Hi
The wife and I (well...more the wife) are looking to replace the kitchen and are looking at MFI and IKEA as potential suppliers. The MFI kitchen looks good and has a good price, but I would like anyone's thoughts before I take the plunge.
Can anyone help?
THanks Tony
Maybe the insides or the fastenings will help you decide. I'd go more towards IKEA, but there may be issues with sizes/fittings being scandanavian, dunno though.
Couple of points, the lack of pipe space at the rear of IKEA units is a pain and MFI take the delivery risk but there are bound to be some parts out of stock at IKEA.
Apart from that there are sizing differences which may make a diference, for example MFI drawer units are 600mm and IKEA are 400mm. Ditto tall units are different widths. That might make a difference if you are tight for space.
IMHO MFI are excellent value for money assuming you get the (almost permanent) sale prices.
Jim A
I've just fitted an ikea kitchen. MFI's attitude and shop were a notable factor in the decision, but the choice of unit widths was also better from ikea - we've got a small kitchen, and fitted units 30, 40,
50 and 60 cm wide. 60 drawer units are now available.Ikea.
Put my kitchen in last year and was really pleased with the result. Everything is modular too, meaning an average base unit requires 5 separate parts giving loads of flexibility if you need to customise any units. The cost of these parts added up is the price they advertise!
All units are standard metric (300mm, 500mm 600mm etc.) but generally undersized by a few mm.
Plus, they do those things now that stop your cupboards/draws from slamming.
Things to watch for...
The units are really deep (580mm) - you need to be really careful with pipework/cables behind units.
The worktops are susceptible to splitting just under the front edge if they get wet. It's probably solvable with a bit of PVA though.
That's interesting about the shop. You've reminded me that I sidestepped the poor MFI shop service by ordering online.
Jim A
People always take the mickey out of MFI kitchens. However, I have to say that my parents had an MFI kitchen and I installed an MFI kitchen around 7 years ago. I've been impressed with both.
The important thing is to go for solid wood surfaces and solid wood doors.
Graham
can't comment on ikea, but recently went in mfi and was pleasantly surprised iirc there were 2 main ranges schreiber and ??? , neadless to say 'the boss' picked the dearest :-( Also well worth a look is wickes range, I fitted one about 6 years ago, good quality with solid backs + very good service, will probably go with wickes again this time
Regards Jeff
I recently put in my Ikea kitchen and can throw a few more thoughts into the general pool:
Pros:
Cons:
A friend at work had a small kitchen supplied and installed recently by MFI and the grief that he with supply (missing/wrong parts, delays, fights with the store, arguments over costs) and fitting (fitters walking off the job, late, taking longer than promised) made me value my Ikea experience. (As far as I know it was just the purchase and installation that was awful for him, the kitchen itself was fine.) Admittedly I did a lot of the work on mine myself and didn't use fitters, but it was painless and I am very happy with the result.
HTH
Our MFI kitchen was fitted about 6 years ago and still looks good. There were no parts missing at all.
If there is anything worse than MFI it has to be Ikea.
(actually I have used MFI - well Hygena units actually - quite extensively. They are not too bad. Should do 6-10 years without completely disintegrating in a busy kitchen, which is par for the course, and they do have backs on em to hide pipes and wires behind..)
You can get 400mm drawer...in most MFI ranges
wouldn't even say that. I put down standard chip tops and laminate doors in the second kitchen, utility room and workshop. Good enough.
For decent units I went to arena kitchens online and got solid wood tops, doors and really quite good carcasses - better than MFI anyway.
Worth a look.
Delivery was no worse than anywhere else, and as they said 'have a look at the carcases in Hohn Lewis, since we use the same sources'
Most expensive MFI kitchen I have installed was a shade over £600...
We fitted an Ikea kitchen last year and got around the lack of pipe space by re-arranging pipework to run at skirting level. How practical this would be elsewhere is really determined by the layout of the kitchen.
One potential advantage to this I didn't think of at the time is that it is theoretically possible... erm... well... perhaps, to get at the pipes and so on without dismantling the units. Services run behind units are effectively sealed in until you decide to remove the unit. Run them at skirting level and once you've removed the plinth you've a chance... if your arms are exceptionally long and thin. As it happens, I've arranged the pipe runs so that there are no joints in this area so hopefully it won't be an issue.
As for the drawers, ISTR that there were 400, 600 and 800 units in
3-drawer and 5-drawer available when we bought. Possibly the 5-drawer wasn't available at 800 and certainly the 800 wasn't available in all styles. We have both 400 and 800 in our kitchen. They are standing up to a lot of abuse too - one of the 800 units has the bulk of our crockery in it and must be holding a heck of a lot of weight, the other has all the tinned food. As it happens both 800 units are near side walls so they're screwed to battens attached to those walls as well as being attached to the wall behind where possible.Having never fitted a kitchen of any sort previously I was pleasantly surprised. Not only that, but (contrary to stories I have since heard) everything was delivered on time, complete and undamaged. The icing on the cake was that we went to the store when they happened to be having one of their 20%-off-everything days (we didn't know this until we turned up) and with the money we therefore saved we were able to afford the dishwasher we were leaving a space for. We did break one unit leg, but they're available off-the-shelf so it was very easy to replace.
Our decision to go for drawers instead of cupboards where possible was definitely the correct one too - pull the thing out and you have instant access to everything inside without having to unpack the front of the shelf first. Brilliant.
Hwyl!
M.
I've bought plenty of MFI kitchens and other furniture over the years and there's never been one single thing missing. People who often say this either haven't ever bought anything from MFI in their life, haven't looked properly or used the wrong fixing or part in the wrong place to begin with. Take your time, read the instructions properly and you'll always have no problems. They also say that men who take their time with flat pack furniture are better lovers.
Not quite sure what this is intended to mean, but without knowing the number of units involved in each case, it doesn't really help in a comparison of costs.
I remember that the Ikea prices were a lot less than those in the MFI price list, but as others have pointed out, MFI have a near-permanent sale on, so their price list was probably pretty unrepresentative of reality anyway.
Have you tried Howdens - they are the trade outlet for MFI - haven't used them for a couple of years. They don't always have the full range but much cheaper and usually in stock. Might be worth a look Phil
In article , Philco writes
Except that they don't deal directly with the public....
I'd look at Wickes - well built, good service, good prices and good delivery. I have used them for a kitchen and one fitted bedroom. The other fitted bedroom I used MFI and to be honest never again. Not only were parts missing and damaged on delivery, but they had sold me items from a range which was discontinued without pointing this out to me. So when I reported the parts missing and damaged they told me they could not replace any parts
- despite the fact the range was still on sale.
For the damaged part and one of the missing parts, it took me 6 months and letters to the MD to convince them to open a box of the same unit that they still had in their warehouse to get the parts I needed as their spares dept. could not supply the items. For the one remaining missing part I had almost camp out in one of their showrooms to convince them to remove said part from a display model.
So MFI never again.......Wickes I'd recommend them....IKEA I know nothing !!!
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