Owning your own home

Got two? Knock 'em through.

Solo throne? On its own.

That branding workshop you did for your interior design consultancy is really paying off!

Anyone had good/bad experiences with Howdens?
Need a new kitchen and the current contenders are Howdens, Benchmarx and IKEA.

Howdens have a warehouse/showroom about 5 mins walk from our house which is appealing in case there are any issues.

Howdens are nearly always rated by the trades.
I think it's to do with space behind the unit for pipe work.

In terms of quality, dunno. Unsure if there's a huge difference at the price point your at. Not bitchy.

A friend is having full custom, I've winced at the prices for a bin being resold by the fitting company he binned.

Good experience but we effectively bought as trade and negotiated a hefty discount - you'd most likely have to buy through your fitter who may try and make a margin on the kitchen. Or if they're a big Howdens customer they might be able to get a really good discount...

Very happy with the quality. Availability in a wider range of widths swung us from Ikea - would have ended up with a lot of filler.

I think it depends on your fitter. We used Howdens who made a few mistakes with the layout and measurement (missing some pipes, etc.). Luckily our fitter spotted the mistakes before he began and was able to work around them, but we had to compromise with loss of space in some cupboards. Howdens also sent some of the wrong bits.

Quality of the actual units was fine. It's just coated chipboard/MDF I think. MDF is a poor choice of material for kitchens and bathrooms because if it gets wet it swells and splits. If I was getting a new kitchen I'd be sure not to use it.

While we're discussing IKEA vs other things.
Is it worth it for things like this :

Previous owners of my flat put in a Howdens kitchen in c. 2005 and it still looks serviceable (although we changed the worktop), which is pretty good for the price point. Not sure how the quality has changed in the intervening 15 years though.

Also they don’t change the styles very often so when we wanted to replace a panel 10 years later they had exactly the same design and colour in stock.

Don’t think they sell to retail so everyone gets ‘trade’ prices, no?

Yep, but because they only sell to trade if you walk in off the street they'll spec you a kitchen but won't tell you how it costs. So you need a friendly kitchen fitter, who may or may not pass any or all of his discount on to you.

We got about £2k off the first price they quoted us.

Yes but depends how good a customer the tradesman is. If he brings them a lot of business then their discount gets bigger

Their pricing is opaque and complex and they only sell to registered trade, so your tradesperson can mark up whatever they think they can get away with.

Quality is a decent, but nothing worth shouting about.

Trades bitch about Ikea quality and the effort needed to trim and fit etc, but it's just bluster to get you to pony up for a significant material cost that they can slap 20% on.

Yes in an ideal world I wouldn't get MDF units.

However have you seen the cost of bespoke kitchen companies that do solid wood doors? I bet even they use MDF for the base units.

Read something that suggested solid wood was a terrible option for kitchen units. Humidity an issue I think?

Yeah I'm not saying solid wood (cost being the major reason for me) but chipboard beats MDF.

As.someone who actually makes kitchens, I think we need @dbr to help us out here

We've just got an Ikea kitchen done. I'd rate their planning service.

I’ve fitted an IKEA kitchen - same as all the others tbh, quality etc is good, pretty sure all the fittings are Blum anyway.

I used to use melamine faced MRMDF for carcasses, with a solid wood lipped edge. I don’t think any of the big names use MR, though unless your filling your drawers with water I can’t really see it being a problem. Timber worktops on the other hand...

I’ve switched to birch ply for carcasses now anyway. Waterproof to boiling point whatever that means.

Solid wood is fine for fronts, as long as they’re trad frame and panel style (like Victorian internal doors). 600mm+ wide panels of edge glued timber will cup and warp in any environment, unless your kitchen it’s exactly the same humidity and temperature as the factory or workshop they were made in.

Isn't the approved format:
IKEA carcass
Plykea front https://www.plykea.com/
Worktop express top?

Hate kitchens

People love them though don't they, ooh you gotta have all your cupboards and your island, pathetic!

They're aspirational baubles, the room to show off to your stupid neighbours, look how much it cost, hark at our charcoal bi-folds!

i, personally, am more into lounges than kitchens

two lounges on the top floor and convert my ground floor in to just a big fuck off garden

toilet on the drive and use a pond for a bath

I'm planning on turning my house into a recreation of a modern front loading washing machine. Where you can open the door mid load and not have water spill out. Come in the front door, put on your wetsuit and breathing apparatus. Full 1500 rpm spin. Last man standing kind of thing.
Leave it slightly unbalanced and do the spin at 11 pm to annoy the neighbours option.