New kitchen needed - any recommendations?

adamg

storytime wrote: »

Our Howdens kitchen - Burford white gloss is 3 years old and is in pristine condition. I cook in it everyday and our large Labrador dog and 2 year old grandson try their best but haven't damaged it yet!We are moving again and have chosen. Howdens Glendevon cream gloss this time. The only thing I would say is don't get their appliances and I think the worktops aren't the best.

so to summerise, Howdens kitchens are great as long as you don't buy half of it from them?

phill99

adamg wrote: »

so to summerise, Howdens kitchens are great as long as you don't buy half of it from them?

I fit a lot of Howdens kitchens (7 so far this year) and I agree with storytime. I always envourage customers to soirce their own appliances. Lamona (Howdens own brand) has poor reviews amd Bosch are overpriced through them. So e of their worktops are Ok, but the cheaper ones are exactly that: cheap. We encourage customers to use either Duropal or Axiom worktops which are a mucg better quality.

J-Mac

I've had a quote from Wickes of £14500 plus £3k installation! I intend to use the design Wickes provided and take it to Howdens (another recommendation from my builder). I'll be sourcing my own appliances (mainly through ao.com).

tiggerkid

Went with Wickes last time we were doing it. Used local fitter (but one that was mentioned to us by the Wickes lady who was helping with design). The kitchen was ok. I wouldn't say it looked as new 2-3 years on but there was nothing wrong with it either. However, I noticed that even when new, there was a difference in quality between Wickes and B&Q and Wickes and Homebase. Wickes Kitchens were better built (not any particular range but on average). I personally felt that both B&Q and Homebase kitchens were really flimsy. Also Homebase design team were outrageously unhelpful and lacked product knowledge, so whenever they couldn't come up with an idea to utilise space in your kitchen, they always suggested a filler unit (a dummy effectively) whereas, at Wickes, we were offered slimline pull-out units to store spices, condiments and other similar stuff, which is much more desirable! I mean who wants to pay for more than half a dozen of dummy units given the cost?!

We moved house recently. My current kitchen is Magnet. I didn't have it done, it was the previous owner. I believe it's 4 years old or so. I don't know how much more expensive it is compared to Wickes but so far not seeing any difference in quality of what I had from Wickes and my current Magnet kitchen. Admittedly, when we were buying Wickes, we didn't go for the cheapest range but I still somehow expected so much more from Magnet.

Don't get me wrong, our current kitchen is nice. I love it but I still expected a lot more from Magnet than I did from Wickes. However, I am not seeing any evidence that it is more. Therefore, if I ever replace kitchen again and my choice would be Magnet vs Wickes, I am going with Wickes

Have heard great things about Howdens though. Some of my friends had those and everyone says they last. We didn't go with them because none of their designs were to my taste: at the time, everything seemed a bit dated but that was few years back, so perhaps they changed since.

CharleyFox

I have been lurking on the kitchen threads for the last few months as I have been researching the purchase of a new kitchen.

Here is the summary of my three months of research having looked at IKEA, Howdens, Benchmarx, B&Q, and a local independent.
- I live in north London.! Difficult to find a kitchen fitter without being referred.
- Didn't like the opaque pricing structure/process of having to go through a tradesman with Benchmarx and Howdens!
- Wickes in the sale and Benchmarx came out as the same price so maybe my fitter was taking a good cut.
- Wickes were my second choice overall. The design service wasn't bad for a shed and they had nice ranges.
- Benchmarx - the guy spent five minutes measuring and designing.! The manager said he would come out and do it but sent some guy who had just started working for them.! I think the branches vary but I wouldn't recommend the one I used.
- Howdens - shabby looking and poor quality. I don't know why they get such rave reviews.! Maybe have gone downhill in quality in the last few years.! I have heard that big plates don't fit in their cupboards either. What good is that?
- John Lewis first range - had bad reviews for customer service (surprisingly)
- IKEA the new METOD range hasn't had many reviews so the jury's out.! I would have considered the previous range though as good value for money.
- K2Go (Dunstable) - Blanked me!! Didn't bother returning calls. Poor.
- The local independent supplying Chippendale kitchens.! This was the hands down winner for me.! Was competitive on price.! The design service was good and he came up with new ideas unlike the others who were just sales people with no new ideas of their own.! He also measured up thoroughly.!

MissWhitehouse

Thank you CharleyFox. Like you, I'm a firm believer that Independent kitchen and bathroom retailers ( in the main) offer the best value in the marketplace. Their reputation means more to them than the sheds, I personally favour Keller as a furniture manufacturer, they have a reasonable dealer base around the country, I know there's a good one in Leeds and a couple in Manchester. The furniture is excellent it comes to you built up ready to fit they make special sizes and it's not dear when compared with Wickes and the like.

leveller2911

I recently fitted a new kitchen for my parents and used DIY kitchens. The whole process was very easy but you do need to desingn/order all of the kitchen units etc yourself whereas Howdens etc will "desingn" and supply the kitchen. That said I won't bother with Howdens again due to various reasons such as overpriced,poor quality (compared to DIY Kitchens),poor designing with things such as wine racks above the hob.

I also make bespoke kitchens and for the money DIY kitchens were good value.The carcases were nice a square,2.5mm ABS edgbanding to the fronts of the carcases as opposed to Howden 0.8mm edgbandings.Choice of carcase colour/finish was good with DIY, with Howdnes your lucky if you get a choice of 2 colours. Duropal worktops from DIY were cheaper than the poor quality ones Howdens use ,which last time I checked were Axiom, if they were they were very poor,top surface wearing away with 24 months.

I will never buy from Howdens again and I've had an account with them for 15years, B&Q are pants IMO as are Ikea..

archieleyshon

DO NOT USE MAGNET...... We have been battling with them for a year to get our kitchen sorted, put right, etc. Battling with them now as we are refusing to pay the full price with them having had severe damage to our goods and home, delays, fitter was sacked on the job cos he was completely incompetent, leaks cos of poor plumbing works, a gas fitter who couldn't change a fuse in a plug, etc....etc..... I could go on forever and have endless images showing the hell we went through.....

DON'T TOUCH THEM! They are not cheap, but we thought by using them and in particular their fitter we would have some protection and confidence.

DREAM KITCHEN..... TURNED TO NIGHTMARE KITCHEN!