ikea kitchen questions

[wawa]

I know a couple of people here have IKEA kitchens. Talk to me about them?

Do you like it? What was the design process like for you? Has anybody bought their appliances? Did you compare prices to HD/Lowes stuff? Aaaand when do they usually run their kitchen sale? 20% off, or 10%? I googled and saw both.


We might be doing the kitchen later this year instead of cool living room furniture. Our microwave crapped out and the oven has gotten erratic and our layout is weird and stupid and I'd hate to shell out for new appliances that fit in these undersized holes.

[kaylie]

We considered doing it, but didn't since we only replaced our top cabinets. I think the sale is usually in March? It can be either 10% or 20% depending on how much you spend. I *think* you have to spend at least $3,500 to get the 20%. I wouldn't go with their appliances based on reviews I read. The prices on their cabinets are comparable to lower end lowes/hd cabinets, but the Ikea ones have better hardware/features, like soft close drawers.

[TBM]

I agree with Kaylie about the appliances, but then, I wouldn't buy them from HD or Lowes either. I am a big believer in actual appliance dealers and the wuality and service that they offer.
ETA:  I take that back.  Sort of.  There are appliances that I would consider from them, but do the research...some are better than others. 

I do like Ikea cabinets. I have them in the studio, and if we hadn't found the local fabricator with just what we wanted, we would have gone with ikea.

[new2this]

I'm normally a lurker but we redid our kitchen this year and went with Ikea.

Do you like it? Yes! I totally love it.

What was the design process like for you? They have a design tool online. We knew we were going to keep the same layout. I used their online design tool. I loved that since I could design it then tweak it as I thought of things. The program is glitchy but the store knows that so they double check everything. Sometimes you can't add something or whatever so I just made a note of it and told them at the store. I narrowed it down to 2 choices for fronts. Once I thought my design was done I went to the store. I picked out our fronts out of the two I was considering and then loaded my design on one of their computers. A worker came by and checked my work. She made sure everything was the right size and stuff. Then she made sure the shopping list the program created was accurate. She went through and asked questions about stuff I may not have known about. Like, did I want a decorative front for the side of some cabinets? What depth did I want the cabinet over the fridge? Did I give some space for a panel next to the dishwasher? etc. Another co-worker double checked her work. That process took maybe 45 minutes in the store since I designed it beforehand. The worker there said people often sit in the store to deign their kitchen so they could ask questions.

Has anybody bought their appliances? We went with their dishwasher. It put us over the limit for 20% off so we got a great deal on it. Plus, I wanted one to match our cabinet fronts. It works well for us.

Did you compare prices to HD/Lowes stuff? It was way cheaper for us but that's because we needed some unique cabinet sizes that are readily available at Ikea but not at HD or Lowes. It was really our only option because of that.

Aaaand when do they usually run their kitchen sale? 20% off, or 10%? I googled and saw both. It's 10% if you spend X amount or 20% if you spend more. I think they do it twice a year. We bought ours in August and it was during the sale.



I loved that I could design it at home and then spend minimal time in the store. It's about 3 hours round trip to the store so that was important to me. Plus, I walked out with everything I needed for my entire kitchen that day. We got like 300 boxes or something ridiculous. I think it took 6 FULL carts to get stuff to the car. Installation was time consuming since we had to build the cabinets but overall super easy. We love the rail system they have. The cabinets are better quality wise than the cheap HD or Lowes ones.

I'd say it took us 10 days to remodel our kitchen. That includes removing the old cabinets, making some repairs, building all the cabinets, and installing them. We ordered cabinets from Lowes that took 4-5 weeks to come in so that is not included in our time frame.

[bunch]

Love them. I've done two kitchens with them. I only used the appliances in the second kitchen and it's a rental, but in 1.5 yrs I haven't had any calls asking for repairs and I cant say the same about my fancy ge ones.


