We are considering a new kitchen, at the weekend we visited our local Wren place, obviously the displays looked ok, I don't know anything about them, one thing that did put us off was that there were 50% off signs and stickers everywhere, but when we said do you have a price list they said no, so not sure what this actually meant.
I had a friend who was a salesman for Homebase kitchens and he admitted to me that they were just one step up from being junk. He also said the same about Wren, similar tat with a more flashy sales approach.
If it's any use, his advice was to buy Ikea and get a tradesman to fit it. He reckoned the quality was excellent.
Just our experience but when we visited their Guildford showroom they refused to give us a quote without first knowing what our budget was; they would not simply spec what we wanted and give us a price. They then produced a "quotation" that matched the amount they thought we had to spend.
Needless to say we went with a local'ish independent in the end.
On the other forum there was a lot of support for kitchens from Howdens fitted by a trusted fitter.
DIY Kitchens - very good quality and service.
Had one fitted last year.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
The most important thing is to get a good fitter. A good fitter can make a cheaper kitchen look much more expensive, similarly a bad fitter can make a much more expensive kitchen look cheap.
FWIW my parents are happy with their Magnet kitchen and were saying only recently that they're happy it's stood the test of time over the last 20 years.
If it helps I live in a National Trust cottage and Howdens do all theirs,ours is being done in February and Howdens design service has been great.
Last 10 houses i built have had howdens stuff, it decent, some of the lower end doors are a bit rental only. Plenty of scope for negotiating and frequently keen to really push for a deal to meet targets.Diy Kitchens have a knockout showroom and quality is excellent, they are unable to provide a proper vat invoice Or were unable last year when i wanted a biggie from them
We recently (2 years ago) had two Wren kitchens fitted, one their very cheap range one their expensive Linda Hamilton range. Both had to be fettled by our builder to fit nicely.
Linda Hamilton one is holding up well, cheap one , not so much. All of the cheap doors have pulled out the hinges from the carcass and needed to be repaired/bodged.
Biggest complaint from others that I was warned about was the stress of making sure that you got all of the component parts. Once I accepted that they wouldn't all turn up 100% correct the first time, there was no stress. A couple of phone calls and all the missing/incorrect bits replaced.
I looked at much more expensive kitchens and didn't really see what more you got unless going for very high end. You can inspect the different carcasses at a Wren showroom and I think they had examples form the other lower end manufacturers. The other thing that helped my wife with the design (she just doesn't get drawings) was a mock up of the planned kitchen with units on wheels so that you could stand in a similar space - very helpful.
They do play silly buggers with pricing, but that seems standard with kitchens.
They've been discussed & recommended previouslly: https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...t=diy+kitchens
https://www.diy-kitchens.com/
Last three kitchens have all been from Magnet and very pleased with the quality.
I'll give you an example, i had my builder fit my DIY Kitchens kitchen late last year and little known to me (until far too late) is that a set of tall cupboard units we have on the left hand side of a run were fitted with a very slight angle (i.e. not 100% straight). This has had a knock on impact that i'm unable to have my cornice fitted and to most people you probably won't be able to tell but to me it irks me every single day. I'd hope a professional fitter would have taken more care to fit this set of units correctly.
Another recommendation for DIY Kitchens. Good quality and good price. You can have custom colour too either matched to a sample or from a large choice of colours based on Farrow and Ball. There was a balls up on the second delivery but it was satisfactorily sorted after a couple of telephone calls.
Chose a work surface from Wren but could shake the feeling I had been mugged (£800 for a few metres of laminate) so cancelled the order the next day.
We also looked at Howden which we would have chosen if they had done the colour we wanted. You need to be aware that the final Howden price will depend on your fitter and if they add a mark up. You won't able to buy it directly from them.
I could have fitted mine (the DIY units all come pre assembled) but I could not have done as good a job athe fitter. Plus it took a lot less time. It's that old time/effort/cost equation.
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I agree which is why i think the other poster made reference to a 'good fitter' rather than a professional fitter. I think it also comes down to what the fitter has to work with, e.g. alcoves, sloping ceilings, wonky walls, awkward spaces, and how creative and competent they are at fitting around those or incorporating those into the design/fit..
I had a Wren kitchen fitted around 12 months ago. Still very happy with it.
I priced up my units with DIY Kitchen online and went to Wren’s showroom with my quote in hand. They got very close to the DIY Kitchens quote. It wasn’t Wren’s cheapest range either.
As others have said, be warned that you need to go into the showroom with the mentality of buying a used car ie you need to bargain hard. I even walked out and went for a coffee to put them under a little pressure.
The customer service was great. I had one salesmen who I dealt with throughout. He even came in on his day off to finalise the deal when I was ready to make payment.
We live in a first floor flat in Manchester city centre to it is a difficult address to deliver to at the best of times. Notwithstanding that, the two delivery guys got all the stuff into the flat without moaning and without hassle.
All items were delivered correctly. One problem I had was that the salesman had included two wall mounted end panels to go either side if a wine rack. These weren’t needed as the wine rack was mounted between two wall cabinets. I called them up and they refunded the cost of the panels and didn’t bother collecting them. Once the kitchen was fitted, I noticed a couple of pin prick marks on a door. Contacted Wren and they sent two replacements. I’ve kept these replacements wrapped up as spares.
