Kitchen recommendations

btedds

Hi,

I am renovating a barn and am looking to put a new kitchen in. I have been looking at John Lewis which although lovely are v.expensive!

Are there any alternatives, Alno at John Lewis are beautiful but well out of my price range!

Just wondered if anyone could recommend, has anyone had a B&Q, wickes or ikea kitchen fitted?

CKdesigner

Hi, John Lewis sell Alno as their top of the range German kitchen for their customers with a large budget but to be honest in Germany Alno is more of a lower market product. If you want a German kitchen then Independent kitchen specialists are the places to go, look for brands like Beckermann and Systemat, you should find these are sold by independents quite a bit cheaper than John Lewis sells Alno and these others will be better quality too.

John Lewis prefer to sell their 'own brand' product that is made for them by Mereway, this is an excellent quality English made kitchen manufacturer and I feel can not be beaten for value for money. We sell a lot of Mereway and very rarely have any problems.

You have mentioned the DIY stores of which Wickes is probably the best but it is a very different proposition. The DIY stores sell flat pack kitchens which are of course cheaper but you get what you pay for.

You will find generally that a Mereway or German kitchen will fit the space better as there are far more unit sizes available to the designer, obviously the build quality is better so it will last longer and little things like all the carcases on a Mereway kitchen are colour matched to the doors, where the DIY store kitchens normally have white carcases which is easier for them to have produced but not as nice.

I think most people would say stay clear of Moben and Magnet, over priced for the quality and hard sell tichniques employed by Moben and sister companies, Kitchens Direct etc.

Your best bet is to visit defferent places that sell kitchens, open the doors and drawers see if any bits of the displays are missing, loose or out of line as over time this will happen in your kitchen.

As I say you generally get what you pay for and remember, the kitchen is the most important room in the house so the least amount of compromises you make to keep the cost down the better for you over time.

Happy shopping.

socrates

CKdesigner wrote: »

Hi, John Lewis sell Alno as their top of the range German kitchen for their customers with a large budget but to be honest in Germany Alno is more of a lower market product. If you want a German kitchen then Independent kitchen specialists are the places to go, look for brands like Beckermann and Systemat, you should find these are sold by independents quite a bit cheaper than John Lewis sells Alno and these others will be better quality too.

John Lewis prefer to sell their 'own brand' product that is made for them by Mereway, this is an excellent quality English made kitchen manufacturer and I feel can not be beaten for value for money. We sell a lot of Mereway and very rarely have any problems.

You have mentioned the DIY stores of which Wickes is probably the best but it is a very different proposition. The DIY stores sell flat pack kitchens which are of course cheaper but you get what you pay for.

You will find generally that a Mereway or German kitchen will fit the space better as there are far more unit sizes available to the designer, obviously the build quality is better so it will last longer and little things like all the carcases on a Mereway kitchen are colour matched to the doors, where the DIY store kitchens normally have white carcases which is easier for them to have produced but not as nice.

I think most people would say stay clear of Moben and Magnet, over priced for the quality and hard sell tichniques employed by Moben and sister companies, Kitchens Direct etc.

Your best bet is to visit defferent places that sell kitchens, open the doors and drawers see if any bits of the displays are missing, loose or out of line as over time this will happen in your kitchen.

As I say you generally get what you pay for and remember, the kitchen is the most important room in the house so the least amount of compromises you make to keep the cost down the better for you over time.

Happy shopping.

These are the type of posts I appreciate - based on facts not opinions.

I will definitely look you up next time I am kitchen hunting.

Incidentally not meaning to hijack the thread but when it comes to properties you let out - which kitchens would you recommend.

I recently got a very good deal @ Benchmarx (part of Travis Perkins) - which included free site visit and 3d design and plans for the installers. Not one piece of kit was missing and there was lots of back-up for any questions. They generally only do kitchens and joinery - so they are quite specialised.

Plus they do not come flat pack. Which is one of the reasons I avoided Wickes.

Any comments?

sheslookinhot

btedds wrote: »

Hi,

I am renovating a barn and am looking to put a new kitchen in. I have been looking at John Lewis which although lovely are v.expensive!

Are there any alternatives, Alno at John Lewis are beautiful but well out of my price range!

Just wondered if anyone could recommend, has anyone had a B&Q, wickes or ikea kitchen fitted?

Yes, there are plenty of alternatives. I am kitchen hunting and after a wide trawl have narrowed my choice to a solid wood from Jewsons or Howdens. Both of which have carcases already assembled pre-delivery. Wickes were close, but I did not look forward to building 21 carcases.

CKdesigner

socrates wrote: »

These are the type of posts I appreciate - based on facts not opinions.

I will definitely look you up next time I am kitchen hunting.

Incidentally not meaning to hijack the thread but when it comes to properties you let out - which kitchens would you recommend.

I recently got a very good deal @ Benchmarx (part of Travis Perkins) - which included free site visit and 3d design and plans for the installers. Not one piece of kit was missing and there was lots of back-up for any questions. They generally only do kitchens and joinery - so they are quite specialised.

Plus they do not come flat pack. Which is one of the reasons I avoided Wickes.

Any comments?

Hi, Thanks for your comments.