I prefer the cabinets over stock lowes/hd ones. The install is simple and cant be beat.

[ktzmoh]

What about the drawer boxes- they're only metal right? Do they have other drawer options? I don't like the metal drawer sides that don't go all the way up.

[bunnies]

Just finished my reno and I love it so far. I hired the kitchen planner to come out to my space to help - I believe it's a $200 charge and he was there for 4.5 hours. I had no idea what I was doing and thought this was the best option. I'm glad I did it.

I compared prices for appliances through Lowes/HD. I got the dishwasher through Ikea because it was integrated into the cabinetry but I got much better deals on the microwave, oven/stove, and fridge through Lowe's 4th July sale. This past summer, the deal was spend $3500 for 10% off, spend $4500 for 20% off. With my cabinets, dishwasher, and countertop (I ordered the Caesarstone quartz through Ikea), it came to just over $4500 so I was able to use the 20%. I applied that coupon to all kitchen products (including accessories) multiple times until the sale ended.

[munkii]

We designed our kitchen ourselves with the online planning tool. As another person said, it's glitchy at times, but isn't too terrible. It's good that you've lived with and used your kitchen for a while since you know what things work and what doesn't.

We did get a quote from one other store. Their sale was 15% off, and the price was still over $25k without installation. That solidified our decision to go with Ikea. The difference in the two was that the other store uses plywood boxes rather than particle board like Ikea.

Our ovens are Datid convection ovens. I love them. The one problem we experienced was not being able to install a cooktop directly over one of the ovens because the gas-line regulator does not have room in the cabinet that houses the oven.

We took advantage of the sale in the spring, but they just finished one in November this year. So, maybe they'll start doing them twice a year now?

[new2this]

Dec 27, 2013 23:01:21 GMT -5 ktzmoh said:

What about the drawer boxes- they're only metal right? Do they have other drawer options? I don't like the metal drawer sides that don't go all the way up.

I don't think there are other options but I'm not positive. All ours are metal. I thought I'd hate the larger drawers since the sides are short but honestly I actually don't even notice it. I even have things stacked and it is never an issue.

I do have one qualm about it though. We have those soft close drawers and doors on everything except 2 cabinets. Because the corner cabinets didn't come with soft close and the regular ones didn't fit on them since the angle was different. We are going back to Ikea for something else soon so i mean to ask then but it drives me nuts that 2 cabinets aren't soft close.

[barefootcontessa]

I know I am in the minority but I dislike the Ikea cabinets. I bought them for our laundry room and it took my extremely handy father forever to put them together and get them up. the instructions are miserable, some of the cabs have predrilled holes, others do not -- there is no consistency. also there are gaps between the toe-kicks and the cabinets. the only good thing was the price.

[froggy76]

We put in Ikea cabinets 4.5 years ago. We didn't need new appliances, so I can't comment on those.

The price of Ikea cabinets can't be beat. They really are great for what you pay. Ours still look pretty nice, except if I could do it over, I wouldn't do white (we have Lidingo white). The best thing about them is how easy it is to get new doors and switch them out if you want.

I assembled all the boxes while DH was working on drywall in the kitchen. After a couple cabinets, it became super easy and I was able to assemble them all in one night. Hanging them was also fairly easy. I don't remember having any issues with inconsistency as a PP mentioned.

All in all, I would recommend them, but we are moving soon our "forever" house and I probably wouldn't use Ikea cabinets there. They are perfect in our starter house, though.

[msmerymac]

Dec 30, 2013 10:15:53 GMT -5 froggy76 said:

We put in Ikea cabinets 4.5 years ago. We didn't need new appliances, so I can't comment on those.

The price of Ikea cabinets can't be beat. They really are great for what you pay. Ours still look pretty nice, except if I could do it over, I wouldn't do white (we have Lidingo white). The best thing about them is how easy it is to get new doors and switch them out if you want.

