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Where to buy a new kitchen


Jamesdee

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We are having a house built in 17 but we will be left to install our own kitchen.

Some friends have bought from IKEA in Bordeaux. The advantages are that you can use

the IKEA UK online kitchen planner to choose your kitchen and  they have an

installation service. For those of us who are at the beginning of our adventure and

are quite challenged with even the simple things in french, as well as having zero DIY skills those are major advantages. But the question remains, are we wise or  indeed sensible to discount other suppliers?

Any comments, be they positive or negative will be very welcome.

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Am 90% through having a kitchen installed by Hygena here.  It's not the best of qualities but then the price reflects this and it is fine for what I want.  The process of planning, buying and fitting has gone smoothly and they have all been very helpful throughout.  Obviously, I could have chosen to buy the units etc from them and done the fitting myself, but my skills are far from adequate!

Hope this is of use.

Chrissie (81)

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Hi Jamesdee - we're having a new kitchen this year!  [:-))] Counting the days!  I've looked at a lot and have opted for a Hygena model... there is a 50% sale on at the moment so if you know what you want it could save you a great deal (although it is a bit like MFI and they do have sales often!) 

We also looked at Scmidt, Lapeyre and Leroy Merlin and several other little shops around Perigueux.

In the end we chose the Hygena... because we liked it and also because OH has fitted them in the UK.  Most of the models are on the MFI website are the same as hygena.fr so you can get information in english still... although the information you can download is straighforward to follow if you are simply planning your kitchen.

We haven't ordered yet so I can't tell you how that has gone, although we know what we want and have our plan and we've been told they are very good... so we're confident [Www] [:)]

Hope this helps [:)]

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If Ikea will fit I'd go with them.

They are invariably excellent value.

We imported an Ikea kitchen into the UK in 1972, it was so much cheaper, livraison inclus, in those good old days.

I was in their store in Vitrolles at the weekend, mandatory hot dog coffee and a couple of bars of Marabou, they have some brilliant freestanding kitchen bits, quite sexy really.

Bon appetit

Wilko

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In France and much of Europe, the services come up from the floor, so if you can, have these  installed like this..

IKEA is the same worldwide, and personally I have not found anything than comes close in terms of choice and decent quality/price..

You could try to find a local builder/handyman who could 'assemble' the units once bought. Also, they do a decent range of 'freestanding' units too.. As do Habitat, though not sure about branches in Bordeaux (Toulouse yes..)..

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Hi Jamesdee... I had an Ikea kitchen installed in 2003 (bought at the Bdx branch) and the installation by their fitters was excellent.  The only problem I have had, and this may be because I have underfloor heating in my kitchen, is that on virtually all the doors, the moulded finish seems to be coming unstuck from the frame.  I have the Adel creme model.  It's not a huge problem, as I put a little appropriate glue into the gap and it seems to do the trick.  Jen

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Jamesdee

"We are having a house built in 17 but we will be left to install our own kitchen..................................
 For those of us who are at the beginning of our adventure and
are quite challenged with even the simple things in french, as well as having zero DIY skills those are major advantages. But the question remains, are we wise or  indeed sensible to discount other suppliers?

Any comments, be they positive or negative will be very welcome".

James I have sent  you information via a PM

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Oh guys!  what have you done!!! I had my kitchen all planned a priced and sorted... but now we're off to Ikea Bordeaux tomorrow... to look at kitchens! [:D] I've been looking on the website and like the look of the freestanding units... [Www]

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[quote user="Rose"]

Oh guys!  what have you done!!! I had my kitchen all planned a priced and sorted... but now we're off to Ikea Bordeaux tomorrow... to look at kitchens! [:D] I've been looking on the website and like the look of the freestanding units... [Www]

[/quote]

You've chosen a good day, Rose. The weather forecast is good and the kids have gone back to school, so you may have the place to yourselves. We made the mistake of going to the Bordeaux branch at the end of a wet week in july. The world and his wife (and 4 kids) had decided the ONLY place to go was Ikea !

We've waited so long for our kitchen to be built that the Ikea kitchen model OH had her eyes on has now been deleted [+o(] .

p

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I can heartily endorse IKEA kitchens

We fitted one in our old house in UK and have fitted one here, both excellent quality, in my opinion  the construction blows all the other stuff out of the water when compared to the price.

If you are able to do it, I would advise buying the units in the UK and shipping them back here, when I did it 2 years ago, they were around 30% cheaper than in France or Belgium, other stuff is however usually cheaper over here.

Their downloadable planner makes it quite easy to plan what you need.

Good luck

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I have to apologise for any delay in responding to this forum, I am living in New Zealand at

the moment where apart from the weather being superb we are thirteen hours out of sync with you guys.

Sorry to give you second thoughts Rose. I don't know what your french is like but for a

very good description of all the IKEA stuff you could log onto their UK site. The stuff is

exactly the same. The catalogues are the same, just a different language.

I defintely get the impression that we will not go far wrong with our original plan to buy IKEA.

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Having bought and fitted an Ikea kitchen myself I have only one complaint.

 

When we bought it 3 years ago there was a 10 year guarantee on the bodies of the units - now it is 25 years!!

