Howdens/B&Q/Wickes/Ikea kitchen: smart storage, soft close hinges and other nice touches

tallac

I am looking to get a complete new kitchen installed and want to do some early research about 2 to 3 months before I need to make a decision. I've yet to take a look at B&Q/Wickes/Ikea but I've read that a lot of people highly rate the robustness of Howdens kitchen cabinets due to them being a complete carcass and not a flat pack job. So I'm slightly leaning towards Howdens but that may change as I do more research.

I'm really keen on having some of the nicer touches in the kitchen that really make it more practical and easy to use. Things like:

1. Built in smart storage solutions that help you maximise the storage space e.g. sliding/moving things to allow you to access things right at the back of corner units.
2. Soft close hinges and drawers.
3. Gas strut hinges for overhead upward opening cabinets (so the door can be kept open without holding it).

There's probably other things that I haven't thought about too.

From what I understand, these kind of things are typically found in much higher end kitchen suppliers (e.g. some of the premium German engineered kitchens). How are Howdens/B&Q/Wickes/Ikea with these little touches and things? Do they have them or are there places that these can be retrofitted into their kitchens? I don't have the budget to go for a premium kitchen but I would have thought that a mid-range kitchen can still have these nice touches and features (even if it's via an aftermarket retrofit).

Thoughts?

TELLIT01

We had a Howden kitchen installed a couple of years ago.  We have a pullout larder unit which is great as things don't get lost in the back of the cupboard and it's so easy to check what you have and what you need to get. 

Soft close hinges and drawers we also have, and although they are nice they certainly aren't essential. 

The item I wish we hadn't bothered with are the fittings for corner base units.  We have the solid 'figure of 8' shape ones, but they hold so little it would actually have been better just to close off part of the base cupboard to stop things being 'lost' in the back.  I am actually seriously considering removing them and just putting a shelf in instead.  Another thing to be aware of with Howden base units is that the shelf comes forward to within 2" of the door which may sound good for storage capacity but makes it difficult to put tall items in them.  In my old kitchen the shelf stopped about 6" back from the door. 

The units are very solid, and the carcase is thicker than on my old kitchen, as are the shelves.  That too is something of a double edged sword as the use of thicker timber does reduce the storage capacity of each unit.  It may not seem much per unit, but that lost space can add up.  One example we have is a couple of large dishes which fitted perfectly into our old 500mm wall unit no longer fit into the new wall unit of the same overall width.

None of the above are show stoppers, but worth being aware of.

FreeBear

The new range of base units from B&Q, the GoodHome range, by all accounts, are very poor quality - I wouldn't bother with them... Flat pack, if assembled well, is just fine - If you need to modify a unit to reduce its depth or increase the service space, a flat pack is preferable. Don't forget, even Howdens units will have started out as flat packs at some stage of manufacture...

Soft close hinges - If you can get them at a good price, well worth having. No more doors banging shut. Also got soft close on some large pan draws - Fiddly little burgers to fit, but worth it on those draws as they tend to be quite heavy. Other "smart storage" - Much of it is darned expensive, and of little use or value in *my kitchen. Unlike many people, I cut back on the number of cupboards when refitting my kitchen. No wall units, five cupboards, and one large 3-drawer unit. Fewer places to stash stuff where it will be forgotten about. The kitchen also looks a lot bigger and spacious for not having wall units.

Niv

I do find the pull out units for small cupboards like 300mm ones, really useful. I have had 300mm units in the past which were basically useless as they were quite awkward to get to the back of, but the pull out unit is great and, unlike corner units, you do not lose much (if any) storage space.

yellowbear

I had a Howden's kitchen fitted about 10 years ago. It's worn really well. No issues with the cupboards. The only thing I changed (and would not bother with again) were the pull-out larder shelves - they kept falling off the runners.  I would have to take everything off the shelves to re-align them and lift them on again.

ka7e

Soft close, deep pan drawers are even better than traditional base units - everything is visible and accessible. I have a tall larder unit with built-in drawers to the bottom half, next to a pull-out larder - all my food shopping gets put away in one place. I hate the carousel corner unit - it has little capacity and weight restrictions.

