Hi all, So, potentially slightly earlier than planned but ah well, wanting to give the kitchen a once over. At a minimum just redo the room, but ideally remove a wall and put up another (currently kitchen is 1/4 of the downstairs, rest is one room, wanting to make it 1/2 of the space and a kitchen diner type thing. So at the moment just looking for recommendations for companies/approaches/whether that is a reasonable concept or I'm missing something obvious. DIY is not my forte so any advice is appreciated! Thanks
I got mine from diy-kitchens and a got a professional installer. The quality is a lot better than b&q, wicked etc, and also i would say better than Howdens. They have a lot more options in terms of sizing too, for example they had a 250mm and wide cupboard where as the others only had 300mm wide which would have meant a losing space in my design. Check out their site
Go get several design sessions at different places. See what they suggest and it will give you some different designs to think about.
Yeah a colleague is currently completely redoing his flat and mentioned them regarding kitchens so I'll have a look, but I thought it was something where you needed to have a plan to then buy the stuff type deal vs trying to come up with a plan, so hadn't checked them out yet. Fair enough, will just get appointments with a variety of the big names then I guess and try to see what kind of things are possible.
this, you will prolly get the odd one with massively overpriced and dont get talked into something you will not be using or need. most kitchen fitters will also price you up a kitchen or at least forward to a decent place
Well... at least three households in my family (ourselves included) have Howdens kitchens and they are very good. It does of course depend on the quality of installation as well, and that's a case of sourcing a trusted joiner/plumber with a good reputation. In particular I'm impressed with the quality of the drawer units, which in previous kitchens have really disappointed me. We have three young children and all the doors / drawers are taking quite the beating!
I wandered past a 'german kitchen' place yesterday, and I though I'd look at prices out of curiosity... £14k to £25k... Ikea do nice ones for reasonable prices and I think they have installation services too
What ever you do just let the missus have what ever she wants as you'll never hear the end of it...... We used Howdens and had a family member install, seemed a doddle really all bits mostly came asssembled and are of good quality. I even bought a section later of a few cabinets to fill a nook and with work top etc. and fitted it myself harder than my family member made it look but perfectly doable for some one like me who's DIY experience before that comprises of fitting a lightbulb Though I did screw up a worktop cut trying not to buy any tools and using a jigsaw, big mistake
We ended up using our local independent kitchen shop but we also looked at Wren. Not very helpful I know but often they will have a trusted fitter and access to non-high street cupboards etc. As above, get 3 to 4 quotes because price and quality will vary dramatically. If its a good sized kitchen don't expect much change from £10k if you go for "quality" fixtures and fittings. It can be done for much less but I personnaly wouldn't rate the longevity of say a B&Q solution.
And kitchen planners in the stores as well, for one of those appointments that were mentioned earlier.
What sort of info is needed for these? would an annotated floorplan with measurements and photos be enough?
assuming this house goes through the one I'm moving into has a mini breakfast bar but I'm contemplating moving all the stuff in the utility room into the kitchen and making it just flat. You'll see it in the "modding" thread I'll make if the house goes through.
Howdens definately but get a proper builder/fitter who has an account with them (discount!) to measure, spec & fit it. Just use Howdens as a supplier, kit is very good quality. We have had ours since 2016 and it still looks like new. Top tip - don't buy a worktop from any of the large kitchen companies, the markup is horrendous. We priced a quartz top (3 separate surfaces/pieces) from Howdens and others at £4500. The builder had a specialist company he always used who measured and fitted it all for £1250. He called them up after the rest of the kitchen was in, they came and measured then 3 days later they came back and fitted it perfectly.
Thankfully we have a family friend in the area that is well known for great work and if he can't do it he knows someone that can. Hoping he has a kitchen fitter. I hate finding and dealing with tradesmen. I'm happy to pay good money for a decent one but the ones I've dealt with recently have been super flaky or delivered poor work.
You can use their site to design a plan as they have a tool for that, but you will need to measure the room accurately yourself. Alternatively, and I think most people do this, is to get Howdens or Wicked or whoever to do a free design for you and then send this to their sales team and they will help you put everything together. To be honest, my design was better than Howdens came up with, even if i do say so myself, but to be fair, you know how you will use your kitchen better than anyone else and this really is worth baring in mind and putting some thought into whoever you go with. My kitchen including fitting came out to about £3500 using them and my own fitters. The big news were quoting about £5k, so there are decent savings to be made by doing a little of the work by yourself this way. The only disadvantage I found was if a unit is damaged then getting switched out can take a little time so it is advisable to get it all delivered in good time.to check for this before booking fitting.
