Best moderately-priced kitchen provider

QuincyBella

We have a rather small (3m by 3m) kitchen. It is very dated and would need new workgroups, units, sink, hob, oven and extractor fan. We do not have a huge budget, nor do we have the skills to fit it ourselves, sadly.

So far we have looked at ikea, but we are a little put off by the fact that their cabinets are not standard size (so I believe). We also live a long way from the nearest ikea store so any errors would be costly!

We also looked at howdens but heard a lot of bad things about them. Do you have any recommendations of suppliers who have been both reasonably priced and supplied a fairly good product? I'd be interested to know if any of you have had any success haggling too!

Thanks.

adamg

give howdens a go, you will hear bad stories about everyone least howdens have stuff in stock to replace if something does go wrong, Magnet trade operate the same way so you can play them off against each other,

keystone

QuincyBella wrote: »

So far we have looked at ikea, but we are a little put off by the fact that their cabinets are not standard size (so I believe).

Why does that put you off? Their cabs are not the same standard size as other manufacturers standard size but all their cabs are to their standard. Only a problem if you are considering mix and match.

We also live a long way from the nearest ikea store so any errors would be costly!

Don't make any errors in the planning then.

Do you have any recommendations of suppliers who have been both reasonably priced and supplied a fairly good product? I'd be interested to know if any of you have had any success haggling too!

To be honest if you are operating to a strict and limited budget then Ikea are a good bet.

Cheers

QuincyBella

keystone wrote: »

Why does that put you off? Their cabs are not the same standard size as other manufacturers standard size but all their cabs are to their standard. Only a problem if you are considering mix and match.

Don't make any errors in the planning then.

To be honest if you are operating to a strict and limited budget then Ikea are a good bet.

Cheers

Thanks. We do need to be pretty tight on budget. I am not at all confident that we could design a kitchen ourselves so we would have to involve a kitchen fitter and designer. Typically would you expect a kitchen fitter to order the kitchen for you, or would you buy it yourself? I know this is probably a stupid question but honestly we don't know what to do for the best.

QuincyBella

adamg wrote: »

give howdens a go, you will hear bad stories about everyone least howdens have stuff in stock to replace if something does go wrong, Magnet trade operate the same way so you can play them off against each other,

Thank you. Magnet seem really expensive and of course not being trade it's hard to get a quote out of howdens - has anyone found a way around that?

Happy_Daddy

We have an Ikea kitchen, the painted door finish did not last at all well but the cabinets are still in good order after nearly 10 years.

Ikea kitchen base units are deeper than most other std units and have no space for services (pipes, drainage etc) behind the cabinet. I believe this is because they are designed to fit in wood framed Swedish houses where all of the services are inside the wall.

This causes two problems, firstly standard worktops are not deep enough and not many places do them 615mm or 620mm deep which is what you need and Ikea's ones seem very expensive. Secondly if your walls are not very close to plumb and straight there is no easy way to adjust the cabinets to fit. With a normal kitchen you can shave off some of the service channel.

The extra space is useful but difficult to access and the wall units seem deeper than most other kitchens

On balance I doubt I would choose an Ikea kitchen again unless I lived in a wooden house.

Hope that helps

cddc

I would recommend you have a look at Wickes. But then I would:D as I work for them...but I also have one of their kitchens!

carebabe

if you are happy with the present layout of your kitchen have you thought about painting the cupboard doors and drawer fronts. i have done this with my kitchen recently and the end result is amazing. primer, paint and new handles came to around 80 pounds.

keystone

QuincyBella wrote: »

Thanks. We do need to be pretty tight on budget. I am not at all confident that we could design a kitchen ourselves so we would have to involve a kitchen fitter and designer. Typically would you expect a kitchen fitter to order the kitchen for you, or would you buy it yourself? I know this is probably a stupid question but honestly we don't know what to do for the best.

Actually IKEA have a planner on their website. Layout your room, swap units around, save it for later, print it out, change your mind. Its not the greatest but its not bad. It also generates a picking list for you when you are happy with your design.

Cheers

gingerfox

QuincyBella wrote: »

Thank you. Magnet seem really expensive and of course not being trade it's hard to get a quote out of howdens - has anyone found a way around that?

We had this difficulty. They even came and measured up, offered some useful design ideas but wouldn't release the quote. At that time we had a plumber in just finishing another job so he kindly offered to collect it and hand it over to us, even though he wouldn't be carrying out the works.

QuincyBella

Happy_Daddy wrote: »

We have an Ikea kitchen, the painted door finish did not last at all well but the cabinets are still in good order after nearly 10 years.

Ikea kitchen base units are deeper than most other std units and have no space for services (pipes, drainage etc) behind the cabinet. I believe this is because they are designed to fit in wood framed Swedish houses where all of the services are inside the wall.

This causes two problems, firstly standard worktops are not deep enough and not many places do them 615mm or 620mm deep which is what you need and Ikea's ones seem very expensive. Secondly if your walls are not very close to plumb and straight there is no easy way to adjust the cabinets to fit. With a normal kitchen you can shave off some of the service channel.

The extra space is useful but difficult to access and the wall units seem deeper than most other kitchens

On balance I doubt I would choose an Ikea kitchen again unless I lived in a wooden house.

Hope that helps

Thanks! This is another thing which puts me off Ikea. I have seen the kitchens and they are stunning but with a kitchen as small as ours I don't think we can afford to lose much space. I'm also not so confident that I could find a local tradesman who is so experienced with fitting them.