I had a Homebase kitchen fitted a year ago now and after much procrastination from me it turned out much better than I thought. For the money it's better quality materials than Howden and BnQ and just far superior than IKEA could offer in that price bracket. Wikes was just cheap and nasty, end of. Only other range I liked (apart from custom local outfitters) was Magnet, but they weren't really interested in sub £30k installs and I noticed they often used exactly the same hardware but at more than 2x the price as Homebase. As usual BnQ were the worst for advice so never really pursued them much -although I bought my sink tap from them (Cooke and Lewis) which fell apart after 48h due to quite an obvious design flaw -which they wouldn't hear anything of. BnQ are as bad as Maplins and Halfords, it's just cringe worthy. At least a Homebase guy will admit to not knowing the answer. I'm not sure I trust Ikea much these days, last time I paid 4 figures for a leather sofa from them and it's been nothing but trouble and warranty claims from day one. Think I'll stick to photo frames, tea lights and cheap chipboard throwaway stuff from them as that seems to be what they do best. I would never consider them for fitted furniture. Used to think their decent furniture was good but obviously not.
...It bugs me as it's quite obvious that the majority of this stuff ultimately comes from a very few manufacturers, but it's each end retailer that specifies the end quality. You really have to shop around and keep your eyes open, the quality and economy seems to change throughout the year between the retailers for similar products.
One thing which bugged me about my local Howdens is that they really won't talk much outside the trade market. I eventually got 3 pine doors from them last year, but they would only do it on my joiners trade account. They won't entertain much conversation unless you're vat registered. I also had to return 2 out of the 3 doors to them as they were buggered and all de-laminated once we took the shrink wrap off.
it looks good until it is used!
