Wood and MDF can look very similar and are just as good, although
you don’t get the wood grain with MDF, unless you have an MDF wrapped door like
our Malton range.

The other big difference in the two is the price. Solid wood
is more expensive. The door style that you choose is really down to person
preference. You may prefer a smooth painted MDF door with V grooves rather than
the solid wood equivalent with the wood grain showing through.

The main benefit of solid wood doors is that if they are
painted then you could sand them down in the future and re-spray them a
different colour.

The best thing do so is have a look at a few doors first
then look at the price after. Consider this with how long you intend on keeping
the kitchen for or living in your home.

The page below shows some shaker door differences.

http://advice.diy-kitchens.com/customer-questions/shaker-kitchen-door-differences/

I've only heard bad things about Wren, delivery times are months rather than weeks as well. My builders have also had issues with Wickes in the past, whilst my brother has an ongoing issue with B&Q (Cooke and Lewis).

I've used IKEA twice now, my current kitchen was delivered within 7 days, the builders had no issues fitting it, apart from a mis-configured cabinet due to changing a microwave on the design, which IKEA sorted out ASAP. Quality of the base cabinets seems to have improved during the 10 years between kitchens, the laminate used now is less prone to getting grubby and seems a bit thicker.

Obviously the limiting factor with IKEA is the range of designs, and whether you have a branch nearby. We luckily now have a click and collect point (Norwich), which also does kitchen design, so I just had my design checked before ordering.

Hi Laura,

You could also try Benchmarx - similar to Howdens and slightly different options. We've worked with both and the good thing to consider is lead times which are very short. If you want or need to change something then you'll find they will respond quickly.. which is ideal if you want your kitchen done fast.

A lot our clients base the cost decision on the value of your property vs the length of time they are likely to be living there for. Your property will have a ceiling value and there's normally a limit to the cost of the kitchen that's worth fitting.

Depending on this type of decision, it should help when deciding between solid or MDF.

Howdens are really evasive on price and took absolutely ages to come back to us on even basic questions. I just feel if I am paying £££ and I am the end user stop hiding behind the "trade" only thing to rip me off. The more I thought about their pricing strategy the more unacceptable I thought it was.

We went with DIY kitchens - we chose an mdf kitchen. This is not our forever kitchen but I am happy with it so far. We thought about IKEA, having heard good things, but I couldn't get on with their online planner and it was a 6 week wait for an IKEA planner to visit us.

Could I ask what you thought diy kitchens as we're about to order? Thank you

Looks lovely, Thank you so much for taking the time to share

Don’t knock Wren Units, when I bought mine in the early eighties I equipped utility room and Kitchen. Just changing everything around now with a Wren Kitchen. The units although now outdated are still in good condition,. Think twice before spending your hard earned cash

Gary Markham 2020.

Thank you for the update. You sound very happy and your kitchen looks beautiful. I'm glad you got sorted in the end.

We have a painted wood kitchen from wren that’s been in 5 years. I love it. There are a couple of points where the paint colour is chipped, but that’ll be down to a toddler bashing a laundry basket/car/scooter into it.

I too read bad reviews about them but only about their fitters. We fitted ours ourselves.

We got it for a great price I think - £6k for similar number of units, solid oak worktops, dishwasher, sink, tap. We bought fridge and range master separately.

Howdens on the other hand I found hard work - they kept wanting to barter and just wouldn’t give a proper price. Kept saying they’d do us a deal but never produced one. We went into wren without producing any other quotes to them, they drew it up and asked what we thought, we said what’s the absolutely best deal you can do on this, 5 minutes later we’d bought it. No messing around

Best new kitchen I ever had was fitted in a previous house was an Ikea kitchen. We employed a kitchen fitter who said it was the best kitchen he had fitted!

I think I would concentrate more on the finish if I were you. There is another very long thread about gloss finish versus matt finish - the end result being that both surfaces are a nightmare to keep clean, unless you clean them each and every time they are used. However I have just noticed that this thread is 3 years old. Would love to see what you did instal in the end.

It is in the posts above. DIY kitchens Matt mdf - they are easy to keep clean. It is a soft sheen type finish, lacquered mdf. Really happy with the end result

We also did the utility room which is narrow. We used narrow depth base units and cut the backs off the larder type units. DIY kitchens has so much choice we didn’t need to compromise with our plans at all

Hi - the utility looks really good - would you be able to give a rough idea of what that run of units cost you, what it’s called etc. Thanks

It’s DIY Kitchens Welton range but they have a few variations in the shaker style. I don’t know the cost as we bought the units all at the same time. The website has all the prices and is really easy to use. The whole kitchen and utility units including worktops cost under 6.5k

Please please please do not use Wren. I used them for a big extension including a contemporary open kitchen with a large island. They let me down several times in deadlines, promises, the people. I would like
sorry to Howdens because i have used them for other houses and they have been excellent. I just liked the wren design and i got the right price but boy, what a mistake and the finish was rubbish. 3 years on there are still stuff i’m not happy and it annoys me to the point where i can’t wait to move
on to the next house. As you can see in the pics it’s looks fine but for the money you expect perfection.

Wren all day long. J pull flat pack. Same as mid range. Cost half the money. Got my own tops. Full kitchen with quartz tops 2400 breakfast bar, up stands and appliances £4000 plus £500 to fit. If your clever you can’t get better quality for the price.

my experience was the opposite and Wren was appalling service AFTER buying! Howdens locally for us were excellent service and the price was similar. Both kitchen suppliers Appliances do deals but to be honest I get the best deals online for that.

Used Wren design and got the units elsewhere, too many bad reviews and I didn’t want to take a chance on a kitchen. A kitchen is only as good as a great kitchen fitter !

Yes and my kitchen fitter was good but if they don’t give the parts and takes up to 8 weeks and stops replying and offering any sort of customer service. Our Wren kitchen finished and it work effectively but the cost of finishing the kitchen and parts and trying to talk and resend bits back again caused more pain and money far more than just the cost of the kitchen. If your kitchen fitter is happy with that then it’s not your problem but my experience with Wren is clear: Be BuY aware 🤨🙄this was about between Howden vs Wren bit my kitchen fitter uses my company with Manhattan in Lancing for budget kitchen and Paula Rosa for upmarket units - same company.

If its a choice between Wren and any other kitchen provider in the universe go with the other! I had nothing but trouble dealing with Wren. They were much more expensive, expected me to organise the individual contractors (tiler, plumber), the quotes from their nominated contractors came in AFTER I had the work completed by a Howdens specialist and had to chase them for months to get my 'fully refundable' deposit back. The Howdens contractor did everything from the design (picking up major design flaw in the Wren design) to the aftercare. I got solid wood doors and solid wood bench tops for less than what Wren quoted for cheaper options. He even came back and did some extra decorating work to finish the job off nicely. Dealing with Wren was a total nightmare.

We used Jewsons and had a real wood (oak) doors. That was 13 years ago. We have recently painted the doors with Farrow and Ball Floor paint which provides a very hard wearing surface. Well worth the effort of primer, undercoat and 2 top coats. - most people think we've had a new kitchen - all we did was buy top quality paint and fit different handles. Cabinets show no sign of wear - replaced a few soft close hinges.