Kitchens & bathrooms advice

Stay away from MFI. In my experience they sell shoddy tat.

Bob

I understand that MFI's product comes from the same factory as Howden's.

Mike

Magnet is another option

Howdens are owned by MFI.
So what?

Bob

Andy --

If you go for the suspended toilet/hidden cistern approach, then make sure you have a front access panel to the cistern as well as from the top. Whatever the nice salesman may tell you, these things are NOT 'fit-and-forget'. Grrrr.

So far as I am aware John Lewis will only take out what you have and put new stuff in, they will do any preparatory work such as major plumbing, electrics, plastering or any building work.
They do flooring but I don't think they will do tiling.

I should imagine that B&Q are much the same and from what I have seen there products are lower quality than John Lewis.

So if you want to actually change the layout much in either room, I would suggest you find a small firm local to you who can do all the jobs, preferably recommended by someone who has used them.

To be honest I looked at MFI and Magnet and I didn't particular like them but to be honest I only like the really expensive ones like Stoneham. So I'm trying to compromise with looking at the John Lewis kitchens they seem to be reasonable priced and I thought I try B&Q to compare a cheaper alternative and also they do bathrooms.

Andy

Thanks Chunny, I'll try some local firms as well as I guess I can by a John Lewis Kitchen and get a local firm to fit.

Just asa side note, I fitted my own kitchen, yes it took a week off work, but if you fancy a challange, its not really that difficult, most kitchens have fittings that you put on the wall and the units kind of hang off these fittings.

I bought the tops from Ikea as it was very well priced for naturak wood (If thats your bag)

The kitchen we got was from MFI, it was not their chepest one by a long chalk, but the fit and quality was superb I fear that MFI still has a bad name from years ago, but we also got some dining chairs from there which I abuse (I always lean on the back two legs) and in five years they have not so much as squeaked

The kitchen I had fitted last year as part of my house re-decorations is also MFI and I think the quality is pretty good. Not only that but they delivered on time with nothing missing. I ad my dad and his mate to put it all together for me though!

ajalden
There’s no record of where you are, I know some good recommendations in the Bristol area.
Martin
PS Bit of advice: loads of people ask for advice on this and other matters and never have any info or profile of where they are. Difficult to give advice when you could be in Timbuktu or Tottenham. There was one recently along the lines of “my journey to work is terrible blah blah” nothing in his/her profile at all and a waste of time therefore.

See below:


Member Profile for ajalden




Date Registered: Sat 04 January 2003
Karma Title: Member
Gender: Male
View UBB.x Posts by ajalden

Not very usefull is it?????????????????

Ajalden - I doubt whether you will get a local kitchen firm to fit stuff supplied by John Lewis.
Round where I live good plumbers are like gold dust, and we had to get a local shop to supply and fit the bathroom.

For average quality stuff, I would guess that labour would be about half of your costs, unless you get a reality TV show to do it for you.

I have bought various furniture items from MFI and Ikea recently and was impressed with the finish and the price, and enjoyed putting it together - however unlike Garyi and Jon R+family, I did not feel confident enough to tackle a kitchen or bathroom because of the plumbing,electrical and bulding work that needed to be done.

NB I agree with Martin D, it is always more interesting to know a something about the forum contributors.

Chunny,

I messed up my post. It should read that I had my dad and his mate put it all together for me, ie. I didn't do a thing!

[Sorry...]

JR

But someone had to provide the online tea and cakes though didn't they - Jon R?

NB - the previous NB in my last posting referred to the latin abbreviation nota bene, but I see that it can equally well be applied to the NB who has his jaw permanently on the floor.

Well I've taken your advice Chunny and updated my profile a little which shows I live in Reading.

Going to have a look at MFI now as a collegue who sits opposite me has had the Farmhouse style kitchen from MFI and rates it very highly!...

Never relised how much time this all takes when I could be doing better things with my time like listening to my Naim

Go to MFI if you must but I had a bathroom fitted 2 years ago. 6 months later the bath panel and cabinet doors swelled like unfinished chipboard. Manager came and agreed they were not being misused Company couldn't understand it etc etc. replaced panels and doors. 6 months later same again. Tried chasing it up but now being told its in a bathroom, what do you expect?
I will never buy anything from MFI again.

Bob

Bob

If you want to get some inspiration regarding bathrooms take a look at Littlejohn of Petersfield

Littlejohn web site

They have an excellent range of products and also good design as well as a good installation team.

They do travel as far as postcode RG29 to install

Building a kitchen from scratch isn't very difficult. I bought some (out of fashion)recycled solid oak fielded and panelled doors and drawer fronts in a garage sale. The previous owner had just invested in smart chipboard and formica for umpteen thousand!

I made the carcase out of softwood battening. The dark-oak doors were stripped by hand, bleached, then paint-wash glazed by brush and finally wax polished to leave the grain slightly exposed though the glaze. All DIY and cost about as much as a single bought cabinet of formica-covered-chipboard with built in "luxury quality" obsolescense.

My memories of MFI and B&Q are of complete tat being pushed by untrained minimum-wage workers. The borrowed bargepole comment seemed apt.

Nime