New kitchen: recommendations

Green_hopeful

MysteryMe said:

Most kitchen complaints you see online are to do about fitting and customer service. The numbers about the actual quality of cabinets etc come below that.  The largest suppliers of kitchens are likely to have the most complaints online so people need to exercise a bit of their own quality control when judging any business on numbers online reviews.

I think what is key is how they deal with complaints. I try to assess the complainer as well but sometimes companies are just not worth the risk especially if all the products are similar. 

casper_gutman

I've seen a couple of kitchens belonging to friends and family that have failed due to the quality of the door and drawer fronts.

Thinking about it, they've all been high-gloss vinyl-wrapped panels, and the issue has been the outer layer delaminating. On that basis, I'd be wary about getting that kind of kitchen unless I really trusted the supplier's quality and track record.

At least with painted wood any localised cosmetic issues can be solved with old fashioned sandpaper, filler and touch-up paint. And in the worst case scenario (or when you just get bored and want a change of colour scheme) you could always get the doors etc. professionally resprayed for much less than the cost of a new kitchen.

Working_Mum

Another vote for DIY Kitchens here - my builder installed it for me and said it was great quality -  he has been renovating a house for his retirement and has installed a DIY kitchen in there too.

From memory you can go up and down quality levels with DIY - I planned everything online and it was delivered ready assembled. I didn't have any issues with items missing or broken etc.

I got a local company to install quartz counters as they were much cheaper than anything I could find online or from the big nationals.

Four years on and my kitchen still looks great.

turnemc

Another vote for DIY Kitchens …… I’ve fitted myself 3 kitchens over the last 30 years and the DIY Kitchens one was far superior to the Howdens one. The fact the units are pre-assembled and doors hung etc makes fitting quick and easy.

gzoom

trance said:

SootySweep1 said:

Hi

Have a look at some of the independents around you to see what they can offer.

I actually found my kitchen through Ebay! We were having a lot of building work including a new kitchen and I had my heart set on a larder cupboard. So I was being nosy on Ebay & realised that there was a company local to me that built bespoke larder cupboards and I ended up buying my entire kitchen from them. Not the cheapest but not that much more than the likes of Wren etc etc but I got precisely what I wanted.

Jen

Thank you!

I've just researched local kitchen companies, and their gallery shots are all of massive kitchens, and they use the word "bespoke" a lot - so I translate that as "expensive"!

It might be worth giving them a call though, telling them our budget at the start so they can tell us straight away if they're out of our range - I don't want to waste their time, or ours!

If you are looking at Wren than your in the price bracket of local independent companies. We got quotes from Wren and 2 local companies, they were all within 10% of each other, Wren was actually the most expensive by a long before they added their 'special' 'one day only' discounts .

We went with the local company in the end because they had the best design, and we read plenty of bad things about Wrens fitters. It the right decision for us as we were changing designs till the week of fitting. During fitting the guys continued to make good suggestions like running the counter to right into the window frame.

The local guys we used was a family business which meant they were only a tiny bit more expensive than Wrens 'best' quote, but because it was literally a 2 person team they weren't quick as they were always busy with other projects. But we go there in the end. In future when we do the next build we'll go local again, but probably go with a higher priced quote from a larger (more expensive) local business.

It is amazing how true to life the rendere are these days though, what you see is what your get.