Discussion
Okay, daft question I know.
But whats the best place to get a fitted kitchen from?
Ideally i'd like the old one taking out for me, and the new one installing, maybe with a small amount of plumbing/fitted cooker.
I dont want anything too fancy (small space) but I want it to look good and last a reasonable time...
I looked in the likes of B&Q, which price wise were okay, but fitting was worse than the service department at Porsche, and thats saying something...
So, how can i get a nice kitchen without needing to sell internal organs?
But whats the best place to get a fitted kitchen from?
Ideally i'd like the old one taking out for me, and the new one installing, maybe with a small amount of plumbing/fitted cooker.
I dont want anything too fancy (small space) but I want it to look good and last a reasonable time...
I looked in the likes of B&Q, which price wise were okay, but fitting was worse than the service department at Porsche, and thats saying something...
So, how can i get a nice kitchen without needing to sell internal organs?
You gets what you pays for.
I wanted to avoid a line of chipboard boxes and got a quote from a trendy kitchen place - lovely units but at £7,500 supply only it's simply not practical.
I hear MFI are worth a look. My issue is that I want some curved units, and all the cheap places don't do them.
I wanted to avoid a line of chipboard boxes and got a quote from a trendy kitchen place - lovely units but at £7,500 supply only it's simply not practical.
I hear MFI are worth a look. My issue is that I want some curved units, and all the cheap places don't do them.
Just google local kitchen fitters. There are loads out there just be prepared to part with the cash. If you find a nice one then he might offer to get the units, worktops etc at cost price from one of their places. Say around £2500 for a reasonable small kitchen. You're probably looking at around £1000 min for simple rip out and refit with maybe some tiling thrown in. Anything complicated and the cost will obviously increase. Also, don't forget if you have a gas oven or hob you will need a CORGI qualified fitter to sort that out. That will be extra. All the best with it all 
Edited by Big Alf on Wednesday 20th June 14:46
Avoid Howdens like the plague, cheap and nasty. My mother, all 8 stone of her, managed to pull the drawer fronts off a couple of the drawers and the kitchen hasn't been in 2 years yet...... (Oh their and MFI's own brand appliances are rubbish)
B&Q as you say are ok, but best on a supply basis. (However that being said someone I know managed to conceive, go full term and have the baby in the time it took Been & Queued to order, partially deliver, redeliver, and sort out the cock-ups involved in supplying a kitchen to them. Not unusal I'm told.
Ikeas stuff is ok, but I have a feeling that all their sizes are different from the standard stuff sold in the uk as usual.
Wickes offer fairly decent kitchens, again best to find your own fitter.
John Lewis offer a design and fit service. Certainly not the cheapest, and of course you have to like their kitchens, but you do get JL service levels.
I removed our last kitchen when it was being replaced..... started off being careful and undoing screws etc. Ended up working out some frustrations with a crowbar and a club hammer. Very theraputic!
Mrs Scotal came home with some homes magazine at the weekend with a design your own kitchen special in it.... my fave was a company who say their kitchens start at £50,000. Go figure.
B&Q as you say are ok, but best on a supply basis. (However that being said someone I know managed to conceive, go full term and have the baby in the time it took Been & Queued to order, partially deliver, redeliver, and sort out the cock-ups involved in supplying a kitchen to them. Not unusal I'm told.
Ikeas stuff is ok, but I have a feeling that all their sizes are different from the standard stuff sold in the uk as usual.
Wickes offer fairly decent kitchens, again best to find your own fitter.
John Lewis offer a design and fit service. Certainly not the cheapest, and of course you have to like their kitchens, but you do get JL service levels.
I removed our last kitchen when it was being replaced..... started off being careful and undoing screws etc. Ended up working out some frustrations with a crowbar and a club hammer. Very theraputic!
Mrs Scotal came home with some homes magazine at the weekend with a design your own kitchen special in it.... my fave was a company who say their kitchens start at £50,000. Go figure.
Try these. Linked in with MFI somehow therefore you can get nearly all the kitchens that are in MFI. They have there own brochure + online is OK.
http://www.howdens.com/
They are trade only so give your local place a ring and ask them for recommended installers in your area.
I arranged with our local installer to pay for the kitchen in full myself but through the installers trade card. Then only pay the installer for what he did. That way you get trade prices for the Kitchen. The guy from Howdens even came out to my place measured everything up and did a 3D render + plans for me to agree before anything was paid for. worked so well I’ve done this twice on another house we rent out.
BTW No affiliation just worked well for me.
http://www.howdens.com/
They are trade only so give your local place a ring and ask them for recommended installers in your area.