Check out DIY kitchens - their pre-built carcasses are available in a range of colours, they have the option of soft close drawers and doors and I think I got a higher end finish for the price compared to Ikea, B&Q etc.

TELLIT01

ka7e said:

Soft close, deep pan drawers are even better than traditional base units - everything is visible and accessible.

Absolutely agree on that one.  Our pan drawers have a full width, concealed cutlery drawer too.

Tucker

I originally wasn't keen on a flat pack kitchen as I was fitting it myself and wanted to save on the extra work. 
However, I was frustrated with the pricing system for howdens and wren. It was like dealing with a double glazing firm in the 1990s.
Your kitchen units are 23k, but buy today and it's 8k....
Neither would give me straight competitive price. Just a nonsense price and then a promise to match like for like. But I couldn't be bothered with the hassle and then arguments about what wasn't like for like etc. I don't trust those types of companies to give you a decent fair price.
So I went for IKEA and it is was a third of what howdens quoted for the units, doors and fitted dishwasher. 
Flat pack is actually a piece of cake once you have done one unit and the rest are then very simple. My teenage son and partner was doing them with no DIY experience and I was fitting them.
IKEA kitchens are actually very well thought out and have good feedback. 
You can easily buy additional bits, replace doors in the future and you can return any surplus or wrong item within 12 months. 
It was delivered and all was good although I had to make a couple of trips to swap bits that didn't quite work or I changed my mind about a unit and went for a pull out drawer once you see that would work better in the space. 

TELLIT01

Howden's are trade only and their pricing is 'interesting' to say the least.  As I was paying them direct, at the request of the installer, I saw the pricing.  The biggest 'discount' I saw was over 90%.  When I was working with the designer, because we made some changes to the original plan, they seemed just to pluck discount rates out of the air.  One great positive with Howdens was that wrong / missing items were replaced or provided within 24 hours.  I don't know if that would be true of others.

Rosa_Damascena

TELLIT01 said:

We had a Howden kitchen installed a couple of years ago.  We have a pullout larder unit which is great as things don't get lost in the back of the cupboard and it's so easy to check what you have and what you need to get. 

Soft close hinges and drawers we also have, and although they are nice they certainly aren't essential. 

The item I wish we hadn't bothered with are the fittings for corner base units.  We have the solid 'figure of 8' shape ones, but they hold so little it would actually have been better just to close off part of the base cupboard to stop things being 'lost' in the back.  I am actually seriously considering removing them and just putting a shelf in instead.  

I am racking my brain as to what these are, and Google hasn't helped. Best guess, are they like 2 Lazy Susan's stuck together? Could you post an image please so I know what to avoid?

Personally I am not keen on slim pull-out larder units with baskets as they don't hold a great deal, am also worried about tall bottles being knocked over. I had a quote for one and asked for the space to be standard shelves - this saved a staggering £400!

I'm actually keen on going with DIY Kitchens now but at the same time nervous of getting it wrong! I have plenty of time though, and have no intention of ordering until my builder has okay'd the plan.

Mutton_Geoff

Rosa_Damascena said:

I am racking my brain as to what these are, and Google hasn't helped. Best guess, are they like 2 Lazy Susan's stuck together? Could you post an image please so I know what to avoid?

Personally I am not keen on slim pull-out larder units with baskets as they don't hold a great deal, am also worried about tall bottles being knocked over. I had a quote for one and asked for the space to be standard shelves - this saved a staggering £400!

I'm actually keen on going with DIY Kitchens now but at the same time nervous of getting it wrong! I have plenty of time though, and have no intention of ordering until my builder has okay'd the plan.

I think they are referring to these..

https://www.hafele.co.uk/INTERSHOP/static/WFS/Haefele-HUK-Site/-/Haefele/en_GB/images/huge/corner-pull-out-shelving-unit-white-and-grey-wooden-trays-with-chrome-railing-for-cabinet-widths-800-1000-mm-nuvola_549.42.240_549.42.241_549.42.250_x/01743503_0.jpg

Hafele are a large company who make bits for kitchens. DIY Kitchens have their own brand of equivalent products.

https://www.hafele.co.uk/en/products/kitchen-living-commercial-solutions/kitchen-fittings/kitchen-storage-accessories/4304755a549b96ae75fc22b3b1dc5db6/