New Kitchen Advice

[fundy]

Anyone come across John Lewis doing fitted kitchens? Never seen them before but it popped up in a thread.
I am assuming it is JL quality so worth a look.

different price bracket to howdens/wren and quite limited options in some areas when we looked a few years ago, was kind of disappointed. also only available in a handful of their shops

 

[BrianM]

Anyone come across John Lewis doing fitted kitchens? Never seen them before but it popped up in a thread.
I am assuming it is JL quality so worth a look.

Id be slightly careful here, if things aren’t quite right, how easy is it to get replacement or different cabinets if required.
At least with Howdens you know it’s no hassle.

 

[chellie]

get Howdens priced up and look to buy in the Autumn sale in Sept/Oct (cabinets at least)

A proper sale as well.

 

[Jason.H]

I would not recommend Wren. I’ve known a few people who’ve had bad experiences with complete kitchen installations. Every time there has been missing items, trims etc which caused long delays.

 

[Deleted member 1740]

Anyone come across John Lewis doing fitted kitchens? Never seen them before but it popped up in a thread.
I am assuming it is JL quality so worth a look.

I've done work for JL on a couple of installations. Not cheap but excellent quality. Fantastic service too. If its within your budjet the you wont be disappointed.

Only the bigger stores have a kitchen design team

 

[BiMGuy]

Id be slightly careful here, if things aren’t quite right, how easy is it to get replacement or different cabinets if required.
At least with Howdens you know it’s no hassle.

Very easy in my experience. We had a cabinet with the door hinged the wrong way and an end panel that was the wrong size. Both were replaced within 48hrs.

We also had an issue with the dishwasher door peeling at the top. Again, this was replaced immediately.

 

[Deleted member 1740]

I would not recommend Wren. I’ve known a few people who’ve had bad experiences with complete kitchen installations. Every time there has been missing items, trims etc which caused long delays.

Wren only exist for 0% interest.

 

[BrianM]

Very easy in my experience. We had a cabinet with the door hinged the wrong way and an end panel that was the wrong size. Both were replaced within 48hrs.

We also had an issue with the dishwasher door peeling at the top. Again, this was replaced immediately.

Thats good to hear, I’ve got no experience with John Lewis on kitchens.

 

[GreiginFife]

I'll be going against the grain here but we got our kitchen from Wren in 2019. Mainly due to them being the only ones that had a style that HID liked. We went for the Infinity range of prebuilt cabinets. Delivered a week earlier than estimated with no damage or missing items.

I can't comment on their installs as my mate (kitchen fitter/joiner) did the install and said that it was a breeze and that any issues that cropped up were caused by the crap build quality of the house and not the kitchen. 3 years on it still looks great and have had zero issues.

We didn't use the 0% option so cannot comment on that either.

 

[BiMGuy]

I'll be going against the grain here but we got our kitchen from Wren in 2019. Mainly due to them being the only ones that had a style that HID liked. We went for the Infinity range of prebuilt cabinets. Delivered a week earlier than estimated with no damage or missing items.

I can't comment on their installs as my mate (kitchen fitter/joiner) did the install and said that it was a breeze and that any issues that cropped up were caused by the crap build quality of the house and not the kitchen. 3 years on it still looks great and have had zero issues.

We didn't use the 0% option so cannot comment on that either.

I think at the Wren/DIY kitchens end of the scale cabinets are much the same, Magnet aren’t quite as good. The complaints I’ve heard about Wren and Magent have been about the fitting.

 

[Piece]

I'll be going against the grain here but we got our kitchen from Wren in 2019. Mainly due to them being the only ones that had a style that HID liked. We went for the Infinity range of prebuilt cabinets. Delivered a week earlier than estimated with no damage or missing items.

I can't comment on their installs as my mate (kitchen fitter/joiner) did the install and said that it was a breeze and that any issues that cropped up were caused by the crap build quality of the house and not the kitchen. 3 years on it still looks great and have had zero issues.

We didn't use the 0% option so cannot comment on that either.

That's the bit with Wren is that customers are at the mercy of a fitting contractor they haven't vetted.

And as mentioned, the drip finance is a Wren selling point.

 

[Mudball]

I've done work for JL on a couple of installations. Not cheap but excellent quality. Fantastic service too. If its within your budjet the you wont be disappointed.

