Kitchen Cabinets from China: A UK Specification and Enquiry Guide
What to confirm before ordering kitchen cabinets from China for a UK project: real costs, specifications, quality checks and a simple enquiry pack.
Read the guideThe short answer: there are four types of fitted wardrobe company in the UK and Ireland, and the right one depends on how many rooms you are furnishing and how much of the process you want to outsource. National showroom brands (Sharps, Hammonds and similar) charge £3,500–£6,500 for a typical wardrobe run with everything bundled; a good local joiner does the same job for roughly £2,500–£4,000; flat-pack kits start under £600 if you can fit them yourself; and factory-direct import lands 30–50% below the national brands at whole-house scale. Whichever route you take, the ten checks in this guide are how you separate a solid company from an expensive mistake — because in this market, the headline price tells you almost nothing.
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The four routes at a glance, September 2026. Prices are per typical wardrobe run, supply and fit unless noted — sources and caveats in each section below.
| Route | Typical price per run | Lead time | Guarantee benchmark | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National showroom brand | £3,500–£6,500 | Unpublished; 3 weeks–several months reported | 10–15 years | One-stop service, finance, showrooms |
| Local joiner / carpenter | £2,500–£4,000 | 6–12 weeks | Varies — ask in writing | Awkward rooms, alcoves, one-off jobs |
| Flat-pack kit (DIY) | £500–£800 supply-only | Off the shelf | 10 years (IKEA PAX) | Square walls, tight budgets |
| Factory-direct import | 30–50% below brands, landed | 8–12 weeks, fixed | Contract-specific | Multi-room, landlords, whole house |
What Each Route Actually Costs in 2026
Marketing "from" prices are anchors, not quotes. The useful benchmarks come from independent cost research and trade-platform data:
UK fitted wardrobe price benchmarks, 2026. Which? figures from its November 2025 pricing research (survey of nine Which? Trusted Traders); trade-platform figures from published cost guides. All supply-and-fit unless noted.
| Source | 3-door wardrobe | 4-door wardrobe | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Which? (bespoke, installed) | £2,900 typical / £3,900 high | £4,900 typical / £6,200 high | Full bespoke range £1,500–£10,000 |
| Checkatrade (2024) | £2,500–£4,000 (avg £3,250) | — | Sliding-door 3-door avg £3,700 |
| MyBuilder (2025) | £1,000–£2,000 basic / £3,000–£5,000 mid | £5,000–£10,000+ high-end | Bespoke quoted at £400–£800 per linear metre |
| Flat-pack (IKEA PAX 250cm) | £556–£759 supply-only | — | DIY assembly; 10-year guarantee |
| Joiner day rate | £240–£300/day (avg £270) | — | Fitting typically 1–3 days |
Two deductions worth keeping. First, the credible mid-market cluster sits at £3,000–£4,000 per run — any quote dramatically below that deserves scrutiny on materials, and anything far above it should itemise exactly what the premium buys. Second, installation is a substantial slice of every non-DIY route: at £270/day and 1–3 days, labour alone is £270–£810, before the carcase, doors and internals. Our UK fitted wardrobe cost breakdown splits a £3,250 quote into its five component blocks if you want the full anatomy.
The one genuinely different pricing model is factory-direct import: no list price and no discount theatre, because the number is built from factory cost up. Import duty on wooden bedroom furniture is 0% into both the UK and Ireland; the middle leg (freight, port, customs, haulage) runs under £350 per wardrobe at consolidated container loads. The full arithmetic is in our China vs UK joiners landed-cost comparison.
10 Checks Before You Sign Anything
These are the checks that catch the problems buyers actually report — on forums, in Trustpilot complaints, and in consumer-advice casework. Get every answer in writing, from every candidate, including us.
1. Carcase material and thickness. Ask for the board specification: 18mm MFC or plywood is the standard; 15mm backs and thin carcases are where sagging starts within a few years. A supplier who can't name the board brand is buying whatever is cheapest that month.
2. Door construction. Slab, shaker or framed? Wrapped foil or painted? Wrapped doors peel at the edges — it's the single most common visible failure on mid-market wardrobes. Painted MDF or timber lasts measurably longer and can be repainted.
