Kitchens

Nearish neighbour ..........

Sad news about your. OH I wish you both well on that journey.

A newish neighbour is delighted with her Howdens kitchen as is another who had hers from John Lewis. I truly believe it is the worst room in the house to be done. Total upheaval. Good luck whatever your decision

I did not have a new kitchen fitted but I had the cupboard doors changed + another couple of cupboards added + a new worktop surface. I chose Kitchen Magic. I am very happy with the end result, the fellow was a good carpenter but very surly, even parked on my front lawn without asking. I would have said no because he could have parked on the road outside my house.

It was easier to get my local plumber to fit a new sink and mixer tap.

After our fire we had the kitchen replaced with a Howden's. It's a large kitchen so there was a lot to replace. The original kitchen which was smoke-damaged was allegedly an 'expensive, good quality' one, but I was never happy with it.

I prefer the new Howden's one. We chose Nef and Boch equipment and there was a great selection of fittings, sinks, little bits and bobs such as secret cutlery drawers (keeps knives safe from little hands) and swing out drawers and fittings.

There was the usual little problems that cropped up (had that many new kitchen in my time and there's always something!) but I found the customer service excellent and anything that didn't quite fit/wasn't quite what I wanted was replaced, no problem.

I too am very sorry to hear about your husband's illness. DD has a Howden's kitchen fitted two years ago. It is very handsome and good quality. They did have a problem fitting one of the units, but that was the fault of the people who built the extension, not Howdens. We had a survey and a quote from Howdens but in the end decided to go with a local company.

So sorry to hear your DH has cancer. Hope you can fill his remaining time with happy memories.

We did loads of research a couple of years back but in the end went for IKEA but with appliances from John Lewis and a custom made composite worktop and glass splashback , which we sourced on line. We are pleased with the result. We did have one or two issues with the kitchen , but these were dealt with swiftly and efficiently with their online customer service. It is a big job as you have to think of so many things such as taps, flooring, lighting etc, and to deal with your OHs illness as well, I hope it is not to stressful for you. You can get someone from IKEA ( and all the other kitchen companies I'm sure) to do a home visit and cost it all up for you. Might be worth getting a couple of quotes, as they may give you ideas you hadn't thought of. Good Luck with your project.

Just had a Howdens fitted before Christmas. So far so good. It isn't the most expensive one you can have installed read somewhere it was equivalent to MFI but we are pleased with it. Get good fitters though.
Which survey showed that Ikea is the most popular, but we don't have an IKEA near us and really to travel look then decide etc sort if defeated us and we went for the easier option. You can choose all your appliances from anywhere, or Howdens will supply. So we chose a Miele f/f from John Lewis and Neff slide under oven and induction hob which is absolutely whizzy.

Good luck