Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

Has anyone done an Ikea kitchen?

Dee*Jay

Dee*Jay

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Mar 26, 2006
Messages
15,466
I am in the process of buying a commercial space (currently used as a photography studio) that I will convert into my residence. One of the (many!) things that needs to happen is a kitchen remodel (the current owner specializes in food photography; the kitchen has no microwave but three ovens!) and I have been out (obsessively…) looking at cabinets. The last kitchen I did used custom cabinets, but after considering a TON of options for this one I am just in love with some Ikea cabinets. The quality, according to Consumer Reports, is VERY good, and I look the look of them better than anything else I’ve come across. The price is amazingly good to, although that is not really a factor. This will be a kitchen with very high end components -- $7,000 Viking range as an example on the appliances, high end natural stone countertops, and I’m looking at a custom backsplash to the tune of $91 a square foot for materials alone – so I don’t think anyone will mistake this as a “cheap” redo.

Has anyone done an Ikea kitchen? Tips and tricks? Thoughts and opinions? Anyone… anyone… ?
 
Ikea is one of those stores that have both cheap stuff and good, affordable stuff. You just have to know which to pick. Since the cabinets are well rated and you like them, go for it!

My parents have a lot of Ikea pieces that are around 25 years old and have withstood two kids (from preteen all the way to when we left the nest) and 7 moves (including one intercontinental, one continental and 5 interstate). They are still going strong and look good.
 
Lady D - You raise an important point: The stuff at Ikea runs the gambit in terms of quality. I had a 6' x 6' bookshelf from Ikea once that I used as a room divider and it worked great for what it was, but there was little (no) wear and tear because once it was put in place it just stayed there. I can't really vouch for other furniture type items, but the cabinets seem to be a whole 'nother animal with universally good ratings. The thing that IS said over and over is that they come unconstructed. The CB is eager to put them together (and he's been a contractor for 25+ years so I have every confidence in him, but we will use an installer familiar with the Ikea system because I understand that to be different that installing other cabinet systems). My old boss did a $900,000 RENOVATION (so the entire property is now worth in excess of $2,000,000) and put in Ikea cabinets after much reasearch and the recommendation of her designer.

As you can tell, I am strongly leaning in this direction, but I am very willing to take in new information in making a final decision!
 
Hi DeeJay! :wavey:

I didn't read your whole post, working just now. But you'll love these people

http://www.allwoodfast.com/?utm_source=AWF_HBG_08-04-12&utm_campaign=AWF_8-04-12_HBG&utm_medium=email

We ordered through Costco, they go on sale periodically, the fronts are all EXCELLENT quality maple and the boxes are plywood rather than MDF. The home depot estimate for our cabinets was $13K for white plastic coated, and we ended up with these people with beautiful maple for $4K.

You send measurements and then they send you a layout via email, and you work for free with a dedicated kitchen designer, for as long as it takes. We ended up with beautiful glass front doors, with soft close drawers, top railing, etc. for a LOT less than the HD white plastic. We went with 42 inch tops.

Order a few samples doors and you will be thrilled, I promise. :love:

ETA IKEA has varying quality . . . some good, some awful.
 
Which cabinets are you looking at? Do they say obvious IKEA when you look at them?

I love the store for the fun items that they sell and pick up random stuff when we go there. We also own some furniture from there (some has held up great and a few items fell apart - which, is pretty much what seems like happens with most that own IKEA items), so I'm not anti-IKEA at all, but am sort of picky about what I'd buy from there... I just wouldn't want the cabinets to look so much like the store that the store name pops in peoples' heads when they look at the kitchen rather than them seeing the kitchen and thinking it looks fabulous.
 
We did an Ikea kitchen about 12 years ago and I absolutely love it. In 12 years, I think we ended up with one or two scratches on the pull out pantry and Ikea sells a filler crayon and it worked great.

The cabinets we chose are a medium brown and I think they still look good today and not dated (and they still sell them!)

My now ex-husband installed the cabinets himself and he was NOT a handy person at all and he managed (he only installed the cabinets themselves, everything else was done by outside contractors). The upper cabinets hang on a rail system which makes it so much easier for installation. As long as the rail is straight, all the cabinets will be straight.

Ikea has a huge selection of interior fittings (a cutlery tray that fits EXACTLY! and lots more goodies). I like that they also have glass doors to break up the expanse of closed cupboards.

We did a granite countertop and limestone small subway pattern backsplash with bronze knobs on the cupboards and bronze library pulls on the drawers (bought the knobs and pulls from Restoration Hardware if I remember correctly).

I LOVE my Ikea kitchen 12 years later and have zero complaints. I think it looks as good today as the day we installed it and with two kids who were about 8 & 12 at the time, I think this is nothing short of a miracle. I must have scrubbed the cupboards doors and drawers a million times to remove sticky fingerprints and the finish looks as good as the day we installed it. (My old cupboards which were builder crap; the finish wore off around the knobs from me scrubbing them so often).

One of my décor magazines (House & Home) which is a fairly high end design magazine quite often the credits for the kitchens are listed as Ikea cupboards.

I don't think the Ikea kitchen will look the least bit cheap when you pair it with nice countertop, backsplash, etc. and with that $90 square foot tile I am sure it would not look at all "ikea-ish" .

Is the $90 tile a small marble mosaic? :naughty:
 
Matata|1389637998|3592062 said:
Dee*Jay, you've got to wrap that $7000 stove in some excellent clothes. http://www.pediniusa.com
Click to expand...

Love, love, love! These are the kind of kitchens I would have if I could. You don't even need a lot of square footage. Sigh! :appl:
 
iLander, thank you for that link. Unfortunately they don’t have anything contemporary enough for the design I’m doing in this place, but I will keep them in mind for (a) my next kitchen (and let’s be honest, there WILL be a next kitchen… ), and (b) my clients, because a lot of them are in “buy and fix up” mode right now.

Charleston, thank you for posting your experience. And you hit on one of the things I really like, which is all the interior fitting options. The ridiculously expensive backsplash is distressed mirror beveled edge subway tiles. I *liked* them in the ad so I went to seem them in person and now I *love* them!

Matata, the mother ship has landed! If I were putting a new kitchen in the Starship Enterprise THIS is what I would use! "Beam me up Scotty!" "Can now Mr. Spock, I'm making a cup of tea in our fab new kitchen!"

MC, I like the Gnosjo in the super dark version: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40220444/ It’s hard to tell from this picture but the cabinets have a little bit of texture (both visual and physical) where the horizontal “grain” goes across. One of the things that drove me crazy about my last (custom cabinet) kitchen was that the drawer front and cabinet doors were just DARK. They were espresso stained cherry and they were *boring* because there was no visual texture to them at all. Here is a quick link of google images with kitchens uisng these cabinets https://www.google.com/search?q=gnosjo+kitchen&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=BzvUUoa1LongqQGrmYCQCQ&sqi=2&ved=0CCgQsAQ&biw=1920&bih=927#imgdii=_
 
Dee*Jay|1389641109|3592088 said:
Lyra, I have never had a kitchen *quite* that modern, but here is a link to my kitchen from two places ago. Look at the third picture: http://tours.vht.com/Viewer/PhotoGallery.aspx?ListingID=1026458&Style=IDX

And here is a link to the last kitchen I did (the custom one): http://tours.vht.com/Viewer/PhotoGallery.aspx?ListingID=1186506&Style=IDX Check out the third and fourth pics.
Click to expand...

DeeJay, the second one you linked is my ideal kitchen design. Absolutely ideal. :love: The floor plan and placement are perfect. It's not too big or too small. I like maximizing the space I (hypothetically) have, so nothing too huge for me. I've never had the chance to do modern. The homes around here are all traditional, with not enough open space.
 
Dee*Jay|1389640850|3592085 said:
MC, I like the Gnosjo in the super dark version: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40220444/ It’s hard to tell from this picture but the cabinets have a little bit of texture (both visual and physical) where the horizontal “grain” goes across. One of the things that drove me crazy about my last (custom cabinet) kitchen was that the drawer front and cabinet doors were just DARK. They were espresso stained cherry and they were *boring* because there was no visual texture to them at all. Here is a quick link of google images with kitchens uisng these cabinets https://www.google.com/search?q=gnosjo+kitchen&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=BzvUUoa1LongqQGrmYCQCQ&sqi=2&ved=0CCgQsAQ&biw=1920&bih=927#imgdii=_
Click to expand...


Those look really nice, especially with the lime green color that is used as a contrast color in some of those photos. They don't look super IKEA like some of the other cabinets I've seen...

