New kitchen - where'd you get yours from

Rowby1

I do it for a living.

Don’t touch Wren.

Howdens are good. I have an account and have fitted a lot of their stuff.

If you can get a recommendation from someone you know locally that’s a good move.

Don’t trust trusted traders. 

boogieman

Rowby1 said:

I do it for a living.

Don’t touch Wren.

Howdens are good. I have an account and have fitted a lot of their stuff.

If you can get a recommendation from someone you know locally that’s a good move.

Don’t trust trusted traders. 

@Rowby1 good to hear an actual fitter recommend Howdens as we’re having another one done soon. Interested to hear what the issue is with Wren? We had a couple of fitters quote for our kitchen and one said he’d done a couple of Wren ones. 

markslade07

the_jaffa said:

BigMonka said:

If you’re thinking of fitting it yourself then I can really recommend DIY Kitchens (https://www.diy-kitchens.com/). They’ve got a physical showroom in Pontefract but even then when it comes to placing the order they sit you down at a PC in the showroom and you do it yourself on the website. I was really impressed with the quality of the cabinets and doors (I didn’t get a worktop so can’t comment on those).

Howdens can be ok, but you get what you pay for with the different price points. We had a utility room put in with Howdens cheap stuff and the plasticy paint coating on the doors has delaminated from the MDF backing.

As others have mentioned the Howdens pricing is a complicated model in that the retail price is huge but each fitter with an account gets a decent discount. The more kitchens they buy from Howdens from bigger the discount, so you may not get the same price from two fitters.

Absolutely this. The guy who set up DIY Kitchens is a big machine addict and bought a load of posh CNC machines to build all their stuff in house. By far the best carcasses I’ve seen (that aren’t bespoke hand built). 

Great product, really good service and super easy to deal with. I’ll not go anywhere else now. No connection other than being a very happy customer

Same here, couldn’t be faulted when we bought ours 3 years or so ago. Really good quality product and would definitely use them again, no problem at all

Rowby1

boogieman said:

Rowby1 said:

I do it for a living.

Don’t touch Wren.

Howdens are good. I have an account and have fitted a lot of their stuff.

If you can get a recommendation from someone you know locally that’s a good move.

Don’t trust trusted traders. 

@Rowby1 good to hear an actual fitter recommend Howdens as we’re having another one done soon. Interested to hear what the issue is with Wren? We had a couple of fitters quote for our kitchen and one said he’d done a couple of Wren ones. 

The Wren kitchens I’ve seen (not a massive sample I’ll admit) after they’ve been fitted have been average quality (being generous) at top pricing.

davros

Another big thumbs up for DIY Kitchens. I fitted it myself (no prior experience), the quality is fantastic and service the opposite of the jokers at Wren.

ronnyb

Rowby1 said:

I do it for a living.

Don’t touch Wren.

Howdens are good. I have an account and have fitted a lot of their stuff.

If you can get a recommendation from someone you know locally that’s a good move.

Don’t trust trusted traders. 

+1 to avoid trusted traders. My local free sheet had an ad for one who has done lengthy prison sentences for roofing deceptions on elderly people amounting to thousands of pounds.

Jimbro66

Well, I won't be jumping on the Wren-kicking bandwagon!

We had a new kitchen from them early last year. The designer was great and really on the ball, price was better than the likes of Howdens, Wickes, etc. Delivery and installation were exactly as promised. The installation team were terrific - nothing was too much trouble for them.

The only issue we had was with the quartz worktops: Wren's supplier went bust before ours were delivered so we omitted the worktops from our order (for which Wrens gave a no-quibble full refund) and we obtained them quickly from a local supplier. I believe Wrens now make all worktops in-house.

The quality is as good as any I've seen, including kitchens that were quoted to us at almost double the price, and in a year of daily use we've not had one single problem.

Maybe some people have had problems with Wrens, as is probably the case with all kitchen suppliers, but it seems there are a lot of folk bad-mouthing them who've had no direct experience at all "My mate's uncle's cousin says they were crap....."

Oh yeah?