 

Even the seriously DIY challenged should be able to errect the cupboards with a screw driver and a hammer.  Fitting them to the wall is only slightly more challenging but it might be worth getting a pro in to do this if you are worried.

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On that note it just remains for me to thank everyone for their observations. It seems our idea was not such a bad one after all. Just very nice to have it confirmed. And no, it will not be possible for us to bring a kitchen from New Zealand, though that would be an interesting challenge in itself.[8-|]

I am sure we are all keen to hear how Rose got on at IKEA in Bordeaux but again thanks to all of you who responded to my post, I am sure many people benefitted from your comments.[:)][:D]

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[quote user="Jamesdee"]On that note it just remains for me to thank everyone for their observations. It seems our idea was not such a bad one after all. Just very nice to have it confirmed. And no, it will not be possible for us to bring a kitchen from New Zealand, though that would be an interesting challenge in itself.[8-|]

I am sure we are all keen to hear how Rose got on at IKEA in Bordeaux but again thanks to all of you who responded to my post, I am sure many people benefitted from your comments.[:)][:D]
[/quote]

Hello Jamesdee... what a day... we did indeed go to Bordeaux today and we certainly did like one or two of the kitchens... actually I could have spent a fortune!  [:D]

We've got all the details and we're going to have a good look at our floor plans tomorrow... at the moment we are leaning more towards Ikea than Hygena!  We really like the idea of the free standing kitchens and we also like the idea of being able to mix and match  styles... there is certainly a huge choice when you consider all their options.  They also have some really nice touches for the interiors...  From our rough calculations I also think we'll come in under budget too!

We seem to have been in the car for hours today as we've been to the rugby tonight at Brive so it was a case of getting back from Bordeaux... straight to school... then almost straight off to Brive... but it was worth to see Jonny W make a few kicks!  [:D]

So... even though I didn't make the original post - thank you very much everyone for pointing us in the right direction!  when we do eventually finish I'll post a photo... but I suspect it will be a few more months yet!!! [Www]

EDIT: Do any of you know if you can add the 'smooth closing action' on drawers and cupboards to a range that doesn't have it?  I really like the Varde free-standing range but it doesn't have this and OH would like it... not the end of the world but just wondered if there was something you could buy and instal?

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[quote user="Gyn_Paul"][quote user="Rose"]

Oh guys!  what have you done!!! I had my kitchen all planned a priced and sorted... but now we're off to Ikea Bordeaux tomorrow... to look at kitchens! [:D] I've been looking on the website and like the look of the freestanding units... [Www]

[/quote]

You've chosen a good day, Rose. The weather forecast is good and the kids have gone back to school, so you may have the place to yourselves. We made the mistake of going to the Bordeaux branch at the end of a wet week in july. The world and his wife (and 4 kids) had decided the ONLY place to go was Ikea !

We've waited so long for our kitchen to be built that the Ikea kitchen model OH had her eyes on has now been deleted [+o(] .


p
[/quote]

p.s. Gyn_Paul... it wasn't too busy but sadly it rained most of the day... didn't dampen our spirits thought ... sorry to hear about the OH's kitchen! [:)]

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EDIT: Do any of you know if you can add the 'smooth closing action' on

drawers and cupboards to a range that doesn't have it?  I really like

the Varde free-standing range but it doesn't have this and OH would

like it... not the end of the world but just wondered if there was

something you could buy and instal?

The smooth closing action on

the drawers is achieved by small shock absorbers clipped to the wall end of the drawer runners 1 pair per drawer, they don't come as standard they are an optional extra. I don't know if they will fit the range that you are interested in.

You can also fit a similar shock absorber to the cupboard doors, again an optional extra but should fit any range of kitchen.

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[quote user="derf"]EDIT: Do any of you know if you can add the 'smooth closing action' on drawers and cupboards to a range that doesn't have it?  I really like the Varde free-standing range but it doesn't have this and OH would like it... not the end of the world but just wondered if there was something you could buy and instal?

The smooth closing action on the drawers is achieved by small shock absorbers clipped to the wall end of the drawer runners 1 pair per drawer, they don't come as standard they are an optional extra. I don't know if they will fit the range that you are interested in.
You can also fit a similar shock absorber to the cupboard doors, again an optional extra but should fit any range of kitchen.

[/quote]

 

hi derf

 

you can buy the closers almost anywhere nowadays...they are usually referred to as door buffers...check out screwfix website ....they refer to them as slow closers

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hi derf

 

you can buy the closers almost anywhere nowadays...they are usually referred to as door buffers...check out screwfix website ....they refer to them as slow closers

I am sure you are right, but I can't see them being as easy to fit as the Ikea ones, no need to even remove the drawers just open them and click the buffers on.

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Thanks Derf... panic over... found the slow closers on the ikea site and they are available for the kitchen we want... I think they may even be standard... they just weren't fitted in the store... so problem solved! [:D]

I've now re-done the floor plans with the new units - they fit perfectly and come in under budget! 

so a big THANK YOU for all your ideas!  [:D]

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I fitted an Ikea kitchen for my sister here in the UK and once you get your head around the fact that there is no space behind the units for plumbing etc.  they are great kitchens, it looks really good and was bought in their sale!!!

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