These mostly remind me of IKEA b/c we had been looking at these a while back: https://www.google.com/search?q=red+kitchen+ikea&client=firefox-a&hs=Cbr&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=JWjUUo6oINPtoAS5hILoDg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=1071&dpr=1

ETA - very red kitchens, huh? lol The cabinets you picked out would be fun to combine w/a variety of wall colors...they are very versatile.
 
Dee Jay both your kitchens are stunning. Actually more than the kitchens, the décor is stunning.

I think the $90 tile sounds gorgeous. I have never seen tile quite like your description (and I love trolling tile stores).

In the first set of photos the view is so pretty. Last year we were in Chicago and went on the boat tour (Architectural Tour) and as we passed the condos on the river I wondered what it would like to live there and have that gorgeous view to look at every day after coming home from work. Lucky you! YOU lived there :wavey:
 
Lyra, the kitchen that you like was a balance between the more modern style that I *wanted* and the fact that the rest of the space was not necessarily traditional, but certainly “vanilla.” Left to my own devices I get a bit more creative!

MC, I think the colored cabinets are Ikea are awesome! If they did a blue or a green I would actually consider it, especially for accents. The red is a little bold though!

Charleston, I can recite the spiel of the architectural boat tour by heart because it goes by A ZILLION TIMES A DAY EVERY FRICKIN’ DAY. It drove The Demon CRAZY. That space was two combined units and he would bark at them coming up the river from the southeast balcony door and then run to the other east facing balcony door and bark at them when they got there. Lather, rinse, repeat. And in reverse going from north to south on the way back; east balcony bark, run 80 feet through dining room and living room at top speed, skid to stop on hardwood floors with long slippery doggy toenails, southeast balcony bark. Over and over and over and OVER. It's a miracle one--or both--of us didn't have a nervous breakdown.
 
DeeJay, I LOVE Ikea kitchens. I have a girlfriend who did her kitchen in black and white and she installed Ikea cabinets and some cabinets for a hutch in her dining room. They look great and really don't say Ikea. I love all the interiors that you can use for organization, no other company does as much as Ikea does. My friend paid about 6K for her entire kitchen, which is pretty large, and that included installation.

We will definitely replace our cabinets with Ikea. My only hesitation in doing it right now is I love my current granite. I have a huge island and I want to re-use it, and I have some leaded glass cabinets in my butlers pantry and I want to re-use those, and I am not sure if they will be able to be retro-fitted. Worse case, I just have those cabinets custom made. We have recently painted our builder grade cabinets white to see if we like living with white cabinets or want a stained wood look.

I think Ikea also offers a solid wood version now, but it makes the cabinets much heavier. I think I have posted pictures of my friends kitchen before here, but if you want to see it, I think I have the photos on my phone.

Also, if you do a search on pinterest for Ikea kitchen you can see some examples and get a lot of info. From the reading I did there, not long ago, it seems as if Ikea is many designers go to these days.

One of the things that really appeals to me, is that everything is easily replaceable if you have a hinge that breaks or a front that gets scratched.

My sewing room and laundry room are filled with Ikea cabinets and I love them. I haven't had a single problem with them. I just can't see spending a huge amount of money on cabinets. I would have a hard time getting 40-60K's worth of enjoyment out of custom cabinets. I know there are other options that are less and just as good as Ikea, maybe even better, but the ease and convenience of Ikea is worth it to me.
 
Deejay, Neatfreak had Ikea cabinets in her house. You may want to drop her an email and ask her what she thought.
 
My best friend had one done about 10 years ago and bought the mid range cabinets. It's held up well. I went with Kraft Maid and I really love it!
 
I've been doing a lot of house hunting with my mom and we recently saw a gorgeous modern kitchen in one home. We were shocked when the owner said, "IKEA!" (The owner was in the home because it was Christmas Eve that day. Don't even ask why we were looking at houses on Christmas Eve, I have no idea.)

Anyway, it was done so well and it was very sleek.

I love your former homes, Dee*Jay. Gorgeous.
 
we have an IKEA kitchen and LOVE it! I don't think that I will ever do anything else. We put it in ourselves 5 years ago and it still looks perfect (Even with a 5 year old who likes to stand on the drawer handles :rolleyes: )

We have the Adel medium brown cabinets with natural colored boxes (some glass front and some plain front), the biggest pantry cupboard they sell, the lansa handles, the IKEA single domsjo sink, and an ikea faucet. It was easy to put together, looks amazing, and looks as good now as the day we installed it. The soft touch drawers and pneumatic hinges give it a really high end feel and the cabinet cost was a fraction of many other places.

