Wren Kitchens files Chapter 7, shuts down Home Depot studio displays

Wren Kitchens’ abrupt Chapter 7 filing hit Home Depot’s kitchen business at the floor level: all 15 U.S. showrooms shut down, including Wren Kitchen Studios inside Home Depot stores, cutting off a sales path that had only recently been added for in-store kitchen shoppers.

Home Depot said Wren told the company it had ceased U.S. operations and that the shutdown covered the studio displays inside its stores. The company also said it had no prior notice. For associates in kitchens, appliances, special order and customer service, that means customers can walk in expecting design help, financing answers or order updates and instead find a dead end where a branded studio used to be.

That gap matters because Home Depot’s own kitchen-design flow is built around hands-on support: free in-store or virtual consultations, a site-analysis measuring visit, a $100 to $200 deposit credited toward installation, and a 3D kitchen design reveal. When a partner studio disappears without warning, the customer journey can break in the middle, leaving associates to explain what happens next, whether deposits or orders are still active, and where to send frustrated shoppers.

The collapse also closes the book on Wren’s fast U.S. expansion. The company first announced U.S. store plans in February 2020, opened its Milford, Connecticut, showroom in November 2020, and described that location as 31,000 square feet, the biggest kitchen showroom in the country at the time. It later invested $15.4 million in a 252,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and in 2022 announced a $30 million East Coast rollout. By 2024, Wren had also moved into Home Depot stores through concessions.

Wren said its U.S. business accounted for about 4% of group turnover and that it could not secure terms that would allow the retail estate to expand. The company said it would focus on its U.K. business, where it described growth as running in double digits. That retreat came after U.S. turnover fell to £16.2 million in 2025 from £23.2 million in 2024, a drop of 30 percent, and the bankruptcy filing listed estimated liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million.

For Home Depot teams, the immediate work is straightforward but messy: calm customers, separate Wren’s obligations from Home Depot’s own kitchen services, and keep sales conversations from stalling while projects are unraveled. The broader lesson is harder to ignore. A partner can vanish overnight, but the customer confusion lands on the associate standing closest to the display.