3. Hardware brand. Hinges and drawer runners are the moving parts that fail first. Blum and Hettich are the names you want to see; unbranded hardware on a £4,000 quote is a red flag in itself. This takes one email to confirm.
4. Who actually fits it. "Installation included" can mean employed fitters or subcontracted day labour. Ask whose fitters, and ask whether the fitting cost is itemised — at the £240–£300/day benchmark you can check whether the labour line makes sense.
5. The real lead time, in writing. Verbal "about four weeks" is not a commitment. Ask for the order-to-installation window on the quotation itself. See the lead-time table below for what realistic looks like per route.
6. The payment schedule. Never pay 100% before installation. A staged structure — deposit, pre-delivery, completion — keeps leverage on your side; Hammonds' published 25/65/10 split is the fair benchmark. And pay at least £100 of the deposit on a credit card: if the company stops trading, Section 75 protection is the difference between a refund and registering as an unsecured creditor.
7. The guarantee, product and installation. Ten years is the floor among established companies; Sharps' 15-year product-and-installation guarantee is the benchmark. Check whether hardware and installation are covered or just the carcase — "10-year guarantee" that excludes the moving parts is worth considerably less.
8. What's excluded from the quote. Removal of old wardrobes, skip hire, electrician (£45–60/hr if sockets need moving), plastering and decorating are routinely outside the headline number. Checkatrade lists these as the standard hidden costs — ask for each one explicitly.
9. When the final measurement happens. The right sequence is: final technical survey before manufacture, measuring at three points across every wall, with sockets and radiators noted. Loose hinges, doors catching drawers and scribing gaps almost always trace back to a rushed or missing survey.
10. The company itself. Thirty seconds on Companies House confirms the company number, filing history and whether accounts are up to date. A long-established limited company with filed accounts is a fundamentally safer counterparty than a trading name with a website — that applies to national brands, local firms and importers alike.
Running these checks on your shortlist now? Add us to it — send your measurements and we'll return an itemised quotation you can hold against every other quote, line by line. Get a like-for-like quote →
Red flags worth walking away from, September 2026 — compiled from consumer-advice guidance and recurring buyer complaints (see Methodology).
| Red flag | Why it matters | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Sign today" pricing | Buyer-reported discounts of 40–60% off list mean the first quote is theatre; urgency exists to stop you comparing | Treat every first figure as an opening bid; the sale will be back next month |
| Deposit demanded in cash or bank transfer | No Section 75 or chargeback protection if the company folds | Put £100+ on a credit card regardless of the rest |
| No written lead time | Buyer reports on national brands run from 3 weeks to several months | Order-to-install window on the quotation, or walk |
| Guarantee excludes hardware/installation | The moving parts are what actually fail | Get the coverage list in writing |
| No itemisation | "Included" hides clawbacks — delivery, survey, service charges | Force every quote onto the same lines before comparing |
| Final survey after you order | Manufacture off estimated dimensions produces scribing gaps and catching doors | Final measure before manufacture, non-negotiable |
Lead Times: What Realistic Looks Like
Lead time is where buyer expectations and supplier marketing diverge most. The honest benchmarks:
Order-to-installation benchmarks by route, September 2026. National brands publish no standard lead time — the reported range comes from buyer threads and review sites, so treat it as texture, not an SLA.
| Route | Typical total | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Local joiner | 6–12 weeks | 4–6 weeks manufacture + 1–3 days fitting (MyBuilder) |
| National brand | 3 weeks–several months reported | Regional scheduling; survey typically within 3 weeks of order |
| Flat-pack kit | Same week | Stock availability; your own fitting time |
| Factory-direct import | 8–12 weeks door-to-door | Manufacture + sea freight (30–40 days minimum port-to-door per freight forwarder benchmarks) + clearance + fitting slot |
The pattern that matters: only the import route gives you a fixed schedule at booking, because the whole chain — production slot, sailing date, customs clearance, delivery — is planned as one sequence. The national brands' range is the widest precisely because their scheduling is regional and opaque. If your project has a hard deadline (a completion date, a tenant moving in), get the date in writing whoever you choose.
