Magnet Kitchens

Been standard on car manufacturers websites for years.

All websites and brochures are now designed by 'creatives' to be 'content free' but alluring.

Since the customers can't think and can't do sums, anything else is a waste.

Think of it as a logical extenshun of the stayet edyou cayshun cistem.

Wren is the same, although we ended up getting a wren kitchen.

Howden's has a decent catalogue which shows base/wall units and dimensions. You prolly need to get a person at Magnet to start designing you a kitchen, then you'll find out about carcass sizes etc. If you're going to do that, measure up to start with, so they've got something to get going with. If you get to the stage of a serious design and an order, they'll send someone round to measure up and refine the design based on that.

Kitchen units tend to come in a number of standard sizes, at least width. Floor units are a standard height (with some adjustment). Wall units can vary - some 'go to the ceiling' (at least in modern houses which lack high ceilings).

Places like Magnet tend to have a 'design service', you can turn up with your room dimensions and they will do a layout or two and give you prices based on the units you pick- with/without fitting etc. I suspect they don't offer this on-line for several reasons, including placing you under some 'pressure' to proceed.

When we wanted our kitchen replaced some years back, I roughed out what we wanted on graph paper - I made some scale footprints of units and we moved them around. We then went to several places, picked one, got them to do a design, got a price etc, and made a decision. As the units were a standard size, we were able to make some last minute changes- within limits- eg we swapped the (under counter) fridge and freezer around.

Me neither, at least for 10 years, since they were rude last time.

Who cares? I'll never be going in one again.

Or not really bothered about the DIY market?

If not then why do they put so many adverts on telly and radio about buying your kit kitchen from them? No I think you basically have to just go and measure the bloody things. I'd have thought in these days of standards, everyone would make the units the same size? Also where does one, these days get appliances like hobs ovens washing machines that can be used by somebody with no sight. Everything has bloody touch screens... bah humbug. Brian

Look for a catalogue or price list rather than advertising blurb.

Lots of info on

Corners can vary quite a lot though, and not all ranges have both eg 500 and 600 mm drawers.

Owain

Our Bosch oven has big knobs to control its main functions. I agree that the timer would be no use to you, though.

Is there no little gadget that you can point at these displays and which reads them out to you?

IIRC, Howdens have two catalogues, a coloured glossy one for the customer and a detailed information one for the designer / installer. They seemed quite happy to give the latter out if asked and, yes, it does have useful information in it.

But not prices.

In my recent experience, Howdens turned out much more expensive than using Wickes units, a lovely Iroko worktop from worktop express, and 'Best Kitchens' in Reading to fit it all.

OTOH, the John Lewis quote was clearly for people who just don't care about the cost.

I was impressed by the quality of the Wickes stuff, certainly compared to our old MFI(?) units. We did go towards their top end, but I'm sure the carcasses are the same across the range. Their designer came up with some ideas we hadn't thought of, Best Kitchens solved unforeseen problems, and Wickes refunded on unused parts with no quibbling. We bought the oven and other goods through Wickes who would price match them to the cheapest I could find.

And no DIY involved, apart from small things like a Gridwall frame.

Cheers

The Hyundai brochure contains full specs and dimensions across the entire engine range for the model.

Possibly not but the point I was making is that, in simple terms, the basic sizes are pretty standard. When we had ours planned, one dimensions where known, it was almost like 'Lego' - you could move things around quite easily. The 'planner' was pretty good, we had a basic layout in mind but he refined it, spotting details we'd missed. It just made the end result more 'polished' - I can't quite describe what I mean. It was all quite quite- on a PC of course- and you could see a 3D view. This was about 8/9 years back, I'm sure the process is even better now.

Most places seem to offer this service.

I'll be going back this lunchtime to ask for more explicit information.

It's clear their "default" preference is to to use the design service, and indeed we will....along with those of a couple of other vendors.

Have not yet checked out Howdens (mentioned elsewhere). They have a local depot so will also check that out today.

The magic word is 'trade':

Theo

It's handy having a local despot

NT

I didn't know you lived in Tower Hamlets?

OTOOH, our JL quote was perfectly reasonable, the kitchen of excellent quality and the service exemplary.