I think what also helped with the kitchen was that I’ve used a very good joiner and the kitchen went into a newish flat where the walls were quite true.
If you’re going for a quartz or granite worktop, don’t use Wren or any other kitchen supplier for that matter. Most of them just sub contract the worktop out and put their own margin on. I went directly to a worktop manufacturer who sent their own staff out to template the worktop with hardboard and fitted 7 days later.
I also went elsewhere for appliance. Stay away from CDA. They’re pretty poor. I got my appliances from selco and Ao.com
I've just had a Howdens kitchen fitted by a highly recommended fitter (he recommends Benchmarx BTW) and the wife is very happy, the kitchen designer didn't do a great job as a couple of the units needed swapping for different sizes, the good thing with Howdens is they're all over the place so getting replacement parts is very easy, not quite so easy with DIY kitchens or Wren!
We bought one of their expensive ranges last year and I would never buy from them again. Felt like a decent deal at the time but a false economy because it was crap. Poor quality, cheap looking and overall just very disappointing!
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I'd be inclined to completely disagree with this comment given that I employ professional fitters to carry out installations I do. I've been in the build and housing game all my working life and after 35 yrs, I still couldn't fit a kitchen to the same standard as my guys do and I'm still very much on the tools too.
In answer to the OP, forget Wren and look elsewhere, starting with Howdens.
Last edited by reggie747; 28th January 2019 at 20:40.
Another vote for Howdens pre made carcass kitchens from a tradesman.
I've seen some horror shows by so called professional fitters so I can see your point, but a good Installer will know the nuances and finishing touches that make a world of difference. If you don't fit them regularly enough you maybe wouldn't notice, but to the semi trained eye you can tell.
The main problem with big companies is they have numerous fitting teams, some who maybe great, some who may be average, it's pot luck who you get. So even recommendation from people who have used them doesn't guarantee you will get the same level of Installation, unless you know which fitting team to ask for.
But that's not the point I was making. You may have been unlucky in your choice of professionals, I don't know.
My point was that fitting a kitchen, professionally, is very much more likely to be a better job than any good handyman unless of course he is 100% a kitchen fitting handyman who is totally au fait with the foibles of same.
Counter to some of the experiences here, I bought a Wren kitchen for my last house and was absolutely happy with the quality.
Another quote for DIY Kitchens here, am very happy with mine, have v nice showroom in West Yorkshire too.
German kitchens, would you believe it or not, our quote was cheaper than howdens, wren, b&q, homebase. We then stopped searching and placed the order with them. Came straight from Germany, already assembled, not flat pack.
Our joiners recommend Howden's kitchens.
https://www.ballerina-kitchens.eu
I live in Cardiff but they might have sales representatives around the country.
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We're still pleased with our Wren kitchen, fitted coming up to 9 years ago. Not cheap, but worth every penny.
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
If you design a kitchen with Wren, do they give you a copy of the design layout with sizes to compare with maybe someone else or do they keep it?
We went with Wren about five years ago. Wouldn't have touched their cheapest range, but the mid-tier stuff we went for was leagues ahead of similarly priced Ikea. Properly big cupboards that could hold big plates, heavy duty shelves for heavy pans etc.
Only thing we regretted was not getting a proper designer in to design for us. We used their tool with the help of the salesman, but ended up with weird ends on the units, and not enough shelving inside some of the cupboards.
Since then we've moved into a new house that's had a recent Howden's kitchen, I have no idea in terms of relative cost, but it's not as good quality as Wren was.
Also had wren and howdens. If you upgrade the drawer boxes an hinges on the howdens they are of similar spec.
I would use either.
We had a Wren kitchen fitted about 3 years ago now. My wife did the investigation and we looked at several options - most of which habe been mentioned. Quite frankly, if you buy the cheap Wren kitchen it will be - well cheap. As with all things in life, cheap is rarely good. We went for something towards the top end and it continues to hold up well. I am sure it has something like a twenty year guarantee. Someone came around and did the design bit with swmbo and we were given, a frankly ridiculous, initial quote. After some fairly serious haggling this became far more sensible and because we also bought an induction hob and extractor fan we snagged a dishwasher gratis (all Bosch). I must say the customer service was excellent, there were bits missing on delivery (and during fitting) but these were sent by courier - same day in some cases.
The most important element though is your choice of fitter, I cannot stress this enough. This seems to be what lets Wren down in most of their on line reviews. We did not use Wren’s fitters, and our fitters - although wideboys - really were perfectionists.
In short, a well manufactured kitchen will do the job very well and last - whomever manufactures it. It’s the fitting that makes all the difference.
How much haggling did you do, I’ve just had the initial quote of around £6k, I’d like to get that down to around £5k, I’m going to go back and ask for a price around there and I will probably go with them, the kitchen I want is the top of their range spec and I was also impressed with their cabinets on display.
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So haggling, the more units you buy the better your chances. The 50% off is a con (surprise surprise), you will not find a true price list. They started out with a price of about £12k, when I finished laughing that immediately dropped to £8k. We finally paid just over £4,500, and about £600 for the electrical - all Bosch and all less than we could find anywhere else. The key is bid them and say you want to think about it, they will drop it, say you are a little unsure, they’ll drop it again. Go home and they will call you with their ‘best price’. Go in to sign up, and drive it down a bit more before you sign. Our kitchen is not huge by any stretch of the imagination but we bought a lot of units.
Good luck,