Worked Example: One Room, Four Quotes
The most instructive data point in UK fitted wardrobe shopping comes from a 2024 forum thread: one buyer, one specification — a ~2.9m sliding-door wardrobe run — quoted by four suppliers. We covered this thread in our Sharps vs Hammonds comparison; here is what it looks like with the import route added:
Same specification, four routes, September 2026. Brand figures are buyer-reported from a single 2024 thread; import figure is a planning estimate at consolidated container load, not a quotation.
| Supplier | Quoted price | What's inside |
|---|---|---|
| Sharps | £4,750 | Design, manufacture, installation bundled |
| Hammonds | £4,200 | Package price, same spec |
| Local independent | £3,550 | Same spec, local workshop |
| Factory-direct import | ≈ £2,900–£3,800 landed + fitting | Itemised goods + logistics + UK fitting |
A £1,200 spread on identical work — with the national brands at the top and a £950+ gap between the brand average and the import route even for a single room, which is the import case at its weakest because one wardrobe carries its full logistics share. Scale the same order to three bedrooms and the per-room saving roughly doubles.
None of this makes the national brands a bad choice — it makes them a priced choice. What the ten checks do is force every candidate onto the same lines so the comparison is real. The brand deep-dive, including how their discount structures work, is in our Sharps vs Hammonds vs custom import breakdown.
Already holding quotes from two or three companies? Send them to us with your room measurements — we'll return an itemised like-for-like quotation you can put directly beside them, free and typically within 24 hours.
The Legal Checks Most Buyers Skip
Two pieces of law shape every fitted wardrobe purchase in the UK, and most buyers learn about them only when something goes wrong.
Made-to-measure means no change-of-mind returns. Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, Regulation 28, goods made to your specification are exempt from the 14-day cancellation right that covers ordinary online purchases. Once manufacture starts on a bespoke carcase, you cannot simply cancel. This is why checks 5, 8 and 9 — written lead time, explicit exclusions, final survey — matter before you sign, not after.
Faulty goods are a different story. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 still applies in full: goods must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described, with a 30-day short-term right to reject. "Bespoke" removes the right to change your mind — it does not remove your protection against poor workmanship.
Ireland runs on parallel rules. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission sets out equivalent protections under the Consumer Rights Act 2022, including a 30-day short-term cancellation right and a final right to terminate — details on the CCPC website. The same made-to-measure exemption from change-of-mind cancellation applies.
Payment protection is your last line of defence. If a company stops trading, Citizens Advice guidance is clear: credit card payments over £100 carry Section 75 joint liability, debit cards can go through chargeback, and anything else leaves you queuing as an unsecured creditor. Combined with a staged payment schedule (check 6), this is the difference between an inconvenience and losing a four-figure deposit.
What Working with George Group Looks Like
George Group is a factory-direct custom furniture manufacturer supplying fitted wardrobes, kitchens and whole-house cabinetry to the UK and Ireland. Every project is built to your rooms, not picked from a catalogue — we work from your measurements or drawings, design each unit in 2D and 3D, manufacture in our own factory, and manage the chain to your door: export documentation, sea freight, UK or Irish customs clearance, delivery, and installation through UK fitting partners.
What that means against the other three routes:
- One itemised quotation, end to end — goods, freight, clearance, delivery and installation as separate lines, so you can hold our numbers against any other quote using the ten checks above. No list price, no discount theatre.
- Factory-direct pricing — typically 30–50% below national-brand settled prices for equivalent materials, because there is no showroom chain or commission structure inside the number. See our wardrobe range, our design process, or start from the George Group homepage for the full picture.
- Duty and VAT handled correctly — 0% duty classification confirmed at booking; UK 20% / Ireland 23% VAT itemised; postponed VAT accounting for VAT-registered buyers.
- Free design drawings — 2D plans and 3D visuals before anything is manufactured, revised until you are happy.
Why we ask for your measurements before quoting: a fitted wardrobe is priced by the room, and a container is priced by the load — there is no honest catalogue price for made-to-measure work. Send us your room dimensions, a floor plan, or quotes you are already holding, and we return an itemised like-for-like comparison.
