We’re going to be fitting a new kitchen later in the year and I was wondering what difference in quality there is from one supplier to another? Don’t want a stupidly cheap one but also don’t want to spend the earth. Was looking at Howdens, Benchmarx and maybe Wickes? Does anyone have any experience from these suppliers, or are there any others which might fit the bill? Would be particularly interested in the views of any kitchen fitters if there are any on here? Cheers.

Howdens get a good rep but were far too expensive when I looked even with max trade discount
Wicked “look” nice but when I dug around the quality and warranty wasn’t there
Went with ikea – 20yr warranty, solid wood, appliances, etc for less than I could get the cabinets for elsewhere

I fitted a Howden’s one earlier this year. I’ve fitted a few MFI ones in the past – DIY, not pro. The Howden’s carcasses were prebuilt and pretty solid. The doors/drawer fronts are similar quality to the old MFI solid wood stuff. The only problem I had was the ancillaries (coving and pelmet) as usual. Howden’s have a common code for 4 shades of ‘Light Oak’ which makes finding matching pieces a bit of a lottery. Took me 6 weeks and many, many trips to 4 different depots to get a matching set…

I didn’t find them particularly cheap but then my benchmark is the £1500 I spent with MFI ~20 years ago 🙂

We’re due to install our new kitchen this year and have been looking at diy-kitchens.com. I think I got the recommendation from another thread on this site.

Ikea for us very good quality . Useful on line design tool on line. I understand there are compatatability issues with units from other suppliers but as a complete job no problems. Our fitter had no issues and was very pleased with his work.

IKEA Stuff is very good, 25 Year warranty and a new system due to land in February i believe.

I did an Ikea kitchen in my previous house, the issue with their carcusses is there is no service void behind the back panel, so if you have pipe runs crossing behind the units then you struggle to fit the panel.

I used B&Q for this house, cheap carcusses but jazzed up using the Cooke and Lewis doors, end panels, cornice and pelmet.Really happy with the way it went together, plus spares were easily available for when I made mistakes! services all run in a void behind the back panels, tidy job.

Must say IKEA seem to have gone right under my radar.
I didn’t even consider them. Will have to have a look judging by all the positive comments above.

about 4am gmt in here when the spam bots get going 🙂

Ikea – but be aware of the lack of void at the rear. On the positive side, that means they are larger inside.

I’ve just got my new cabinets from DIYKitchens.com and would recommend them but it’s worth getting some samples delivered if you’re not local, which is what we did. Having looked at all the suppliers you mentioned I reckon they’re as good as any of them (probably better) and much cheaper. Ikea was second on our list.

We got solid wood worktops from Worktop Express and appliances from wherever was cheapest for the one we wanted too.