I arranged with our local installer to pay for the kitchen in full myself but through the installers trade card. Then only pay the installer for what he did. That way you get trade prices for the Kitchen. The guy from Howdens even came out to my place measured everything up and did a 3D render + plans for me to agree before anything was paid for. worked so well I’ve done this twice on another house we rent out.
BTW No affiliation just worked well for me.
we got a middling/cheap priced kitchen from Homebase and got it fitted by a legend!
we spent something like 1900 on the kitchen (including adequate candy appliances (inc dishwasher)) and tiles. we then paid him almost the same again to fit it all including tiling the walls and floor (it's a decent sized kitchen dinner).
all in all it cost <£4k and looks a lot lot better than you'd imagine. i would strongly recommend that it's the quality of the fitter as much as the kitchen itse;f at this end of the mkt.
our guy does £40k kitchens and he was saying he was impressed how solid the kitchen actually was. the thing is though it's good for the tiling to match up nicely and for them to think out how to deal with dodgy corners and plumbing and stuff. and that's where a decent fitter comes in in my book. he even did a small amount of plastering when we got let down.
all out money's gone on the kitchen basically. some knocking around to make it a kitchen/dinner, new resited boiler, new kitchen inc new floor. i think we've spend something like £7.5/8k all in. but it's added a lot more to the value.
just to reiterate - use a decent bloke!
we spent something like 1900 on the kitchen (including adequate candy appliances (inc dishwasher)) and tiles. we then paid him almost the same again to fit it all including tiling the walls and floor (it's a decent sized kitchen dinner).
all in all it cost <£4k and looks a lot lot better than you'd imagine. i would strongly recommend that it's the quality of the fitter as much as the kitchen itse;f at this end of the mkt.
our guy does £40k kitchens and he was saying he was impressed how solid the kitchen actually was. the thing is though it's good for the tiling to match up nicely and for them to think out how to deal with dodgy corners and plumbing and stuff. and that's where a decent fitter comes in in my book. he even did a small amount of plastering when we got let down.
all out money's gone on the kitchen basically. some knocking around to make it a kitchen/dinner, new resited boiler, new kitchen inc new floor. i think we've spend something like £7.5/8k all in. but it's added a lot more to the value.
just to reiterate - use a decent bloke!
http://www.cloistersdirect.co.uk/
I used this company to supply and found a local kitchen fitter pretty good and cheaper than wickes, b&q etc and good quality.
They can recommend fitters, worth visiting there show room, they do cheap to handmade.
I used this company to supply and found a local kitchen fitter pretty good and cheaper than wickes, b&q etc and good quality.
They can recommend fitters, worth visiting there show room, they do cheap to handmade.
Buy it from Wickes
Buy a quality worktop (thick, not a cheapo thin one) from somewhere on the web
Buy quality appliances from somewhere on the web
Get a good independent bloke to put it in.
That'll be about half the price of Kitchens Direct (type companies) and look much much better. The quality worktop really finishes it off.
Buy a quality worktop (thick, not a cheapo thin one) from somewhere on the web
Buy quality appliances from somewhere on the web
Get a good independent bloke to put it in.
That'll be about half the price of Kitchens Direct (type companies) and look much much better. The quality worktop really finishes it off.
Searle and Taylor
Mr Taylor can't hold his drink and has a very dodgy penchant for pimp-mobile BMW's but their kitchens are top notch.
oh and their website is crap - don't let that put you off though.
Mr Taylor can't hold his drink and has a very dodgy penchant for pimp-mobile BMW's but their kitchens are top notch.
oh and their website is crap - don't let that put you off though.
Edited by Davi on Wednesday 20th June 15:26
pikey said:
Buy quality appliances from somewhere on the web
BUT it depends on your house and if you intend to stay.if you're talking £150k terrace then that doesn't require the same kind of (miele/neff) appliances as a £350k house to sell.
if you're staying and like cooking then fair enough.
i was looking on t'interweb earlier. there's a £600k house in my town with the same kitchen as ours with a slightly better cooker. this is definitely wrong!
Wickes do good kitchens. I've had 2 in previous houses and I'm about to buy another for this one.
Their worktops are cr*p which is why you should get a better one - but once on it really makes it look the part. Don't discount the units as rubbish though.
If I had a cheap house I wanted to sell or an expensive one I wanted to keep - I would follow the same line!
Their worktops are cr*p which is why you should get a better one - but once on it really makes it look the part. Don't discount the units as rubbish though.
