Kitchens. Howdens, Wren, Jewson or elsewhere?

[Cats_pyjamas]

Has anyone had experience with either a Wren or Howdens kitchen?

We visited Wren last week, and the whole things smacks of dodgy deals by men in cheap suits.

We experienced heavy handed salesmen (who didn?t really understand spatial design principles) who then quoted us ?14k for a simple, 12 unit galley kitchen inc. 3 appliances. They said this was a half price deal!! Installation came in at ?2,500.

I?m not keen as the service was pretty amateur and there seems to be little transparency with their quotes.

What are Howdens like? Do you need a very trusted builder to make it work? And should we get a local kitchen fitter to save us money?

Heading to IKEA at this rate ? :-/

[Salsaboy]

Ikea, end of.

[Jeremy]

Cats_pyjamas Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> ?14k for a simple, 12 unit galley

> kitchen inc. 3 appliances. They said this was a

> half price deal!!

Wow. I remember buying a simple kitchen from MFI (remember them?!) with Bosch appliance in 2003... ?2K.

[Sue]

If you want something glossy you won't like these, but I love my British Standard kitchen:

http://britishstandardcupboards.co.uk/

They're wood and you can paint them any colour, but I've kept mine the colour they came in (which was supposed to be an undercoat but doesn't look like it!!)

[Lowlander]

Not heard of Wren.

Ikea are good although some builders complain because the cupboard don't have any space behind (i.e. are flush fitting) whereas most other kitchens have 50mm being for pipes, wiring etc. so a bit more work in drilling holes for utilities, bit not much and not beyond the capability of a half-decent builder

We have a Wickes kitchen which is serving well and has a 20 year guaranteed I think (Ikea right have 25?)

Also look at buying the worktop separately - e.g. worktopexpress - can save 25-50% of the worktop cost that way.

We fitted the cabinets ourselves and got a carpenter to do the worktop. And organised plasterers/plumbers/electricians in to do the rest. Time consuming but not difficult - good luck!

[miga]

Yeah, the fact IKEA kitchen units are flush against the wall seems to be the most common quibble with their offer, and that's only a hassle when installing as far a I can tell, so possibly driven by installers rather than customers. My brother has a 10 year old IKEA kitchen and things still work, the moving parts creaking a little.

We got Howdens, which is fine so far (18 months), nothing's creaking yet. It's cool the way modern units can squeeze all kinds of storage into corners and around them - I imagine you can get that stuff from any supplier TBH. Howdens a bit more expensive than IKEA, supposedly better quality, but I guess we'll know in 5 years or so :-) also a model where it's your fitter that buys from them rather than you, so price varies according to who fits.

Can't comment on the others - I imagine it's all much of a muchness at this end of the market. I think the real difference probably starts coming in with the very expensive kitchens - 10k is considered fairly budget as far as I can tell, and you can spend multiples more.

[rendelharris]

Don't overlook eBay, quite often when people are refitting or having extensions built they'll sell really good quality kitchens just two or three years old (or sometimes new ex-display) on there. You'll need to hire/borrow a largish van and enlist a strong mate or two, but one can often pick up a whole fitted kitchen with appliances for ?1-2K; any competent craftsman shouldn't have any trouble adapting it to your space.

[apbremer]

We used "ROOMS" of Mottingham Village (near Eltham). Small family business~very professional and sensible prices. Thoroughly recommended.

[Cats_pyjamas]

Thanks everyone. I will check out British Standard, and someone has also mentioned Benchmarx (thoughts?)

I?m going to look at Howden?s but how do you know if your builder is going to pass you on the best discount he/ she can? If anyone has any recommendations for people I?d be happy to hear them*.

*Genuine ones only please. We will need removal of an old kitchen, removal of a window to add bifolds, plus kitchen fitting.

[Sue]

The people at British Standard are incredibly helpful.

In theory they keep costs down by not designing your kitchen. In practice a guy sat down with me for a whole afternoon at their showroom to go through my plans with me and make suggestions.

And they have a whole load of new things which they didn't have when I got my kitchen (grrrrr).

The units come fully and beautifully made, and even have soft close drawers, which I wasn't expecting in a wooden kitchen.

I especially love my pan drawers and my glass fronted wall cabinets!!!

ETA: Their website is a bit crap, so don't let that put you off. I think they put their efforts into making the stuff rather than updating their website .......

[traveler2]

Other options to look at are Magnet and the German kitchen companies like Pronorm.