absolutely wonderful experience (but as I've said, when we were delivered - exactly when they promised - 2 other kitchens were still in the van and would not be delivered on the promised day as it was already too late!).
We ordered ours in early Feb, got it delivered in end Feb which is when we had booked the builder (thank god!). We got a call 2 or 3 days before the delivery to let us know that they would be coming on X day in the PM... so great !

Don't go on Sunday to Ikea.... Try to go a weekday in the morning or even Saturday morning (usually dead!) but you can't expect them to have enough time to really listen to to you on their busiest day (they could have more staff but it is still a madhouse on Sunday, particularely before X-Mas). Which one do you go to ?

If you do go for IKEA or any other cheaper model, "knock" on the cupboards in the display model to hear how it sounds... some are really hollow and cheap (just a tip!).

£40,000 for a kitchen! That's more than my mortgage.

I have the solid wood work surface - the one which is also a breakfast bar (see what I mean)- I am very pleased with it but I am a bit cautious not to flodd it.
Oh and the sinks are whole lot cheaper at IKEA than Homebase and others (we compared quite a bit).

message withdrawn

What a great response. Thank you all for being so helpful and offering your experiences, good and bad.
Pupuce, the Stat is the white one with vertical grooves isn't it?
Our nearest IKEA is in Glasgow, about half an hour's drive away. It only opened a few weeks ago. I have been twice and it is fairly chaotic!
I visited a small local firm today and would love to give them the work but I just did not like their styles. Like many I have seen the designs were a little too fussy and posh for my house! The IKEA ones do seem to have a robustness, aesthetically speaking.
A friend has a really lovely cream/yellow quite trendy kitchen with chunky silver handles which she got from MFI about two years ago but when I looked there at the weekend the local store did not have it.The styles in a lot of the shops are too kind of grown up for me, more aimed at my parents generation I think. ( perhaps I delude myself) My friend has an advantage though - her husband is a builder.

Yes that's the one. I have the wooden knobs and the wooden kitchen top. It's a more country looking style. I like the modern look but that wasn't what I was going for. And if you like Stat, I have 2 wall cabinets with "windows" so it looks a bit like a glass door top unit... and I chose the Edsvik taps.
It is probably because your shop is new that the staff isn't great and overwhelmed but do aim to go first thing a weekday or saturday morning. It is important to have good advice.

Jasper, yes, ours is the light birch one, and we have the beech worktops, which I love, and don't find too much hassle - I oil them every couple of months, but it doesn't take long. I am careful not to flood it tho'. One advantage (if you can call it that) of fitting it ourselves was that as it came in various deliveries we could proceed. when one of our deliveries arrived they had just come from a woman who was distraught as it was completely the wrong kitchen they had tried to deliver, and she had builders in who had completely gutted her old kitchen, and who then had to move on to new jobs. She was left with no kitchen, I just hope she got it sorted!

Robinw we plan to stay here forever! However a £40000 would not suit our bank balance even if it might suit the house!
As per another thread I have decided to get an Aga so that will be my immediate priority and a man is coming on Thursday to measure up and give us a quote. In the meantime we will move around our old (tatty!) units and live with them for a while due to cost considerations.We are also knocking down a wall...argh!
So far I have not seen anything I like better than the Adel birch. I keep seeing it in magazines!The stat is lovely too but I think the adel suits our room (despite my preconceived idea I did not want a wooden kitchen as we have a wood floor)
I feel completely compelled to sort out my kitchen- do you think I am nestbuilding?!

message withdrawn