Just been to wicks for a kitchen design. Quite a bit of money, but we have gone for curved edges and nice fittings. Anyone else used them, we are going to cross check with diy kitchens and a local bespoke shop. Keeping away from Howden as the quality was a bit suspect. Didn’t like the look of wren. Anyone else? Who to avoid?

Installed a couple of Wickies kitchens, both from their lower end range and been happy with them.

Just fitted our diy kitchens kitchen, very impressed with the quality of the units and after sales service, would use them again.

We went with diy as well. Very happy.

We were going to have them supply and install a kitchen but they wanted full payment up front which I wasn’t happy about.

I fit kitchens for a living.
Diy kitchens gets my vote. I use their trade side company all the time.

Another vote for DIY Kitchens here – just finished installing ours and have been delighted with the experience.

I’ve just been involved with a Wickes kitchen install. The units were fine, though expensive (compared to Magnet).
The design was utterly useless. Their chap came round and measured up for the couple, gave them a design, which they bought.
He didnt account for pipework/water meter behind a draw unit. They have a serving hatch into the living room, he’d put a kitchen wall unit over the top half of it. The sit on top unit covered up existing pipes going upstairs, so would not fit on the avalable space without moving the pipes.
It took 2 days longer to fit it as 4 units had to go back as they’d never fit. Doors for the new units woudl take 2 weeks to be delivered.
Get your fitter involved from the start, or, if diy, go over the plans meticulously, and dont trust the salesman to plan it.

We’ve got an Ikea kitchen, been pretty pleased with it for what we paid.

Ikea here too – nothing else came close on price/quality and a 20yr guarantee.

Howdens mid-range here. Expertly installed though. Properly made to measure and quality finish throughout.

Would much prefer this against high-end materials and shoddy workmanship.

Wickes here no issues except the designer got one unit wrong as there lower range is off the shelf we just went to the shop and exchanged it.

GF ordered a custom work top and then box standard units had the lot delivered on the same day and a mate and myself fitted it all no problems.

It’s a small kitchen and we pulled out the old one and fitted the new one in one day (I’d pre-built the units during the week after work before the day of the fitting ) 🙂

If your looking at the Wickes kitchens it’s worth looking at Benchmarks (it’s the same group as travis Perkins and Wickes …. Worth checking if any of your mates have an account….)

Imo the finish seems to be better that the wickes ones + the cabinets are delivered built up

Our Wickes kitchen, a year old when we moved in back in 2014, survived a three month holiday in the garage whilst we had the room incorporated into an extension, so durability is good. Chippie even managed to improve on the fit when re-installing. From seeing some poorly-fitted expensive kitchens, I’d say getting decent tradesmen is the key decision.

IKEA metod here. Fitted myself. Good quality and spares readily available to boot. Downside is its flat packed.

My last 2 houses I’ve fitted solid wood kitchens from handmadekitchensdirect. Completely made to measure – you just pay for the next standard size up ie 525mm cabinet, pay for the 550mm size one. I’ve been extremely pleased with both, and when we extend this summer, another one will be going in.

thanks for the replied folks, lots to think about still. 😕

Fitted our DIY Kitchens one myself. We went for curved units. It was significantly cheaper than wickes when we costed it up last year.

fitted a howdens kitchen myself a while ago. excellent service, good quality units ready made, just needed to fit em meself. but….. to someone who’s never done anything like that before itd be fair to say i struggled 😀 did a good job tho but swore id never do that again to save a bit of money (i did save a couple of grand or so going diy)

anyways, its nearly bathroom changing time now and im considering doing it myself again. like childbirth int it, soon forget the pain and go again 😀

I’ve posted this many times before.
Bq, wickes, homebase etc, the quality is ok but the design/damages/after service is shocking and you have to pay upfront.
IKEA is very querky to say the least!
I stay clear of them all if I’m asked to fit them.
Howdens is generally geared towards builders, they hold stock and can deliver usually within 24 hrs. I’ve fitted hundreds of Howdens kitchens. Quality is fair but they don’t age as well as others. There own branded appliances are poor and the price difference from branch to branch can be huge.
DIY kitchens – I’m a trade account holder with them (Ultima furniture) get your design sorted and you can’t go wrong.
I’ve 2 kitchens in my house and there both from Ultima.

For all recommended DIY Kitchens, don’t you find the ordering process a real pain in the rear? I fit kitchens and bathrooms for a living too and tried a couple of times to look into DIY Kitchens and the time I’ve spent looking, selecting and ordering seems to take an age. Also didn’t find the prices much different to Howdens if I’m honest, more expensive even, maybe I just have a good account with my local branch.

I don’t use the DIY site to order from them

Benchmarx kitchen here. They did a home visit to measure up the kitchen and service was good. They were happy to sell to me direct without setting up a trade account. Most of the units came pre-assembled and included a manual on how to piece it all together.

My kitchen is from DIY Kitchens.com. It’s one year old and still looks brand new! Would recommend but you have to do all the planning yourself. A small thing consider the money I saved (£1,023)! 🙂

Ikea for us. Lots of options for working out a good layout. Very open pricing made it easy to cost up and swap bits around. None of this discount nonsesne. Quality was great. I took out an old Ikea kitchen to fit the new one and managed to re-use quite a lot of it either in the new kitchen or in the utility. They were also happy to take stuff back we didn’t need for a full refund.

Another vote for Ikea. The online designer is excellent.

Original design:

Made a few changes (and not finished yet) but spookily similar: