I too am planning an Ikea Kitchen. No other cabinets have compared in price for the quality. I have done a good bit of research and may be able to help of couple of you with info.....

crl - I also am planning STAT White w/ a black island. Ikea will have Brown/black cabinets in our style by the end of the year. They are VERY dark brown so they look black. I don't start tear out until the end of January so they said to order the brown/black island cabinets as they are sure they will be available for when I will need them mid Feb.

cocontom - I also found it difficult dealing with the local IKEA only because I am a "Here is what I want. Lay it out and let me know what cost I'm looking at" kind of person. Since Ikea is designed for DIY (SO NOT ME!-Largely due to lack of time)this was a challenge. HOWEVER - they did set me up with a recommended certified IKEA "designer" (for lack of a better word). The designer (Inside Job Services - out of Atlanta) did the entire layout, list of items I would need to purchase, cost, suggestions etc. They charged a flat fee of $75 and know the Ikea products WAY more than I could ever hope too! They will come to your home for measurements if needed (although I live too far away I sent my design to them with measurements from the KD)as well as meet you at the store to walk through everything if needed. SO worth the $75 expense! We are still working together on a few revisions. They are VERY patient, understanding, quick and thorough.

So, that's my $.02 and I personally can't wait for my new Ikea kitchen!!

Oruboris - one thing to consider if you are going to have your own drawer/door fronts made is that the boxes only come in white or birch. So you can sometimes see the edges of the boxes around the door/drawer fronts. Not a good look if you're going with dark wood, for example.

This can be EASILY solved with some edge tape - it's just something to keep in mind. You might want to make sure you can find easily matching edge tape in your wood of choice.

My Abstrakt white cabinets are currently in my basement waiting to be put together. I can't wait!! Ikea cabinets are an awesome deal!

I too am considering doing an Ikea kitchen. I know what you mean about the wobble. My friend has an Ikea kitchen and the island tends to wobble. Perhaps additional legs would be good. Are granite or quartz counters to heavy for these units? Also, I would like to put glass cabinets with mutton bars in my base island. Ikea only has this option for upper cabinets. Could I just use the upper ones for the base? Another couple of thoughts- choosing a hood fan from another source, because I want a more french country look-- also, mixing liljestad dark oak cabinets for the base of the island and going white for everything else. Has anyone tried any of these things?

If your friend's island is wobbly - whoever installed it is at fault, and it should be fixed.

Most of us "IKEANs" have granite counters. Yes, you can use top cabs as bottom cabs - I think Fairegold did that - Fairegold?

You can mix and match as much you wish!

Hi again,

luvnola, thanks for the tip on the dark door/drawer fronts. Are you talking about Nexus black-brown? If I recall correctly, they are a slab front door, so not quite the look I have in mind. Though they are really gorgeous. Also, Ikea has been promising they would be available again for months and months now. I think there are some people at Ikeafans who have been without drawer and door fronts for quite some time so I'd be a little afraid of them not really being available when promised.

We've started on our island project. I sanded, primed and painted Tidaholm drawer and door fronts. I also painted bun feet, beadboard and trim pieces. I used Benjamin Moore's new Aura paint, which I love. DH assembled cabinet boxes and installed bun feet and a temporary butcherblock top (we're getting a copper top done eventually). We've got the drawers in, but still need to put the door up and get the beadboard on. I will attempt posting a picture once we're done (still might take a while--DH is working a lot of hours). I'm pleased with the results so far.

I do not think our Ikea cabinets wobble nor do they seem flimsy. In fact, they seem really sturdy and well-built to me. DH agrees and he's a bit of snob when it comes to such things.

Catherine

Oh, and on the glass doors on the bottom, that's easy. You are only limited by the size of the doors that come in glass. Then just order the bottom cabinet box and a glass door to go on it. (Of course, you can also use doors from a different source to expand your options further.)

Catherine

If the island wobbles from the base, chances are the island's feet weren't leveled. IKEA cabinets sit on adjustable feet - plenty adjustable at that. This is really great for accommodating variations in floor height or evenness. Adjusting those legs would straighten out the friend's problems.

If the cabinet itself sways - it just wasn't assembled correctly, inadequate tightening or inadequate use of fasteners. While the cabinet components are good, the nature of the assembly also governs how good a product you get - just the nature of the self-assembly world.