M1ck

@Jimbro66 I couldn’t have put it better.
We got Howdens to do our design, and were disappointed in both the design and cost (and I had an account) I ended up doing my own design to get what we wanted. I have no experience with DIY kitchens so will refrain from commenting on them, but I do have experience with/of Roundel, Nixon’s, Be Modern, Howdens, and Wren, none of them are/were perfect but Wren is, at the moment, the only one I’d go back to. They have had issues in the past which they were open about with me and had (so they said) taken appropriate steps to correct it. You do need your wits about you though as they will try to sell you stuff you don’t want/need, most kitchen suppliers would do that anyway.
The quality from my point of view is spot on and I’m finicky, all the drawers and doors have soft closers - that should be pretty much standard theses days, metal drawer boxes.
Four years trouble free for us - I really can’t rate the kitchen and service we got highly enough.

boogieman

Rowby1 said:

boogieman said:

Rowby1 said:

I do it for a living.

Don’t touch Wren.

Howdens are good. I have an account and have fitted a lot of their stuff.

If you can get a recommendation from someone you know locally that’s a good move.

Don’t trust trusted traders. 

@Rowby1 good to hear an actual fitter recommend Howdens as we’re having another one done soon. Interested to hear what the issue is with Wren? We had a couple of fitters quote for our kitchen and one said he’d done a couple of Wren ones. 

The Wren kitchens I’ve seen (not a massive sample I’ll admit) after they’ve been fitted have been average quality (being generous) at top pricing.

Good to know, ta. I guess they have to pay for all the tv ads somehow. 

Iamnobody

I thought the quality of Wren looked ok - comparable to others at the same price point.

My sis is just about to order from Howdens - we also looked at them when we did ours as well. I just didn’t fancy what they were offering at the time.

Mereway in Brum make decent kitchens and they also have a slightly cheaper line called Trend Interiors. 

We went with Trend bought through a local independent as we felt they achieved a good price/quality balance. 19mm thick fully assembled carcasses, metal drawer boxes, Blum hinges and painted doors rather than foil wrapped. Loads of custom options and nice that they are manufactured locally. 

joneve

Jimbro66 said:

Well, I won't be jumping on the Wren-kicking bandwagon!

We had a new kitchen from them early last year. The designer was great and really on the ball, price was better than the likes of Howdens, Wickes, etc. Delivery and installation were exactly as promised. The installation team were terrific - nothing was too much trouble for them.

The only issue we had was with the quartz worktops: Wren's supplier went bust before ours were delivered so we omitted the worktops from our order (for which Wrens gave a no-quibble full refund) and we obtained them quickly from a local supplier. I believe Wrens now make all worktops in-house.

The quality is as good as any I've seen, including kitchens that were quoted to us at almost double the price, and in a year of daily use we've not had one single problem.

Maybe some people have had problems with Wrens, as is probably the case with all kitchen suppliers, but it seems there are a lot of folk bad-mouthing them who've had no direct experience at all "My mate's uncle's cousin says they were crap....."

Oh yeah?

Aye. We’ve not had ours done yet but will certainly look at wren as an option. My best mate, who’s a plumber by trade, is VERY picky and has a Wren kitchen and it’s really rather nice. His brother (my other best mate) is a chippy by trade and won’t touch anything that’s a real fucking faff to fit and will happily fit a wren kitchen. Though he does recommend Howdens as well. 

boogieman

ronnyb said:

Rowby1 said:

I do it for a living.

Don’t touch Wren.

Howdens are good. I have an account and have fitted a lot of their stuff.

If you can get a recommendation from someone you know locally that’s a good move.

Don’t trust trusted traders. 

+1 to avoid trusted traders. My local free sheet had an ad for one who has done lengthy prison sentences for roofing deceptions on elderly people amounting to thousands of pounds.

