we just had a Wren kitchen fitted. once we established the final price but before signing the deal we went and found cheaper prices for all the appliances and the granite. saved loads. the rest of it is on 0% tick!
A big way of keeping the cost down is to do all the ripping out yourself. Takes no skill, just time. Give the tradesman as easy a job as possible.
We used a local joiner and got our kitchen from Ikea last year. The Ikea design service was excellent and you could see immediately how much it would cost. Easy to swap bits out, add fancy bits if desired.
I assembled all the flat pack which was a long and monotonous task but saved paying the joiners rates for the hours it took. When he came to fit it he had no complaints about Ikea.
Our worktops are from worktop express and taps from somewhere else for cheaper than the similar Ikea offering.
If doing it again I’d probably do the same again.
I had to move a wren kitchen and it was back breaking - the units weighed an absolute ton compared to the comparable units from Howdens. They seemed on cursory inspection to be much better made as well.
I’ve heard good things about Ikea – only issue is no back to cabinets to hide services etc.
How many folk actually need to hide anything? And if it's just the plumbing under the sink, better to have it on display so you can get to it.
And if needed, a false 'wall/frame' behind one run is a minor issue and just get a deeper work top to reduce down. Because we've an AGA and they sit further out than normal cabinets, I put a frame behind one lot of cabinets and cut-down a 900mm deep worktop.
When we built my Mum's place we got in an IKEA kitchen and the builder complained. Told him to RTFM and showed him the Utility Room (8*8) I'd done - and said if I can do it, surely you a trained man can do it 🙂
Told him to RTFM and showed him the Utility Room (8*8) I’d done – and said if I can do it, surely you a trained man can do it 🙂
I'm sure he loved that when the bill came round /kippers under the floor boards . Or that's wasn't at all how the conversation went down.
Wren appear to make their own cabinets as do Howdens that used to be called MFI,magnet /wickes and Benchmarx all use the same manufacturer as far as i can remember. Band Q only do flat pack and buying the stuff seperate from them soon adds up, like no hinges with doors etc.
At the end of the day its all about what you expect for a selection of cupboards and a shinny bit of plastic covered chipboard a and a fancy sink to fill and empty the kettle from.
Quality of the drawers make a huge difference as im called out quite often to fix them, plinths can just be 6 inch contiboard not the high priced plinths they all offer, under cabinet lights a waste of cash as are built in appliances, no doors required, and do you really need a corniche on the top just holds the drease and is only seen by the painter or sparky.
This is all wrong!
Howdens is not MFI, it was setup by 2 of the workers who left MFI when they started getting greedy basically and messing around with everything. Hiwdesn was started with the premise to be trade only from the start.
B and q sell both flat pack or pre built, you can request either, the higher end range Cooke and Lewis only available as pre built..
I use my under cupboard lights all the time at home and will only fit my customers proper functioning lights in my builds.
Integrated appliances are a pain to fit, but have the upside of looking ten fold better when done properly.
Ikea stuff is fine, but I've got to say the older Faktum drawers were better quality / stronger / easier to adjust the alignment than the current Metod ones.
They also seem to hold much less store stock - I think trying to push people to order for delivery rather than take home in a van on the same day.
Whatever you get, taller 900mm or more wall cabinets taken right to the ceiling gain a lot of storage space for very little extra cost. And avoids a dust, grease and clutter collecting space on top of units. Fit them about 20mm shy of the ceiling and fill / seal the gap with an infill piece to make sure the doors don't rub any ceiling undulations.
IKEA here. 5 years on it looks as good as new. IKEA cupboards are bigger than most too. Hinges, drawer runners etc are all Blum the same as top end kitchens.
does that mean you could not source your own doors for ikea carcasses?
I’m sure he loved that when the bill came round /kippers under the floor boards . Or that’s wasn’t at all how the conversation went down.
AKA his boss told him to stop ****ing moaning and bend his back 🙂
We are having a Wren kitchen installed as we speak. We did the following to save cost:
a) Sold the old kitchen on ebay. Someone came and took it away for us and paid us for the privilege, rather than us paying the builder.
b) Reused our oven and microwave as they are in good condition. We got them professionally cleaned so they looked like new.
c) Purchased a worktop locally, half the price from a comparable worktop from Wren
d) Sourced our own handles, tap and sink, saved a few hundred quid that way too.
e) obviously didn't pay Wren to install the kitchen.
Wren have been great so far. They sent us an end panel free of charge within a week of us asking, as we had altered our design slightly upon installation. Magnet were more than double the cost and failed to read our emails, plans, requirements before our visit. A few other local kitchen suppliers you see in the high street couldn't match Wren either.