I have been perusing this site for awhile today, and I CAN NOT BELIEVE the options and flexibility with IKEA if one is creative. I have never seen such great storage options and was very much mistake about "the standard" Ikea look. One can only be limited by their imagination, and if you don't have a very good one (like me), there are sooo many samples to look at. I'm thoroughly excited about this venture! Where do I contact a design helper when I am ready? (I'm a newbie as of yesterday!)

Hi crl -

Yes right now you can get the black/brown doors in Nexus, but my understanding is that they will soon have the black/brown in Stat as well as Adel. And, THANKS so much for the heads up on the delay. I may wait until the end of the year before ordering to confirm the black/brown doors.

Your island sound GORGEOUS!! Can't wait to see photos!!

luvnola, Wow, I had not heard about Stat black-brown. That sounds great! Too late for me, but sounds like a good fit for you. I don't know if IKEA will have problems with supply for a different black-brown, I don't know if they'll be using the same supplier or not. . . .

bayla reno, for design help, I really really recommend www.ikeafans.com Just take a stab at a design on the Ikea planner (download from Ikea--only for PCs though) and post it. The wonderful people at Ikeafans will help you for free. My kitchen is designed by people over there and I think it's great.

Catherine
Catherine

Another cause of island-wobble could be that the island was dragged across the floor after the legs were balanced. My island is made up of 2 36" 4-drawer base cabs attached to each other and one 15" base cab attached to one end of the pair. Once the cabinets were connected to each other and the side and rear Perfekt panels were attached, my carpenter pushed the island across the floor to attach a cleat to the floor where the island would be permanently located. Once we pushed the island back into position over the cleat, we noticed a wobble and found that by dragging the island across the floor, we had ripped two or three leg assemblies off of the bottom of the cabinets.

Once we got the legs fixed and leveled and the island in position, we realized that anchoring the island to the floor cleat wasn't really necessary. The three connected cabinets are HEAVY, and they rested in position just fine. I'm happy that we anchored it though, as I have a 1.75" butcher block countertop with a 13" overhang that will seat my three young kids. There will certainly be times when all three of the monkeys will be hanging from the overhang at the same time, and the three of them might just be heavy enough to topple it.

We had another wacky problem with the install of the base cabinets that you might want to be aware of. It was caused by my not-so-great carpenter's inattention. The perimeter countertops are made of stainless steel wrapped around a plywood core. He installed the core first, then he spewed caulk on top of the core and slid the stainless over the core. Great in theory, but it didn't come out as nicely as it should have.

The problem was caused, specifically, by the fact that he sunk the screws from the top of, and through, the core down into the cabinet top frames (rather than up through the cabinet top frame from the interior of the cabinet). First of all, this was dumb because now the stainless is covering all the screw heads and we cannot remove the counters without destroying the cabinets. But the install defect was that he did not check to see that the screws pulled the cabinet frames all the way up to the underside of the core before he glued the stainless to the top of the core. Sure enough, I noticed after he "completed" the install that the screws in the front and center of the sink and cooktop cabinets (with the false top drawer fronts) actually pushed the cabinet top frame down, which caused the cabinet top to bow and the false drawer fronts to droop in the center.

He fixed the one that bowed the worst by sawing out the exposed segment of the screw. He actually did nothing about the other, other than to tell me that I could fix it myself by adjusting the false drawer faces. Needless to say, that carpenter has never been back.

We have some other issues with the install, especially our schmucky ex-plumbers gas cooktop install. The a**hole actually brought the gas line up from the basement into the very front of the 18" base cabinet adjacent to the cooktop cabinet, snaked a flexible line to the upper back of same and then went through the upper rear of that cabinet to attach the line to the cooktop. He did this, of course, after I told him that he should snake the line back through the dead space behind the toekick. (He had to come up in that spot because the rear of these base cabinets rested over a cantilever bump-out beyond the house's foundation.)

Despite these glitches and a few others, we are absolutely thrilled with our Ikea cabinets (Lidingo)from a use perspective. We love having the 4 deep 36" drawers in our island right across from our dishwasher. We keep all the dishes there. In fact, we do not have a single plate or bowl in a wall cabinet and never will again (so we don't need a 15" deep wall cabinet).

With regard to hiring an Ikea-certified installer to design your kitchen, it's a great way to start, but I urge you to become familiar with the entire Akrum product line and tweak the design yourself. We made several key changes from the initial design.

Oh yeah, be sure to post your design on ikeafans.com. I did, and I'm glad of it. Based on the great free advice I received there, I wisely moved my dishwasher away from the corner cabinet to the far side of the sink, where, when the dishwasher door is open, it does not block access from the sink to the other leg of our "L."

