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Should you choose Homebase to supply your new kitchen? How does it compare to other similar brands in terms of price, variety and service? We evaluate the brand’s offering to find out in this Homebase kitchens review.
Homebase traditional style kitchen. (Image credit: Homebase)
Homebase offers several contemporary and classic fitted kitchens designs for homeowners. You can buy a flat-packed kitchen from the Homebase brand or a ready-to-fit style from the House Beautiful, Country Living or Küchenmöbel collections.
The Homebase kitchen brand features six designs in a range of styles, from shaker to slab. All Homebase branded kitchens come with soft-close drawers and doors, adding a modern and luxurious touch. The kitchen arrives flat-packed and requires assembly, so you’ll either need to roll up your sleeves (it’s best if you have DIY experience for this) or hire a professional installer to help.
Designed and built in the UK, the House Beautiful collection is modern and trend-led. If you want a kitchen with a sleek appearance and innovative storage solutions, this is the brand for you. The range is available in four designs and arrives rigid, ready to install.
The Country Living collection is built in Yorkshire by hand and combines quality materials with fine attention to detail that creates a traditional farmhouse look and feel. The range features beautiful wooden textures and rich paint finishes. Choose from two designs: Whitstable and Hastings.
The Küchemmöbel range is the latest addition to the Homebase kitchen family. Manufactured in Germany, Küchemmöbel kitchens come with a generous 20-year warranty period. These kitchens are really eye-catching, and you can choose from a traditional or modern design in cool colour tones.
With Homebase kitchens, customers can choose from four brands, 17 kitchen ranges and four styles: traditional, modern, handleless and shaker. Some kitchens come flat-packed, while others are delivered ready to install. Finishes include wood or gloss and a range of colours.
Homebase French Shaker kitchen in light blue. (Image credit: Homebase)
Highlights: A wide variety of designs, a lengthy warranty period and a price-matching policy that can save you money.
Warranty: Homebase cabinets come with a 15-year warranty, while cabinetry by House Beautiful, Country Living and Küchemmöbel comes with a 20-year warranty. You will get a five-year warranty on baskets and other accessories.
Cost: From £2,000 to £6,000
Payment options: Interest-free credit, interest-bearing credit and “buy now, pay later” plans.
Key benefit: Homebase offers a variety of credit options. Choose from interest-free credit payable over 10 months to five years, or interest-bearing credit at 7.9% APR with low monthly repayments over up to seven years.
Choosing a kitchen supplier can be a difficult decision. There are several to choose from on the UK market, and you might not know how they compare. Just because a kitchen design catches your eye doesn’t mean the supplier will provide the level of service or prices you need. We recommend carefully evaluating the pros and cons before making a decision.
Choosing to buy your new kitchen from Homebase has the following pros:
Buying your kitchen from Homebase may have the following disadvantages:
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Homebase kitchens are straightforward to choose and order. You can browse the Homebase kitchen brochure or visit a store to get real-life inspiration. Then, simply measure your space and note any features that need to be worked around (like alcoves or sockets).
You can make an appointment with kitchen experts at Homebase. There are two types of free consultation services: inspiration and design. If you’d like some reassurance when it comes to design, Homebase has partnered with City & Guild to offer accredited design and planning services. Their experts will measure your kitchen and turn your ideas into a bespoke 3D plan with a tailored quote. If you just need a few ideas to get you started, the inspiration-consultation option will take you through the latest trends, ranges and tech to help you create your dream kitchen.
Once you’re happy with your design and the products you need to buy, you can purchase the items in store or online using a wide selection of payment options, including credit.
Homebase Credo Küchemmöbel design. (Image credit: Homebase)
Whether or not Homebase is a good fit for you depends entirely on what you are looking for.
Homebase is a good choice if you’re using a trusted kitchen installer, as the brand doesn’t offer its own installation services. You could also consider Howdens. Howdens is a trade-only company, so you’d need to find a reliable tradesperson to purchase and install your new kitchen as you can’t purchase a kitchen from Howdens directly. However, there are 25 ranges to choose from which is slightly more than Homebase offers.