I assembled all the boxes while DH was working on drywall in the kitchen. After a couple cabinets, it became super easy and I was able to assemble them all in one night. Hanging them was also fairly easy. I don't remember having any issues with inconsistency as a PP mentioned.

All in all, I would recommend them, but we are moving soon our "forever" house and I probably wouldn't use Ikea cabinets there. They are perfect in our starter house, though.

Just because you'd rather go with another option, or because they show dirt, or for some other reason?

We want to gut our kitchen within the next few years, but we're pretty tied to doing white cabinets. We're highly considering Ikea. 

[froggy76]

Dec 30, 2013 13:41:46 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

Dec 30, 2013 10:15:53 GMT -5 froggy76 said:

We put in Ikea cabinets 4.5 years ago. We didn't need new appliances, so I can't comment on those.

The price of Ikea cabinets can't be beat. They really are great for what you pay. Ours still look pretty nice, except if I could do it over, I wouldn't do white (we have Lidingo white). The best thing about them is how easy it is to get new doors and switch them out if you want.

I assembled all the boxes while DH was working on drywall in the kitchen. After a couple cabinets, it became super easy and I was able to assemble them all in one night. Hanging them was also fairly easy. I don't remember having any issues with inconsistency as a PP mentioned.

All in all, I would recommend them, but we are moving soon our "forever" house and I probably wouldn't use Ikea cabinets there. They are perfect in our starter house, though.

Just because you'd rather go with another option, or because they show dirt, or for some other reason?

We want to gut our kitchen within the next few years, but we're pretty tied to doing white cabinets. We're highly considering Ikea. 

They are a little yellowed in some spots.  Also, scrubbing them has affected the finish.  They have sort of a shiny finish at first.  I started a small grease fire a few months ago and the cabinets look dull after scrubbing off the soot.  I'm sure that could happen with all types of finishes, but I'm not sure how to get the shine back with these... granted, I haven't really tried!  They also show dirt, but it's not horrible and that would be the case with any brand of white cabinets.

Overall, I do like the look and they've held up reasonably well.

[karinothing]

Our apartment kitchen is IKEA. I find the hardware kind of sucky (as in the cabinet hinges, not the handles). I also think that most of the shelves had to be reinforced since the incident where my shelves collapsed and broke all of my serving dishes, pretty much on my head. . .

I think my apt likely used the cheapest options possible though. I wouldn't discount them, but I would not go with the lower end option.

[wawa]

Thanks for all the input everybody. We're in a weird position with this kitchen...this house is not necessarily our forever house. But it's also not a house we're going to outgrow. Plenty of bedrooms, nice yard, good schools - nothing is going to MAKE us leave, but we'd love to eventually be able to swing a house in a water privileged community so we wouldn't have to drive to get to the boat. That is AT LEAST 8 years down the road I think. Maybe more. Maybe never.

So...it would make sense to save up and put in the kitchen we really want. Except the kitchen we really want is WILDLY over and above what is typical for our neighborhood. We both love to cook and if I was building a kitchen for just me it'd have one of these:


And custom cabs and soapstone counters and...yeah. You get the idea.

So given that the kitchen I'd build for me makes absolutely no sense in this house in this neighborhood - and that we can't afford it AT ALL (minor consideration that) - we're trying to figure out what price point we should be aiming at and what the best bang for that buck is going to be.

And then the whole thing is complicated by the fact that the existing appliances are going to kick the bucket and we need a plan and money to do whatever we decide on before/when that happens since we do not want to replace in kind (undersized wall oven. electric cooktop on a tiled island w/ a shitty downdraft, etc). And of course after doing all the bathrooms and the floors and the HVAC and the roof and everything else our reno budget is so empty it echos.

Anyway...it sounds like Ikea is a totally viable option though. Next I guess we need to decide on a layout I can live with (which is not the same thing as the layout I want. Since the layout I want involves a $$ freehanging range hood and a counter depth fridge....