New kitchen

MysteryMe

Just to add some balance, you also get plenty of negative reviews on Howdens.  

Wren is often slated but the fact is thousands of people are perfectly happy with the kitchen they have bought from them.

Quite a few online reviews on any kitchen supplier are to do with the fitting, not the actual product.

8 different suppliers are reviewed here, including Howdens, Wickes and Wren. All have their pros and cons.

https://www.fmb.org.uk/homepicks/kitchens/fitted-kitchens/

FreeBear

born_again said:

Why not ask some local independent's that are recommended to you?

You may well find a local independent comes up with a better design at a lower cost.

Was doing a kitchen refit a few years back. Went in to Magnet, and they were trying to cram as many units in as possible and then emailed me the plans & cost (instructed them not to spam me). For the next few weeks, they kept emailing me about their latest offers & sales - Got to the point where I went in there and ripped in to the "designer" that I'd first spoken to. Did it in front of a customer that he was trying to butter up for a sale. That didn't end well.

Paid a visit to a local independent, and they came up with a design closer to what I had in mind, and about half the price as I recall. And no spamming afterwards. Due to budget constraints, I ended up fitting my own kitchen.

gzoom

We went to Wren for a quote initially for our kitchen, was put off by the pushy sales pitch, uninspiring design, but did like their units and 0% interest. We than ended up visiting a few independents, in the end went with a local company recommended by friends.

We are comfortably with in the 8% figure quoted for cost, but I've never come across that before, and personally I was prepared to spend more but we didn't need to. I'm told good kitchen installers are almost as important as the actual units interms of getting a good finish. We have zero complaints about the installers from the local company, from day 1 they have left the work spaces organised and tidy.



The installers have now being onsite for over 7 working days, we are still awaiting the work tops and final finishes to be done, but so far zero complaints. The renders we were given at the initial quotes unsurprisingly look amazingly reflective of what we are going to get at the end of the process. 

The main issue I gather with Wren is you have to essentially organise your own installers, and with a national company you simply wouldn't get the personalised service a local independent will provide. 

Good luck, finding a reliable, trustworthy install team should be your main aim!

silvercar

8% is too much of a generalisation when you think of the price disparity of homes across the UK! I’d be paying twice as much as someone who lives 10 miles up the road and half as much as someone who lives 10 miles further in to London than me.

Bigphil1474

OP, my kitchen was in our house when we bought it in 1996, and it was probably a few years old then. If it's not broke it doesn't need replacing in my opinion, although you may well want to replace it through personal choice. Personally, if it's a solid usable kitchen I'm for keeping it. Have you considered less fixed kitchen and more use of free standing furniture instead e.g. welsh dressers. Might be more flexible.

Yorkie1

Are you happy with the layout? If so, and if budget might be a little tight, some people suggest simply replacing worktops and cupboard doors.