If you are looking for more hands-on service and installation from your kitchen supplier, consider Magnet. Magnet is an expensive kitchen supplier, but it offers comprehensive customer support (including aftercare) and great quality products.
Homebase is a good bet with a limited budget, as are Wickes and B&Q. These brands offer excellent choice and value for money. They have some options that are more premium, but also great kitchens that can be bought and assembled for as little as £1,000.
If you’re happy to do a lot of DIY and you want to cut costs further, choose a kitchen from IKEA. However, you should note that IKEA kitchens are not as high-quality as other brands.
Homebase is a mid-range supplier. While its kitchens aren’t cheap, they are far from being the most expensive on the market.
Here’s how its prices compare to kitchens by other British brands:
| Kitchen supplier | Cost of units (excluding installation) |
|---|---|
| Howdens | From £5,000 to £15,000 |
| Homebase | From £2,000 to £6,000 |
| Magnet | From £1,879 to £6,918 |
Homebase Whitstable kitchen. (Image credit: Homebase)
Homebase kitchens don’t require special maintenance unless you have chosen a wooden worktop. Wooden worktops require a lot more TLC than laminate or stone. Be sure to oil your wooden worktop before and after installation, followed by regular oiling every six months or at least once a year to avoid water and heat damage.
“If you want to achieve a modern, minimalist cooking and living space, then look no further [than HouseBeautiful kitchens at Homebase]. Designed and handmade in the UK, these streamlined, sustainably sourced kitchens (which are FSC certified) are ready to make your life easier. Each kitchen has a unique contemporary design, ranging from minimalist aesthetics to stunning high-gloss. And, designed with clever space-saving storage, smart integrated appliances and elegant design touches, it creates a statement space (however big or small) that’s both practical and beautiful.”
“There are eight kitchens in the Homebase-branded range, which come flat-pack. Finishes include wood and gloss and a range of colours. It is also selling contemporary House Beautiful kitchens and farmhouse-style Country Living kitchens, which both come ready to install. In some Homebase stores, you can also buy Küchenmöbel kitchens – a European kitchen brand. Homebase has a price-match guarantee, which it says means it’s never beaten on value.”
Homebase Hastings kitchen in ash. (Image credit: Homebase)
“Ordered a £6,500 kitchen recently. Homebase did the consult at our home and specced everything out. We were assured our new kitchen would match our current one and be fitted to our space. The cabinets were not the full width that we wanted, leaving gaps where there should be none. Our kitchen fitter had to create filler panels for these. They provided a 50/50 integrated fridge freezer door when we have a 70/30. One of the back panels and two of the plinths arrived with large scratches and a chunk taken out of one of them. I logged a service request on the day of delivery which was ignored. I logged a second and was told that we were outside the window for replacements and therefore had to pay for them. They didn’t provide any epoxy for the countertops or biscuits joints which I had to rush to procure on the day of the installation. Overall, really poor service and would definitely avoid if you’re looking to buy a kitchen.”
“We have a Homebase kitchen which is still looking great 15 years on. We did use our own builder to fit it, though, so we know it was done properly, but they have lasted really well. I will look there again when the time comes!”
Homebase kitchens offer good all-round value for money and variety. What we really like about this brand, however, are its guarantees and financing options.
A 15-year guarantee on Homebase brand kitchens (and a 20-year warranty on Country Living, House Beautiful and Küchemmöbel) mean Homebase will repair or replace any cabinet carcass, hinges, drawers, handles, doors or panels that suffer a defect in the materials or manufacturing process. There’s an additional five-year guarantee that Homebase will repair or replace wire baskets, inserts, waste bins and timber or laminate worktops that suffer a failure.
Homebase offers great financing options, including interest-free credit, interest-bearing credit and “buy now, pay later” plans. You don’t need to pay a deposit or early settlement fee for any of these plans. The interest-free plan requires a minimum spend of £500, and the cost can be spread over several months or years. This makes Homebase an attractive option to homeowners that are looking for great longevity and variety on credit.
This Homebase kitchens review was compiled after carefully reading thousands of customer reviews, technical documentation, media articles and professional opinion pieces. Then we carefully evaluated Homebase kitchens using a scoring system for a total of 100 points.
The scoring system consisted of the following: