Kitchen Cabinet finish

2 years ago

Hello, we're planning our small shaker kitchen at the moment and are deciding between Wren and Howdens. We are trying to go for the cheapest option at the moment. Wren is £3.4k and Howdens is £3.5k. Wren will provide the Matt finish flat pack, and Howdens can do the grain finish fully built. If we go for matt finish at Howdens, the price goes up significantly more.
What shall we go for? I'm just trying to understand the difference between grain finish and matt finish. Is this noticable?
Is there much difference between flat pack and ready built.
Any advice appreciated!
Thanks.

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Comments (3)

Daisy England
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Don’t deal with either. Howdens are trade only so you have to buy through an account holder.

Wren have a catalogue of complaints against them. Look on FB and under the Wren Kitchen Disasters heading. Many of their products are nowhere near the same quality as they originally were. Thousands of people asking for their money back. Be cautious.

Buy through an independent retailer. Better customer service, more choice and cheaper.

Looking at the doors there is a difference between grain and matt. It’s just personal preference. Ready built means quicker installation so if you are paying a fitter it should be cheaper on the labour side of things but you will already have paid more on the purchase for this facility.
PRO
Lifestyle Kitchens
2 years ago
Really depends on what the doors are made of, if its a real wooden door then this would have a grain and if its painted the grain would show through. But if its an mdf door then its a coloured embossed vinyl foil that creates the grain, this may be a 5 piece door (top and bottom, side rails and centre panel) then the grain changes direction as it should but sometimes its a one piece mdf door thats been machined to look like a shaker door and wrapped in foil but the grain only goes in one direction and it just looks wrong IMO, so then i'd have a plain matt finish.

But as Daisy rightly points out, if you see a decent independant designer/supplier they can advise and show you the different options available, they will also have a range of better quality cabinets from rigid to flat pack options and in a wider range of available colours to match your doors.
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Lisa Townsend
2 years ago
Or go IKEA and use one of their wood veneer shaker styles and paint it in whatever finish you prefer. It’ll definitely come in on budget and their ash door range —which I used myself— has a solid ash frame. I put mine in two years ago and have never regretted it. Their extra deep drawers are amazing.

Kitchen Cabinet finish

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Daisy England

Lifestyle Kitchens

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Lisa Townsend

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