where did you get your kitchen from?

Ikea. No really. It was / is great. Same basic cupboard 'packs' as B&Q / Magnet / Howdens etc (think it's 18mm white mdf stuff) and the doors were solid oak, rather than just veneers in the other places. Plus lots of handy things to add on easily like soft close options, corner cupboard wizzy stuff.

We ordered it in the shop and got the delivery company to deliver the bulk of it. Think it cost us an extra £30 and it turned up within 24hrs. You can pick it up yourself if you have transport though.

We fitted it ourselves, but know friends who built the cupboards themselves and got their builder to fit them.

We got a different worktop as the cupboards don't have space in the back for pipework, so we battoned the cupboards out 5cm and got a slightly wider ( and nicer) worktop from a local company.

If nothing else, they've got a fab online planner

We got ours from Magnet just over a year ago and it was roughly £5.5K in the sale including slimline dishwasher, sink & tap, extractor hood & hob (stainless steel) and double oven. Plus all the fitting.

Very impressed with the service all round and it looks fab - I'll dig out pics at home later.

We got our from a local kitchen shop. We had also had a quote from MFI and the cabinets were all solid construction, not flatpack and the same price as MFI flat pack stuff. I would definitely recommend going to a smaller outlet - the choice they had at the one we went to was amazing. They were also hundreds cheaper for our type of work surface than mfi

L
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Https://www.photobox.co.uk/album/28191050

L
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Smallbone

That's really lovely Lois. Fab colour work surface.

There is a monthly magazine called Beautiful Kitchens which as the name suggests just does kitchens with loads of real life kitchen spreads - somewhat in the style of wedding magazines. Worth getting some back copies as you get a lot of ideas quickly. http://www.ipcmedia.com/southbank/25beautifulkitchens/

I hadn't thought of ikea. will go and look soon.

my problem is i started off in the nicest kitchen places in town (similar to smallbone, nick) and now have my heart set on one of them. MrF is less keen as it'll mean doing nothing else to the house ?.

thanks all x

Lois, that's lovely. too modern for us, but looks fab.

minerva, what a fab idea! thank you.

We did similar to Lady Falafel. Ikea has some great things for inside cupboards.

In our flat we put an Ikea kitchen in. It was cheap, easy to fit and still looks good five years on.

If budget is an issue then another option is to go for cheaper frames and doors but make them look more expensive with nice handles and granite worktops.

Jess that is a brilliant idea! right, i can feel an ikea trip coming on. thanks again everyone.

Another vote for Ikea. We had the red gloss one in our last kitchen - which looked gorgeous but was a nightmare to keep clean. You can download their kitchen planner from the website and start designing your kitchen now! I loved doing that as you could change your style easily and it updated how much it would cost. We'd go for Ikea again in this house but unfortunately there is a brand new one (not quite to our tastes) and we can't justify the expense of ripping it out!

We had our kitchen made for us by a local cabinetmaker and I'm really pleased with it. A lot depends on what style you want: ours is a fairly simple, handpainted kitchen with oak worktops (not everyone's choice of worktops I know, but it was the look I wanted). He also made us a matching larder cupboard which I love, love, love and which we have in a contrasting colour, and a table. It wasn't cheap, BUT, it wasn't as expensive as some of the kitchen showrooms such as Harvey Jones and it is better quality: solid wood cabinets and truly bespoke to fit our space. This meant we could spend extra on the flooring and appliances. I'm really happy with the result, and if you are after a similar style kitchen, as opposed to ultra modern, I'd really recommend this route. Phone some local cabinetmakers/furniture makers. I only came across our guy by accident and he has been fab.

OUrs is Ikea too Foxy. We spent the same again on quartz worktops and it was still a third of the price of what Magnet quoted ?

I loooove designing kitchens and I'm not entirely rubbish at plumbing either so I will be hanging around your place a lot when it goes through ?

An old friend of mine used to work there (Knightsbridge branch, I believe), but he's now set up on his own.

Our current kitchen came from MFI, but that was about 6 years ago. I would like a new one when we have our extension done.

I'm currently planning the same thing.

For 'chains', Ikea seem the best, and,asothers have said, youdont have to get absoluitely everything from the one shop. I want a rangemaster stove more than anything, and we will be moving in about 5 years (ish), so I may look at things a bit differently if we thought we were going to stay forever.

Local cabinet makers can be good too, but it seems to be a case of shopping around.

The only thing with Ikea is that they don't have space at the back of the cupboards for pipework. However, it's easy to plan round this if you're redoing a kitchen from scratch, by putting pipework at floor level.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=57465&id=603748528&l=f75ead9585

Ours was made to measure and fitted by a local company who have now sold up and left to move the south coast.

Have added the pics to give you an idea of what red gloss looks like. We based it arund plan we had made at MFI 😳

omg we have the same taste in kitchens - handpainted, simple is exactly what we want. not sure on worktops yet - maybe a dark blockwood of some kind? - but a larder cupboard sounds fab.

btw we looked at ranges all weekend and i am now in love with lacanche ?.

Wickes and got a joiner to fit it - really pleased with it. Got the bench tops from a different local supplier though.

We got ours from Howdens but used the Ikea kitchen planner to make sure everything was exactly where we wanted it.

The cupboard in this pic is a huge larder cupboard which I love and which also echos an original Victorian cupboard in the dining room.

We have now tiled where the window is with the same tiles as where the cooker is.

Ours is from Wickes, and really pleased with it... http://www.flickr.com/photos/7331247@N03/sets/72157614972996170/

This is ours from Magnet - it looks better now it's properly lived in!

https://www.photobox.co.uk/album/27114050

We bought ours from B&Q - it's called something else now (Cook & something?) but was their Select Range when we bought it. The units are oak veneered "quality chipboard" ? and solid oak doors & frames. We then bought the granite worktop from a local company. Total cost was about 3k for the kitchen. It looks fab now the worktop is on but don't have a photo at the mo. When H has finished his tiling I'll see if I can get a pic. It was the Clevedon kitchen if you want to look on the b&q site.

FIS, after spending the night in Ikea and B&Q, I amdefinately going local.

The house we are buying is quite old, so has 'non standard' measurements for stuff for a start. Then I want a larder cupboard and a lot of the pull mechanisms seem a bit flimsy (not so much in Ikea tbh, and they do have a good guarantee, but I'm not entirely convinced), and a bit gimicky, rather than just a good, solid larder cupboard.

I also want wooden worktops and painted doors: seem to be quite plasticy (the doors, that is), and the worktops are either really expensive solid wood or really rubbish looking veneer. I have a feeling by hunting around I'll be able to find something a bit more suitable.

Don't talk cookers please. I have MrP talked as far as a smeg/rangemaster. I think he's pretending Lacanche don't exist ?