If I had a cheap house I wanted to sell or an expensive one I wanted to keep - I would follow the same line!
pikey said:
Buy it from Wickes
Buy a quality worktop (thick, not a cheapo thin one) from somewhere on the web
Buy quality appliances from somewhere on the web
Get a good independent bloke to put it in.
That'll be about half the price of Kitchens Direct (type companies) and look much much better. The quality worktop really finishes it off.
Good advice. I got a B&Q bloke in to design it to see how they worked it all out then redesigned it myself to make sure I had no gaps or blanking panels. Put the cupboards in myself, got a local recommened carpenter to put some decent worktops in and spent a bit extra on appliances to 'posh' it up a bit. Buy a quality worktop (thick, not a cheapo thin one) from somewhere on the web
Buy quality appliances from somewhere on the web
Get a good independent bloke to put it in.
That'll be about half the price of Kitchens Direct (type companies) and look much much better. The quality worktop really finishes it off.
Friend of mine spent 16K on a kitchen fully fitted from a posh place out of the supplements but people who have seen it say it looks nop better than my 4-5K DIY (with help) job.
all depends on how much of a hassle you want.
in our last place we decided to redo the kitchen about 1yr before we moved because we thought it would help the resale price (it clearly helped
). we got Moben round and got a deal we were happy with. The surveyor chappie came round (to check the salesguy's work), then the fitter came - spent 2.5days, and it was all done and dusted.
the fitter did a really good job - and that's the key thing about places like moben. you're kind of dependant on how good the fitter you get is. luckily for us, things turned out well. we moved
in our last place we decided to redo the kitchen about 1yr before we moved because we thought it would help the resale price (it clearly helped
). we got Moben round and got a deal we were happy with. The surveyor chappie came round (to check the salesguy's work), then the fitter came - spent 2.5days, and it was all done and dusted.the fitter did a really good job - and that's the key thing about places like moben. you're kind of dependant on how good the fitter you get is. luckily for us, things turned out well. we moved
SimonV8ster said:
Good advice. I got a B&Q bloke in to design it to see how they worked it all out then redesigned it myself to make sure I had no gaps or blanking panels. Put the cupboards in myself, got a local recommened carpenter to put some decent worktops in and spent a bit extra on appliances to 'posh' it up a bit.
Friend of mine spent 16K on a kitchen fully fitted from a posh place out of the supplements but people who have seen it say it looks nop better than my 4-5K DIY (with help) job.
my dad's kitchen cost about 3 times what mine did and it looks no better. arguably it looks worse!Friend of mine spent 16K on a kitchen fully fitted from a posh place out of the supplements but people who have seen it say it looks nop better than my 4-5K DIY (with help) job.
I agree with much of the above - use an independent fitter!!. We got a Schreiber kitchen from MFI, we had originally planned for them to fit it which would have cost nearly as much as the rest of the kitchen but they let us down so badly with delivery dates etc that their fitters couldn't schedule it for a long time after it was originally planned to be done. We ended up finding our own fitter who charged less than a quarter of the price, did a cracking job and redesigned some of the layout which made it more efficient and meant we were able to send back some unused equipment thereby saving even more money!
I recently re-did our whole Kitchen. I'm very pleased with the result and I did the following:
John Lewis Dept Store came round, did the planning and 'optimisation' of storage and all that stuff.
John Lewis gave me a quote for Cabinets, Appliances, Work Surfaces, Electrics, Plumbing and fitting.
I got the drawings from them, placed an order for the cabinets only.
Bought work surfaces direct from the supplier in accordance with JL's drawings checked by myself.
Bought appliances online from Biasco.
Got a quote from my own trusted builder for plumbing, electrics and fitting.
Saved a bundle.
John Lewis warranty their kitchen even if someone else fits it. It comes as prebuilt cabinets not flat pack and they do a superb planning service with 3d rederings of what the kitchen will look like etc.
Overall very pleased.
John Lewis Dept Store came round, did the planning and 'optimisation' of storage and all that stuff.
John Lewis gave me a quote for Cabinets, Appliances, Work Surfaces, Electrics, Plumbing and fitting.
I got the drawings from them, placed an order for the cabinets only.
Bought work surfaces direct from the supplier in accordance with JL's drawings checked by myself.
Bought appliances online from Biasco.
Got a quote from my own trusted builder for plumbing, electrics and fitting.
Saved a bundle.
John Lewis warranty their kitchen even if someone else fits it. It comes as prebuilt cabinets not flat pack and they do a superb planning service with 3d rederings of what the kitchen will look like etc.
Overall very pleased.
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