Howden’s Joinery

Howden’s is a trade-​only kitchen supplier but it is still possible to use them if you don’t have a trade account. If you look online (
) and like what you see, it can be a relatively inexpensive way to get an excellent quality kitchen.
If you don’t have a trade account, and don’t have a particular builder in mind you can still use them. Here is what I did:
1. Called them and made an appointment with one of their designers who came over to measure our kitchen and design it. This is all free.
2. Looked online to work out which styles we liked then visited the teeny showroom so we could see the cabinets/​finishes for ourselves/​decide what we liked.
3. When the designer-​fella sent us the design and price list, we ask for quite a few changes, but he was really helpful. He also put us in touch with a builder to fit it for us.
4. We met up with the builder and got a quote for fitting.
5. Once we made our mind up on everything, we ordered through the builder (well…in the end I got my brother in law to help us, as the London builder prices were eye-​watering!)
Extra tips:
* Haggle! I have to admit, I am terrible at bargaining! I thought the original price they quoted for me was fair, so I told them thank you, but it’s too expensive for us. We planned to save up, and then actually buy our kitchen next year (I didn’t want to use a credit card as we just got a mortgage! That is more than enough debt for me!!) Anyway… after I did that, they knocked over £2000 off the price! They only charged us £1 for our under counter fridge and freezers — amazing!
* Their sale is in October. If you are thinking about buying a new kitchen… this is probably the best time to make the purchase as the savings can be huge.
* We found their appliances were not particularly good value (even with 50% off) We ended up buying our tap, oven, washing machine elsewhere.
* If you do decide to purchase a kitchen during the sale, give yourself as much time as possible! They can be a little slow to respond as they are sooo busy!