One more thing that we love about our island: We put the 15" base cabinet on the end closest to the refrigerator and the sit-down area of the kitchen and made it a pull-out garbage drawer. We use it all the time, both to throw out garbage in your hand at that end of the kitchen and to scrape crumbs and scraps off of the island-top right into the garbage (did not want a cut-out for scrap disposal). It accommodates both a 13 gal. container for garbage and a 3 gal. container for recycles. EXCELLENT!

I'm having an issue with the Ikea website. The 4 drawer base cab isn't giving me the usual pull down menu for door finishes.

Could someone try it, see if its a fluke on my system? I emailed the company, but they referred me to my 'local' Ikea, only 2 states away...

Doesn't work for me either. The Ikea website is unfortunately pretty bad. Most door finishes are available for all the cabinet sizes. I think it's only the Rubrics that are not. The folks at Ikeafans would know for sure.

HTH,
Catherine

I am ordering my Adel White with birch countertop IKEA kitchen soon, and it will be delivered to my house (320 miles away) for $255. I was really surprised how inexpensive the shipping was.

I did have to place the order in person at the store. Talking through the order with my Ikean really helped. Also www.ikeafans.com was in valuable.

I'd like to see some completed Ikea kitchens. Could some of you post pictures?

Ikfame01, if you want to see Ikea kitchens on GW, go to the Finished Kitchens Blog (FKB). On the top right click the link to Categories, then scroll from there to Ikea cabinet manufacturers. You'll find lots of them there! Assuming you've already pored over all the kitchens at Ikeafans.com?

Here's a link to the Ikea section of the Finished Kitchens Blog. There are lots of links there - you just need to click on the poster's name to get to his or her kitchen.

I just returned from a visit to Ikea, and am duly impressed. The cupboards seem very stury and I think that Lidingo and liljestad look spectacular together! We will check out a couple more places, but I'm almost sure that we will go with Ikea. I am also enamoured with the organizers and how they are designed to go with the cool containers they sell. Lots of fun!

Glad to hear your trip to Ikea was worthwhile! lidi and liljestad are really nice styles.

Catherine

Hubby and I absolutely love our IKEA kitchen. It offers everything we want - quality, flexibility, usability, and affordability. No regrets!

{{gwi:1957596}}
{{gwi:1957597}}

My contractor is beginning out Ikea cabinet install Monday -- finally. I've spent the last couple of weeks assembling them, which is pretty simple. Just takes time, space and patience. The biggest trick to assembly is when nailing in the cabinet box's back coverpanels, there isn't a lot of edge room. If you nail in too far from the edge the nail will split the particle board. I've ruined 2 boxes this way, which drove me nuts because its the last step. The good news is that the boxes are cheap to replace, less than $20 per box. The doors are the most expensive part.

My contractor has previously installed Ikea cabinets and highly recommends them. He did an install with a lot of customized cabinets, upper cabs used as base cabs, pullouts in the plinth, all kinds of stuff. Even used them to build a matching media center across from the kitchen.

I will post pictures of the finished project, hopefully in a couple of weeks.

hi,
im a newbie in the forum, i join becoz im doing some research on ikea
im planning to remodel my kitchen. my designer last minute decided not to use the custom cabinet maker we were talking to due to recent quality issue and recommended ikea.
he recommended Ikea for affodability but still can achieve end contemporary look. Im a bit sceptical as from hearsay, IKEA durability is not good. cabinet is not made of solid wood, but particle board, will sag under heavy items, break down after a few years.

Will appreciate some advice from those beautiful IKEA kitchen owners?
Also, i would like to install a builtin microwave 30inch by 17 5/8" hi in the hi cabinet pantry. Im not sure this can be customed by IKEA cabinet Has anyone installed that on IKEA before?
million thnx,

Well, you can see my (high) opinion of Ikea cabinetry above.

I used a 30inch wide single oven cabinet (this is a high cabinet--kind of like a pantry cabinet) for an advantium, which is about the same size as most built-in microwaves. It works great. I have four drawers underneath (two deep, two shallow) and a spacious cabinet above. If you visit the ikeafans website, you can find various possible configurations for a variety of cabinets. Even though Ikea cabinets are not custom, they are very customizable.

Catherine

Formosalily, you made a beautiful kitchen! I love how you used vertical cabinets above the fridge area. Very clever. Crl, I was going to use the 30 inch oven cabinet for my microwave as well, but I want glass mutton bar cabinets above it. Suggestions?