We also used the IKEA beech butcherblock counters and DH did a great floor and backsplash tile job,as well as under cabinet lighting.

$ was more of an issue for us than it sounds like it was for you, but all of our NYC friends (most with way more $ than us:-) LOVE our kitchen and we get compliments all the time from them.

I"ll try to post a pic tonight.
 
Luv2sparkle, all those organization options sucked me right in! And if you don’t mind posting pics I would really appreciate it. As for Pintrist and Houzz, I have spent many many MANY hours on there these past few weeks!

Gypsy, ooh – thanks for the heads up! I will reach out to her!

Braga, I read a number of Kraft Maid reviews. One thing I liked the look of (online anyway) was the Martha Stewart cabinets through Home Depot, which are apparently made by Kraft Maid, and I did look at them in the store, but it wasn’t LOVE.

Haven, as a real estate agent for 10 years, I didn’t question for an instant the viewing of houses on Christmas eve – HA! I would be interested to know if your perception of the kitchen notched down at all once you knew it was Ikea… ?

Bella, yes please, I would love to see pictures! And I don’t have a five year old to stand on the drawer handles but I do have a Demon Dog who has been known to get clear up on the counter to acquire a thing or two!
 
Here is my friends kitchen. I don't think it is the look you are after, Dee*Jay, but it suits my friend. I took these with my iphone so they are not the best.

img_3285.jpg

img_3287.jpg

img_3288.jpg

img_3289.jpg
 
The built in cabinets in the family room are from Ikea too.
 
luv2sparkle|1389716904|3592528 said:
Here is my friends kitchen. I don't think it is the look you are after, Dee*Jay, but it suits my friend. I took these with my iphone so they are not the best.
Click to expand...


oooh, Very pretty kitchen!!! Love it.
 
Luv2sparkle, your friend’s kitchen and built-ins are really lovely! I think the white cabinets look very “fresh” and I like the contrast with the black accents. Thank you for posting those!
 
She put in mostly drawers with dividers for the lower cabinets and it has worked out so well. I can't wait to do that. I hate getting down on my hands and knees on the tile floor trying to get something out of the back of the cabinet. You would just die to see all the little built in gizmos she has in this kitchen. I love to organize things so I would be in heaven doing all the modifications to get it exactly right.

She kept her tile from her previous kitchen and that is probably the only thing that she would change. But it was natural stone and costly so she wanted to leave it alone. That alone kept the cost really really low for her.
 
luv2sparkle, one of the key things I learned from the last kitchen was that EVERY cabinet has pull outs. So even if it's not a drawer base, but rather has cabinet doors, ALL of the shelves pull out. It improves the efficiency so so so much. Otherwise, the next time you see that can of Campbell's chicken noodle soup that got pushed to the back corner of the bottom cabinet is ten years from now when you move and finally get down there to clean everything out!
 
We redid our previous kitchen with IKEA in 2006, and the kitchen is still holding for the new owners. For the price, I think you can't beat IKEA cabinets for the high end features they offer like the quality of their drawer hardware, the soft close, and the rigidness of the drawer bottom. This is what makes them enjoyable to use, and they do last. At this price point, all the cabinet bodies on the market are particle board with a veneer of some sort, and you can get doors that are solid wood or are made of some other attractive material. Also, if you are looking for contemporary cabinets (e.g. with stainless steel doors), you can't beat the price as IKEA just copies the designs of high end European brands.

For our last house, we bought AKURUM cabinets with ADEL birch doors. I just checked on the IKEA website, and it looks like they no longer offer these doors in the birch finish. They are solid wood on the frame, but I think plywood in the middle. The solid wood part warped a little on one of the cabinets, which is why solid wood is not always the best choice if a piece has not been properly kiln dried and/or the environment the piece is in causes it to warp. Overall though, I think they are great cabinets for the price, and I would do it again.

We bought a new house with standard 90s Home Depot oak cabinets that do not have the features of the IKEA cabinets, but they are frankly decent. The are comparable to the IKEA set we had because the cabinets are particle board, and the doors are solid oak. In this case, the doors have not warped, and they have lasted through 2 previous owners. We redid them with a professional grade paint job and new knobs, and they look very good.

I would look around and see what you can get for your money. If you want modern, IKEA has a lot of choices. They also have a few traditional styles, but if you want traditional, you may want to go with another brand. We also chose IKEA based on Consumer Reports.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top