Wren kitchens

[R D S]

Anyone dealt with Wren?

They've a kitchen I quite like and their online price estimator comes up with a price that's more than I wanted to spend (standard procedure) but not shocking.

I'm starting to get that sinking feeling that you get when you tell someone exactly what you want and they won't tell you how frigging much it is until you've all become invested in the process.

Someone is coming to take some measurements and then we've to go to the showroom for a consultation which they reckon will take 2-3 hrs. It so will NOT!

[Graeme]

In message <q595q0$6ei$ [e-mail], R D S [e-mail] writes

A friend had an utter nightmare dealing with them, and reading online, said friend was not alone.

No personal experience.

[Cynic]

Try a Facebook search. They have a group devoted to wren kitchen disasters

[Ermin]

Not personally but an acquaintance had one fitted by them. Well, I should say 'part fitted' as they haven't finished the job off properly. They had allowed a week for strip out and then fit but it took more than a week - and that bit of the work that needed completing after the week was up is still needing doing. Needless to say they are chasing him for the final balance but won't commit to a date to complete the job. He is now considering getting his own fitter in for the work and then suing them for the cost of his own contractor plus distress etc.

I looked at their cabinets a while back and decided they were nothing out of the ordinary.

[Brian Gaff]

it so depends on who their fitters are I think. Some people have good experiences others not so much. I guess this is the incitement of the market at the moment generally. Brian

[R D S]

I'll be fitting it.....

They do one where there are gaps between stuff with a metallic effect inlay. It's not massively different but drifts slightly away the identikit offerings everywhere else.

And their drawer units come in a wide range in 50mm increments, so can have a bit more drawer space rather than filling spaces with the unused wine rack!

[Andy Burns]

Wickes are partly that way, they'll give you a price list for their cheaper kitchen ranges, but will only do the consultant session/quote for the "designer" ranges, so they didn't get a look-in at all.

[Tim Streater]

Depends on your PoV, I think those look OK. You can always ask your installer to notch them out and then use a continuous length of plinth.

[Tim Streater]

At the time we had them, their range of widths was the best and they made proper tongue/groove wooden-sided drawers, not the plastic-sided crap.

[charles]

Our kitchen saga is't quite as long. It being DIY, I did all the work myself. We'd orderd froma supplier, now vanished, obtained the 'white goods' from source like Exchange & Mart (this was 1989) and I stripped out the kitchen and started re-wiring to put power sockets in useful places. I found it was taking forever to chase the walls for the cables. I then collaped into bed; three days later, I was in hopital with legionella. I started putting theb kitchen together a month later.

[Graeme]

In message <280220192249398017% [e-mail], Tim Streater [e-mail] writes

Yes, I think the bottom line is down to the installer, in that the Wren kitchens are good products, but most are installed by Wren's sub contractors, at which point Wren wash their hands as much as possible. Directly employing a trusty local bloke so Wren's involvement is supply only seems the ideal solution.

[Clive Arthur]

Looked at Wren last year along with Howdens and Wickes. Wren seemed poor value, Howdens seemed impossible to get a straight answer from, and Wickes were good quality and value albeit for their top end wooden stuff.

We pretty much knew what we wanted, but their designer came out to measure up and made some very useful suggestions. They provided all the white goods on a price-match basis. We didn't use them for fitting, and we bought the worktop elsewhere.

I guess it depends on what's on sale at the time and how good the designer is. We were at the end of a sale period, and the designer we had was off on holiday soon - no kitchens get sold until the next 'sale'.

Cheers

[Tim Streater]

Use our Dyson to suck up the loose stuff and then SWMBO mops from time to time.

I think our chap has the nous to seal the exposed edges.

[Terry Casey]

80%. There is one of their customers with the same name as me who wanted the email address I'd already got. Instead of choosing something distinctive, he opted for the same address as me with a 2 appended.

Howdens frequently omitted the 2, so I got a lot of his quotes showing his discount!

[Jim K..]

I've seen a few & am not overly impressed tbh.

One install I remember that looked s*1t was the unit sides stuck out at the bottom front, subdividing the kick panel in a ridiculous manner. Lots of nice dirt trapping nooks & crannies built in!?!

[Jim K..]

Does your kitchen have them? Do you clean it?

You can always ask your

Exposing two chipboard edges to moisture? Great idea!

[Jim K..]

As often stated here - Howdens don't sell to the public, they sell through tradesmen/ fitters who either pass some/all/none of their discount on to the final customer...