I hadn't really heard much about Benchmarx kitchens, I knew the name but nothing about the product. I have had a little look on the internet and it would appear that Benchmarx is made by Gower who are part of the Nobia Group. As a company Nobia has lots of diferent kitchen brands across Europe and because of these different brands Nobia is the biggest producer of kitchens in Europe.

Back to Gower - they are a huge producer supplying both flat pack and assembled kitchens in the UK. Flat packs go to Wickes I believe, as they share many kitchen pictures in their brochures, and Jewsons. The rigids go to obviously Benchmarx and I would probably say lower market independents. If you were to ask me what I thought about their range of kitchen styles I would say they are quite dated. Generally the better kitchen manufactures from the UK take their design ideas from European design and it looks like Gower is quite a way behind, for instance, I can't remember the last time I sold a verticle grain laminate doored kitchen, Gower have lots. We sell loads of horizontal grain and it would appear Gower has none.

For your rental property kitchen I would really recommend a Mereway kitchen, they generally have a reputation in the trade for producing the best quality mass produced carcases you can get. At the moment there are some decent discounts to be had on Mereway kitchens with sell off doors as they have just had a range shake up.

Thanks Again.

btedds

Thanks CKdesigner - excellent advice!

I managed to find a showroom selling Mereway kitchens in my area, they look excellent and funnily enough just like the ones in John Lewis. Also looked at wickes (after I looked at the Mereway) and CKdesigner you were right they are a totally different things!

However I have spoken to the Mereway sellers showroom and looked online and no-one seems to be able to advise how much these kitchens are, without coming round to quote?

Also as noone sells these online I have no way of knowing if I'm getting a good price or not! Also does anyone have a Mereway kitchen as I have never heard of them before CKdesigner kindly mentioned them?

Doozergirl

I have a John Lewis kitchen which I know is made by Mereway - it's part of their Cucina Colore range.

It's beautiful. The units are so solid and the drawer packs are noticably different to others. They were impossibly heavy to lift.

That said, for investment properties, I couldn't really justify the price and have bought Schreiber from MFI (we had a good trade relationship with really good prices where they would beat Howdens) and Howdens in the past; Howdens now that the choice has gone!

For cheap houses, the B&Q take away range suffices. In a rental property you have no idea what the tenants are going to do to it and I wouldn't fancy seeing a Mereway kitchen on ebay when the tenants decide to sell it, or have to replace a Blum mechanical arm when they've ripped a door off or the likes.

CKdesigner

btedds wrote: »

Thanks CKdesigner - excellent advice!

I managed to find a showroom selling Mereway kitchens in my area, they look excellent and funnily enough just like the ones in John Lewis. Also looked at wickes (after I looked at the Mereway) and CKdesigner you were right they are a totally different things!

However I have spoken to the Mereway sellers showroom and looked online and no-one seems to be able to advise how much these kitchens are, without coming round to quote?

Also as noone sells these online I have no way of knowing if I'm getting a good price or not! Also does anyone have a Mereway kitchen as I have never heard of them before CKdesigner kindly mentioned them?

Hi, Thank you. Yes you are right, you won't really find a company that sells Mereway online. The simple reason is that with online kitchen sellers you as the customer have to 'design' your kitchen and give the seller a list of units that you think you require, this has obvious problems. Where as Mereway kitchens are for proper kitchen designers to use and generally a kitchen designer will ask you lots of questions and will come round and measure up. In doing so you get a much better designed kitchen, a better service and less work and trauma yourself. (If the designer is any good of course!)

Normally we will charge a fee as John Lewis do for a full design service, however, if you wanted to do the measurements yourself and send me these with a list of your 'must haves' and 'don't wants' etc. and an idea of budget then I can come up with some suggestions and whether it will be doable for your budget. Obviously this would be from your measurements so if there was any discrepancies it would be down to you, as it would be with any online seller but it would give you a quality kitchen with some 'designer' input. I suppose a kind of halfway house.

Thanks, CK.

stolt

we have been looking to have a new kitchen installed in a extension we are building. We have gone to a independent company who has sat down with us for 3 weekends on the trot re-arraning the different units etc and i have to say i'm impressed with what they have fitted into the plan. Had magnet supply the last kitchen in a previous house and me and my dad fitted it but it was useless. I think one thing i happy about is that the carcasses on this new kitchen are proper MDF boards that make it feel more sturdy and secure rather than 5mm hardboard that end up buckling!

We did go to the usuall places liek magnet/moben to see what was on offer int the flesh as they generally have bigger showrooms than the independent places. So you can see the units and touch and feel them.

At the moment we are still planning it but its looking like 23k inc fitting and appliances.

Meepster

Does anyone think it would be a good idea to create a document(s) with regards to advice on buying a new kitchen. There are a couple on the web already, but they haven't been updated for years. I personally think it would be beneficial as it would minimise the amount of posts with regards to who's best, costs, quality etc.

I'm sure if people on here thought it was a good idea, then a few of the posters on here with kitchen experience could team up and put something together

CK - your opinion would be greatly appreciated...

macima

I've also just started the kitchen hunt - want to get something decent but no go mad - I've plucked 10k out the air as my budget. The pre-assembled Jewson cabinets sound interesting, will check them out. Any views on Ikea, any better than Homebase/Wickes/Magnet?

Mark Mac