You never quite know what you’re getting with tradesmen. We used a local builder to do a kitchen extension. Had loads of local recommendations, his dad had owned the company for decades before, was ex-army and seemed a stand up guy. He did a good job but we obviously knew nothing about him personally. Google Nick Wood/Bridgewood Builders if you really want to see what utter cunts you risk letting into your house. It doesn’t make nice reading, be warned. 

dano

We used a local independent Kitchen place ( Imperial Kitchrns in Wallasey ). They were recommended by a couple of local builders, and have a good local reputation. Reasonably well priced. The guy who came to measure up and sketch some layouts gave a really good impression he knew his stuff, and wanted to make a decent kitchen, rather than a sales pitch. Price was comparable with a kitchen from Wickes


Ask around your local area and see what good independents you can find.

joneve

boogieman said:

ronnyb said:

Rowby1 said:

I do it for a living.

Don’t touch Wren.

Howdens are good. I have an account and have fitted a lot of their stuff.

If you can get a recommendation from someone you know locally that’s a good move.

Don’t trust trusted traders. 

+1 to avoid trusted traders. My local free sheet had an ad for one who has done lengthy prison sentences for roofing deceptions on elderly people amounting to thousands of pounds.

You never quite know what you’re getting with tradesmen. We used a local builder to do a kitchen extension. Had loads of local recommendations, his dad had owned the company for decades before, was ex-army and seemed a stand up guy. He did a good job but we obviously knew nothing about him personally. Google Nick Wood/Bridgewood Builders if you really want to see what utter cunts you risk letting into your house. It doesn’t make nice reading, be warned. 

Christ! 

BigMonka

joneve said:

boogieman said:

ronnyb said:

Rowby1 said:

I do it for a living.

Don’t touch Wren.

Howdens are good. I have an account and have fitted a lot of their stuff.

If you can get a recommendation from someone you know locally that’s a good move.

Don’t trust trusted traders. 

+1 to avoid trusted traders. My local free sheet had an ad for one who has done lengthy prison sentences for roofing deceptions on elderly people amounting to thousands of pounds.

You never quite know what you’re getting with tradesmen. We used a local builder to do a kitchen extension. Had loads of local recommendations, his dad had owned the company for decades before, was ex-army and seemed a stand up guy. He did a good job but we obviously knew nothing about him personally. Google Nick Wood/Bridgewood Builders if you really want to see what utter cunts you risk letting into your house. It doesn’t make nice reading, be warned. 

Christ! 

Actually I think he did more general carpentry, kitchen fitting wasn't much of a career back in those days 

MagicPigDetective

We have a kitchen built and installed by https://celfiderw.co.uk/ , based in north Wales, but will do anywhere in the UK.  The owner worked closely with us to ensure it was exactly what we wanted. It's all oak paneled, looks like the Aran kitchen in the examples, but ours is not quite as big! They have a connection with a local quarry too so could sort out the granite worktop. Highly recommended. 

Longtallronnie

We inherited a Howdens kitchen when we moved last year, it's about 1.5-2 years old and still looks brand new. Very good quality all round. I've since added a wall unit and hidden drawer to one of the cabinets (friend has an account) and the prices/service etc were all very good. I'd definitely use them again although hopefully won't need to for a while!
Fitted some Wickes stuff to our old house, looked nice to start but didn't take long for it to start de-laminating. 
Used to do electrical work for a kitchen company called Copford Woodcraft, all bespoke, custom built. Their kitchens were stunning but incredibly expensive (£30-50k fitted). 

SPECTRUM001

Might be controversial, but I always go IKEA for kitchens. However, do buy extra doors, so a) you have spares, and b) so you can select the ones that are ok.

And then (if you are not DIYing), pay for someone really good to fit it. If the units and benches are fixed really strongly on the horizon and vertical, then (I have found) they are admirable and sturdy kitchens.

Definitely the cheap option when comparing to bespoke, boutique or designer - ours is 14 years old, and only now looking tired.

RevMatt

Definitely approach a local independent joiner - we had a bespoke hand built kitchen done 2 years ago by http://www.derwentsidehomecentre.co.uk/ and it was a similar price to an off the peg kitchen from somewhere like Wren.

We had to coordinate the whole thing as we needed plastering and other bits doing, but in terms of the kitchen bit, Derwentside were great and so nice to have proper handbuilt real wood units.

Kebabkid

Wickes and get your own joiner/carpenter - it'll save you a couple of thousand pounds

Howdens are good, too.