How a George Group quotation works, September 2026.
| What you send | What we review | What your quotation shows |
|---|---|---|
| Room measurements or floor plan | Dimensions, wall condition, ceiling heights | Itemised carcase & door pricing |
| Photos of the rooms | Alcoves, skirting, sloped ceilings, sockets | Site-cutting or fitting allowances |
| Style references (links, photos) | Door style, finish, colour match | Material & finish line items |
| Hardware & internals preferences | Hinges, drawers, rails, lighting | Hardware & internals line items |
| Your location (UK or Ireland) | Freight route, clearance, VAT treatment | Logistics, delivery, installation & VAT breakdown |
Quotations are free, itemised, and typically returned within 24 hours —
When Another Route Is the Right Choice
The ten checks apply to everyone — including us. And the honest conclusion is that factory-direct import is not the right answer for every buyer:
- One awkward room, needed soon. A single Victorian alcove with out-of-true walls, wanted inside a month, is a local joiner's job. Sea freight cannot be compressed, and a good joiner scribing on site is genuinely better for that one room.
- You want to see and touch first. A showroom with physical door samples and a designer who visits your home is a real service — it is simply one you pay for inside the national-brand price.
- You need finance. A £5,000 job spread into monthly payments suits many renovations; an import order is a wired deposit and a balance before shipment.
- You want one national warranty contact. A 15-year product-and-installation guarantee with a UK call centre is genuinely stronger than any cross-border arrangement — factor that into what the premium buys.
- The room is square and the budget is tight. A £600 flat-pack in a square new-build bedroom does the job. Fitted furniture earns its premium on awkward geometry, not on easy walls.
Conversely, the import route asks more of you: you measure (or we guide you through it), you plan 8–12 weeks ahead, and aftercare works through spare panels shipped with your order plus UK fitting partners rather than a national call centre. For multi-room projects, landlords fitting several flats, or anyone combining wardrobes with a kitchen in one container, the trade is usually worth it — for a single urgent alcove, it isn't.
Methodology and Sources
Price benchmarks collected 28 September 2026 from: Which? fitted wardrobe cost research (November 2025 pricing research, nine Which? Trusted Traders quoted — bespoke 3-door typical £2,900 / high £3,900, 4-door £4,900 / £6,200, full range £1,500–£10,000); Checkatrade fitted wardrobes cost guide (2024 — 3-door standard £2,500–£4,000 average £3,250, sliding £2,800–£4,600, joiner day rate £240–£300); MyBuilder fitted wardrobes price guide (2025 — basic £1,000–£2,000, mid £3,000–£5,000, bespoke £400–£800 per linear metre, total timeline 6–12 weeks); IKEA UK PAX range and guarantee pages (PAX/FORSAND 250cm £556, PAX/TYSSEDAL 250cm £759, PAX/KOMPLEMENT 10-year guarantee). Guarantee terms from official brand pages: Sharps (15 years product and installation, orders from 2024), Hammonds (10 years), Neville Johnson (10 years), Strachan (10 years). Legal framework: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, Regulation 28 (made-to-measure exemption from 14-day cancellation); Consumer Rights Act 2015 (satisfactory quality, 30-day short-term right to reject); CCPC — your rights when buying goods (Irish Consumer Rights Act 2022); Citizens Advice guidance on companies stopping trading (Section 75 and chargeback). Sea freight benchmark (30–40 days minimum China–UK door-to-door) from Freightos route data; freight forwarder estimates vary between 30 and 50 days. The four-quote comparison is buyer-reported from a single 2024 forum thread, detailed in our Sharps vs Hammonds comparison — one buyer, one specification, real but not statistical. National-brand lead times are not officially published; the reported range reflects buyer threads and review sites and should be treated as texture, not an SLA. Import figures are planning estimates, not a quotation — every project is priced individually from measurements.
Comparing fitted wardrobe companies right now? Add us to your shortlist — send your measurements and any quotes you are holding, and we'll return a free, itemised like-for-like quotation within 24 hours.
