REASONS FOR CHOOSING AN MFI KITCHEN:

The time had finally come for our kitchen to receive the makeover that was long overdue. For many reasons we had put off this rather large and daunting task. We had inherited the cooker in an awkward place and to move it would inevitably mean that the whole of the kitchen would need to be re-designed, which in turn meant moving the radiator, the dishwasher and the washing machine. New ceiling lights were needed and this would require replacing the old ceiling. For some time we had considered a rather more cosmetic solution, but the cupboard carcasses were old and it was work that could not be completed in half measures. If we were going to do it, it would have to be a completely new kitchen from floor to ceiling. We had also decided that we would do most of the work ourselves, apart from plastering, plumbing and fitting the work surface.

The tape measure came out and we carefully measured all the walls. I wanted to design the kitchen myself as I felt I knew best the layout that I wanted. So I spent many an interesting hour playing about with designs on the computer, moving things around and finding out the best way to make the most of the space available. I had also set my heart on granite worktops, in the hope that I might finally achieve the 'Wow!' factor in at least one room of the house!

Armed with the final plan we toured the various kitchen shops within Wickes, B & Q, Homebase, Ikea and Magnet and gradually built up a collection of brochures, price lists and quotations.

It didn't take long to realise that something was going to have to give!

Now I have to be honest and admit that the last place I was prepared to look was MFI. I associated this with cheap, unsubstantial furniture and the nickname 'Money from Idiots' has stayed with me for many years! Yes, we've bought the occasional items from them over the years, mostly furniture for the children's bedrooms, but kitchen units? I had serious doubts and wasn't even going to look.

But - we needed lots of cupboards, a cooker-hood, a sink and taps, wall tiles (hundreds), floor tiles (quite a few), lights (many), a new ceiling, an American style fridge/freezer to fit the remaining floor space, a designer radiator to fit the remaining wall space. The list seemed endless. Then there was the granite worktop. A ballpark estimate meant the kitchen was going to cost at least £10,000 - and that was without the extras we were bound to have forgotten or underestimated. Oh yes, something would have to give.

For a while we abandoned thoughts of the granite and investigated the other options, but whatever way I looked at it, nothing compared with the real thing. The worktops are just that - the place where the work gets done, and although cupboard doors are important, I didn't feel I wanted to compromise on the work surface. If this looked stunning and was also practical to use, maybe a saving could be made on the units.

My husband had talked to a friend, who had just bought kitchen units from MFI and was very pleased with the result, so perhaps we should give them a try. Reluctantly I agreed; there could be no harm in looking and it's not as though we have far to go to an MFI showroom. At the time, there was a sale and MFI were offering 20% off everything in store, another good reason to consider an MFI kitchen. Off we went one Saturday afternoon and had a look around their showroom in Swindon. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

THE SWINDON SHOWROOM:

The showroom viewed from the outside is uninspiring and would not win any design awards, but once you walk through the doors the displays on view are pleasing to the eye.

Of course an MFI showroom contains many items of furniture for the home, including that for the bedroom, dining room, living room and office, and the showroom is attractively set out with a variety of displays for the above-mentioned furniture. From what I saw there did appear to be plenty of choice, but for the purpose of this review I am concentrating on the kitchen department.

There was a very good selection of kitchen styles available, in a variety of different coloured woods and finishes. At a guess, I'd say there were around thirty kitchens on display, maybe a couple more or less. There were worktops, sinks, cooker hoods, under cabinet lights and many other accessories. Overall, it was a very impressive display.

We found that the 'Hudson' design by Hygena was to our taste and this was similar to a far more expensive design that we had seen in Wickes. It did not have the 'cushion-close' drawers that the Wickes' kitchen had, but I felt I could easily live without that. The colour of the wood was a rich cherry-style finish that was neither too light nor too dark and gave a warm and clean-lined appearance, without any mouldings that would be difficult to clean or become dirt-traps. If we had wanted a lighter or darker wood there were plenty to choose from in a variety of styles to suit either a modern town house or a country kitchen. If options such as 'cushion-close' drawers are important to you, I note that MFI have a range of Schreiber cabinets that feature this drawer system as an optional extra and the Schreiber range features as standard 'cushion-close' technology on all doors.

Having made our choice, we then approached the sales desk and expressed an interest in getting a quotation for a kitchen. This would obviously take some time to achieve, and we would need to make an appointment to see a salesman. This was made at a time convenient to us, at 6pm on a Monday, so my husband could be there after finishing work.

CHOOSING THE UNITS AND GETTING A QUOTATION:

We were seen at our appointment time, and shown to a comfortably upholstered bench seat at the salesman's workstation. There were several of these in a line in the centre of the showroom.

I presented my plan to the salesman and he transferred all the measurements onto his computer. A fascinating time was spent watching him place the relevant units and showing a picture of the layout on the screen. I don't know if we were lucky in the salesman who we happened to see, but he could not have been more helpful. He made useful suggestions and paid attention to details that I hadn't considered, for instance placing an open shelf unit at the end of a row of cupboards to finish off the row, and to fill in a blank space. As I had already worked out the basic plan, where the cooker, sink and certain units needed to go, much of the work had already been done and time could be spent checking details and trying units in different combinations. Sizes of cupboards ranged from 300mm to 1000mm and with custom-fit panels available it was easy to fit the available space.

If you did not already have your own plan, you would need the basic measurements of your kitchen, which would need to be accurate and include doors and windows, and the salesman could design your kitchen from this.

Once we had established where all the units would go, the plan was printed. The salesman produced several copies of the layout, showing measurements of the individual units and the total measurements of walls and the position of doors and windows. A computer representation of the kitchen was printed and illustrated the layout from different viewpoints. These gave a very good idea of how the finished kitchen would look.

The prices of the cupboard units, the sink, tap, cooker hood etc. that had been entered into the design were automatically calculated and we were given the final price. This included the 20% discount. Of course this was a bonus, but I am under the impression that MFI have sales on a regular basis, so it would always be worth waiting for the next sale, unless you were in a particular hurry.

In total, we would need:

Eleven drawer-line base cupboards of various sizes
Seven wall cupboards, various sizes
Two larder units with one chrome pull-out larder
One open end shelf unit
Glass cooker extractor with warranty, chimney and carbon filter
Plinth heater with warranty
Sink and tap
Cornices, plinths and one custom-fit panel

We were also advised that if we opened an MFI account a further saving could be made. If we chose to pay the balance before interest was due, a saving of 10% would be made, and this we chose to do.

The total cost of the above in the Hudson design was £2,371.80. This included a £30 delivery charge. A kitchen installation manual would also be provided, free of charge. The cost of this kitchen without the discounts would have been £3,242, making a saving of £870.20. This was at the end of February 2005. This price did not include fitting as we intended to do this ourselves.

This total was approximately £2,000 cheaper than other kitchens that we had seen, with the possible exception of Homebase kitchens. We had not obtained a full quotation on a Homebase kitchen, as there had been nothing in their displays that we had liked, but we had compared the price of individual units.

I am very aware that you 'get what you pay for' and that a more expensive kitchen should be better quality, but as ours is a fairly large kitchen and money is not infinite, a compromise had to be made if we were to go ahead with installing granite worktops. A decision was made and we agreed to make the purchase.

It is also worth considering the cost of the kitchen in relation to the rest of the house, and keeping it in proportion with the overall value. It did not make sense to me to spend a vast amount on a kitchen if it would not increase the overall value of the house by at least the cost of the kitchen and more.

A delivery date was given for the beginning of April, just over five weeks from the order date. I did not consider this to be unreasonable and in any case we would need time to prepare for the units to be delivered. We would require a large space to store the boxes and this would need to be dry and damp free. Our garage was the ideal solution, and we prepared this in readiness and put waterproof sheets on the floor as an extra precaution.

We received a letter regarding delivery information from MFI shortly after our order had been processed, and in it was a request to telephone them two days before the delivery date to find out if this would be in the morning or the afternoon. In the event, this was not necessary as they telephoned us. Delivery was confirmed as planned and the items received exactly when arranged and without any problems.

The purpose of this review is my experience of the showroom and the service that we received. Hopefully, another review will follow to report on my experience of the delivery, assembly and installation of the units.

SUMMARY:

If you are considering replacing your kitchen, I would certainly recommend that you consider a kitchen from MFI. The showroom experience was pleasurable, there was no pressure to make a purchase and the salesman that we saw was friendly and very helpful. The kitchen displays were interesting and there was plenty of choice, with many inspirational features. There should be a kitchen to suit your pocket and design preference. The computerised design service was very helpful and made the process of choosing the correct units to fit the space extremely easy. It was useful to see the computerised representation of the kitchen to help confirm that this design was the right choice for us.

We have needed to call back to the showroom on several occasions for various reasons, for example to order an extra wall cupboard and for minor queries. The service was the same as before, and all our queries were treated in a helpful and pleasant way without any problem. Occasionally we have had to wait to be seen by a salesman when the store has not appeared to be particularly busy, but this was not a big problem.

I still think you need to be careful with your choice of furniture from MFI. If you require high quality furniture in general then they would not necessarily be at the top of your list, but all in all I have reconsidered my previous image of MFI - Many Features Indeed!

Thank you for reading!