[Another] new kitchen who to choose help/ advice request!

Karena_P

Hello!
I've done so much reading of reviews/ threads about new kitchens over the last few months...I'm kind of at the head spinning stage...
We need a new kitchen- (house we're moving into doesn't have a useable one!)...As novices, we wanted a design service too, though we know broadly what we're after (eg higloss, curved ends, handleless, island). Would love to use an independent, but need a finance option, and can't find an independent in our area offering this (Birmingham). We were wowed by Wren's showroom and were in the process of ordering a lovely kitchen from them (infinity plus high gloss), using our own fitters, but having seen the Which kitchen report, and read so many bad reviews, we're having doubts. Have seen great reviews of DIY kitchens, but are finding their website really difficult to use, and are struggling with sorting out what we'd need. They don't have exactly what we want either, but happy to compromise.
We have an appointment with Wickes in a few days- is there anywhere else we should consider? Ikea have nothing we like it seems. Are Benchmarx worth considering?
Any recommendations/ advice/ pointers welcomed!

Thank you.

Doozergirl

I don't think Benchmarx are going to provide a finance option. That's where your limits are. Could you find means of finance elsewhere?

Wickes, I guess. The seem to get good feedback here.

MarcTJTD

If you're using your own fitters; ask them who they typically use. Odds are it'll be Howdens or Benchmarx. They may be able to get you a better price if they have a trade account with these companies, and they'll know the products.

If you're self-fitting - personal opinions:

Avoid B&Q; they're discontinuing everything and moving to a new supplier.
Avoid Wren: they're predatory and have poor quality.
Avoid Wickes: they're too expensive for what they offer.
Avoid Ikea at all costs; their cabinets are poorly designed and a nightmare for inexperienced fitters.

A small note re: finance options.

Consider getting a quote from supply-only companies like Howdens that don't offer finance. You may find that it's cheaper in the long run to get a bank loan over a couple of years than it is to go finance with (for example) Wickes/Wren as they overprice their kitchens and rely on their finance to sell their service.

The company I work for is regional and too far away from Birmingham to be of any use to you, but to give you an idea of what I'm talking about, I just quoted like-for-like on a £7000 Wickes design and came in just under £5000. Howdens was somewhere in the middle.

A 5% bank loan on £5000 over 3 years would cost you ~£400.

Edit: One thing that occurred to me after reading mattvolatile's post; make sure that the companies you get quotes from are giving you a realistic comparison on quality as well as layout. There's a lot of variation in how kitchen doors/cabinets are constructed, the materials and finishes on the doors etc.

mattvolatile

Disagree re: IKEA quality, though you're right that they are slightly complex for inexperienced fitters. IKEA do 0% finance and my kitchen from them was literally half the price of a Wickes kitchen of exactly the same layout.

MarcTJTD

mattvolatile wrote: »

Disagree re: IKEA quality, though you're right that they are slightly complex for inexperienced fitters. IKEA do 0% finance and my kitchen from them was literally half the price of a Wickes kitchen of exactly the same layout.

I don't hate Ikea; my wording was perhaps too strong. .. they're just frustratingly engineered and make designing and fitting their kitchens unnecessarily complex imo.

Karena_P

Thank you all so much- some good food for thought...
Our fitters rate Ikea the best in terms of what's worked better for previous clients. But there's nothing at Ikea which ticks all of our boxes.
Definitely considering the loan option- we're going down that route with essential works already.
Had a design appt with Wickes yesterday- the total was just over £12K with 'discounts' :eek: Nothing particularly fancy either!
Have an appt with an independent supplier this week...

Thanks again!

K

TELLIT01

There's also Magnet, although when we were thinking of having our kitchen extended a few years ago they came up with a quote of over £20k just for cabinets, no white goods, or built in appliances. The "designer" covered every inch of wall space with cabinets despite the kitchen being 20 feet long and being told we wanted to keep wall units to a minimum.

Karena_P

Ha, ah yes, wall units...we also specified no wall units, yet the Wren designer plonked them into the design anyway...

badgeraudio

If you have a full quote/plan from one of the suppliers you have visited you can send it to diy-kitchens.com and they will quote against it.
Rather then build up the design from scratch again. #

We got our kitchen from here and I would recommend it to everyone.

https://www.diy-kitchens.com/support/new-ticket.asp

Karena_P

Hi,
Diykitchens look great pricewise, and have Gray reviews in many places. I have used their planner tool to cut out the various unit shapes, and though it's helped to see what could fit where, they do not have what we want in the finish we're after. I also confess that I don't have enough confidence to order the bits n pieces required for the various corners/ housing, etc, even after reading all of their guides...also I don't trust my measuring of the tricky and tiny awkward bits.

Karena_P

PS We have a crap design from Wren, and are about to cancel our order with them. The design from Wickes that we have from them has no measurements, as they won't issue any plans unless we place an order...