Wren Kitchens

I hate that Wren advert,

My Magnet Shaker style kitchen still looks good, eighteen years on. Excellent enduring quality.
Some young friends feel that their Wren kitchen is not lasting well, just five years old

My Howden kitchen is now 11 years old and still looks like new. Installed by a local small builder and still a delight.

We had a mid range Howdens kitchen installed in a rental property and I have to say it still looks really good over 10 years later - we’ve had very good tenants, though.

The only thing I didn’t like about Howdens is that their pricing is so non-transparent! You can only order through a tradesman, and what you pay will depend on what discount he’s entitled to.
At least, that was the case when we used them.

In a former property we had a Wickes kitchen which was also very good. We used our own fitter and every single thing was delivered on time, not so much as a screw damaged or missing.

A year ago, we updated our utility room, units on one side only. We went to Howdens and Wren. We found Wren less expensive. We ordered them, they arrived on the correct day and we employed a local fitter ourselves who did a great job in putting them in. We have no complaints about Wren ourselves. The units are good quality, definitely good enough to upgrade our utility room. We got the worktop delivered from Worktop Express and ordered new handles online. We were working to a budget. We are more than pleased with it.

I, also, could not abide the Wren advert, with some woman shouting at me. For that reason alone, I did not even look at their products! Because they had a discount last year, we went with Wickes. The kitchen looks good and the service and the fitters were absolutely fine.

I don't know if this information is correct but I was told by an independent tradesman that Howdens have two levels of quality. The higher standard is sold direct to the customer but the lower standard is used by builders, which is why there can be shoddy products in new builds. Worth checking out but do be aware.

My son had a Wren kitchen about 4 years ago. It still looks good and hopefully will stay that way.

We had a Magnet kitchen and are very satisfied with it.

My friend had Howdens and she is very satisfied with it too.

It's all a bit of a lottery really.

I am really struggling now, I have looked up the various companies mentioned but non seem to have the choice or options similar to what we picked at Wren. I have also priced checked and all the calculations are coming out at similar to Wren. I really appreciate all the feedback.

I used a local firm in the end. They built in several individual options that weren’t available in the big firm ranges, like a very thin cupboard tucked in a useless space that holds my ironing board and iron. Brilliant!

Do you know anyone that could recommend local firms? I found mine on an industrial estate.

Elless roughly where in the country are you living?
Someone may know a good local company.
I do.

I'd second the individuality available by going to a local company. I have a really thin cupboard in a bit of dead space next to the cooker. It pulls out and holds all my oils, vinegars, soy sauce etc which is really handy.