Only the bigger stores have a kitchen design team

good to know.. any idea of what kind of budget are we talking about... do they compete against the Wren/Magnet or are they the Smallbones/Poggehpol type high end. The nearest kitchen service we have is the Kingston store - might be worth a visit
I am a big JL fan, and would like it if they are British made

 

[GreiginFife]

That's the bit with Wren is that customers are at the mercy of a fitting contractor they haven't vetted.

And as mentioned, the drip finance is a Wren selling point.

As I say, against the grain. But having looked at my mate's Howdens cabinets, they are the same particle board shell and MDF doors just in a different profile/colour-way.

Finance, drip or otherwise was no selling point as we were cash customers. Style, colour and availability were selling points.

But, against the anti-Wren grain.

 

[Mudball]

As I say, against the grain. But having looked at my mate's Howdens cabinets, they are the same particle board shell and MDF doors just in a different profile/colour-way.

Finance, drip or otherwise was no selling point as we were cash customers. Style, colour and availability were selling points.

But, against the anti-Wren grain.

I have a friend who went with Wren. Very happy with them. They had a bit of bad patch where cabinets were left in the driveway and fitters did not turn up. So he had to get call up the Wren MD whose office then sorted it out. With that as a distant memory, they have a lovely kitchen

 

[HeftyHacker]

Our Wren kitchen turned up last year on time and without any parts missing. The room wasn't actually ready at the time so they held onto it for a further 2 weeks and were very good at keeping us updated with new delivery dates etc.

Contrary to what has been posted above we used our own fitter and he was very happy with what had been supplied and ease of fitting. Any issues he had were to do with walls not quite being square etc.

We also used the 0% finance which was no hassle.

 

[Golfmmad]

I think at the Wren/DIY kitchens end of the scale cabinets are much the same, Magnet aren’t quite as good. The complaints I’ve heard about Wren and Magent have been about the fitting.

Everybody's experience is different with kitchens.
I had Magnet and the quality is first class, fitters were very good too.
We wanted tall wall cabinets with no gap at the top. This was( to me) a real challenge because the end cupboard is curved, but they managed to fill with a curved pelmet.
Fitters were first class too, they didn't stop all day and finished in the 7 working days that they promised at the survey.

Nothing missing and jobs a good 'un!

 

[Mudball]

Went down to Howdens today.. we have two equidistant from us. At the first one, they have about 2 kitchens on display. No one was available to talk about kitchens. All doing their bits.

So went to the other one. Very quiet there and got chatting to the guys. Their ‘designer’ was in. So exchanged some ideas. Given they are trade oriented, the are not as slick as Wren.

Anong other things, I learnt that they have 3 types of kitchens material. Real wood, MDF and Chipboard. So it all comes down to what you choose and the budgets that you are trying to hit.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Went down to Howdens today.. we have two equidistant from us. At the first one, they have about 2 kitchens on display. No one was available to talk about kitchens. All doing their bits.

So went to the other one. Very quiet there and got chatting to the guys. Their ‘designer’ was in. So exchanged some ideas. Given they are trade oriented, the are not as slick as Wren.

Anong other things, I learnt that they have 3 types of kitchens material. Real wood, MDF and Chipboard. So it all comes down to what you choose and the budgets that you are trying to hit.

I'm afraid Howdens have been very unproactive in following up with us. We had good initial contact and discussion but since then nothing much at all. We are currently looking at Wren and Optiplan. Good design experience had with both but the Optiplan designer seems very knowledgeable and full of ideas and thoughts and as they have brought their cost close to Wrens we are leaning their way. Fitting we have no issues with as our builder has his own trusted fitters and he will liaise with the suppliers and make sure the fitters do a good job.

 

[Golfmmad]

I'm afraid Howdens have been very unproactive in following up with us. We had good initial contact and discussion but since then nothing much at all. We are currently looking at Wren and Optiplan. Good design experience had with both but the Optiplan designer seems very knowledgeable and full of ideas and thoughts and as they have brought their cost close to Wrens we are leaning their way. Fitting we have no issues with as our builder has his own trusted fitters and he will liaise with the suppliers and make sure the fitters do a good job.

It's all about the fitters!

 

[Mudball]

I'm afraid Howdens have been very unproactive in following up with us. We had good initial contact and discussion but since then nothing much at all. We are currently looking at Wren and Optiplan. Good design experience had with both but the Optiplan designer seems very knowledgeable and full of ideas and thoughts and as they have brought their cost close to Wrens we are leaning their way. Fitting we have no issues with as our builder has his own trusted fitters and he will liaise with the suppliers and make sure the fitters do a good job.

How is the Optiplan quality… we have a showroom in the area but never considered it