Hi all
I'll just pipe in as another VERY satisfied IKEA kitchen owner. My 'new' kitchen is now 2 years old and I love it. The drawers slide like a dream.
I will admit I am probably just thrilled to have so much more counter space - and I love the functionality of the whole space.
I did ADEL cream and painted the island red - the island is Fagerland.There are pics on 'my page' - which I should update because I have black stools now and a new stainless fridge - but the IKEA stuff is the same.
My DS - 15 at the time - put together the cabinets and I had our local guy install them.

Cheers
pickles

I agree that IKEA cabinets are very customizable. However, depending on the extent of modification and the complexity, WORKING WITH A CONTRACTOR WHO IS EXPERIENCED WITH IKEA CABINET INSTALLATION IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. We had extensive modifications done to the cabinets in order to have them fit our appliances nicely. Having witnessed all the challenges encountered by the experienced IKEA contractors when modifying/installing our cabinets and how their knowledge and experience with IKEA cabinets help resolve those issues, we are so glad that we picked the contractor recommended by local IKEA over other general kitchen remodeling contractors. The other contractors would not have been able to achieved the same result.

I'm in a quandry about how to order those items that don't give you the proper options, like the 4 drawer which doesn't give you stain options [I'm pretty sure there's at least one unit that should come in multiple sizes, but there's no size menu].

Emailing the company wasn't a success, and I really don't want to drive to Utah [from Montana] just to gather this sort of basic info.

Here's my question du jour: for those of you with the Fagerland doors, how are they holding up? These are the pine ones, right?

Oruboris - Have you visited the IKEAFANS.com website? You will get oodles of information there.

I would suggest at least one trip to IKEA to see and feel the cabinets you're planning for your kitchen remodel. At that point, you could order them in the store and have it shipped to you, or you can order through IKEA direct.

mike67, pretty much anything can be done to IKEA components :) Just be ready with a drill to make alternate cam holes if you cut off height or depth and you'll be fine.

And any cabs that aren't modded have a *25*-year warranty, btw. Try to find that anywhere else. You won't. They're not just any type of particleboard, they're built to the most stringent specs (environmental as well as quality) of any particleboard in the world. They're weighted to take more per shelf than you could probably ever load them down with.

(just had a wild thought: I wonder if the solid-wood shelves in PAX could be adapted for AKURUM??! -- We're doing our master in PAX (also a well-built line) and we have some very nice solid wood pieces that sit on the same pegs the AKURUM shelves do--it would be more expensive to buy them and cut them to fit but maybe even better wrt weight--would have to check the specs, though--but the look would be *fabulous*. DUH--I can be the first guinea pig for this--we are already planning to cut down one KOMPLEMENT shelf (the PAX fittings line) for a 24" deep kitchen pantry that's going in our closet lineup--I'll report back if anyone's interested on how that goes--although we're not planning to put 75 pounds of china on that shelf, rather clothes, so the weight stress wouldn't be as great as in the kitchen...but still, I'll check specs and find out if anyone wants)

O.K., I was too curious to wait :)

Per below, the max load on a 19x23" shelf ($15) is 59.5 lbs. The max load on a *39* x 23 shelf ($25) is 121 lbs! They're pretty tough, in other words. And the upgrade in looks would be really worth it...hmmm...now I'm thinking about re-fitting the kitchen shelves...

Fly - I'd be very interested in what you're doing with in bedroom with the PAX line, especially if I might be able to adapt some of your ideas. Please continue to post your progress, either on this thread or with a new one. Thanks!

Our kitchen isn't demo'd yet, but last night we built our first Ikea cab, the 18" three drawer base (Akurum birch effect w/Nexus birch drawers). We are thoroughly impressed w/the sturdiness, the hardware, the soft close, the beautiful veneer. It wasn't complicated to build at all, either.

At this point, the only thing I wish I had done differently was to NOT spend $100 at HD for the "measuring fee" when I was considering Kraftmaid.

Bayla reno, I'm afraid I don't know the sizes the glass doors come in, they are more limited. If Ikea makes the glass doors in a size that works with the 30 inch wide high oven cabinets, you're all set. You just have to order the components for the cabinet separately (so you'd order the cabinet box, plus the doors and drawers you want rather than just ordering the standard cabinet set-up.) Ikeafans can help you with item numbers and making sure you aren't forgetting something.

If Ikea does not make the glass doors in a size that works, you could look at doors from another source. Many people have done that, but I never investigated it so I'm not of any help with that route.

Maybe there's a third option too, but I'm not thinking of it at the moment. I'd go ask on Ikeafans.

On ordering, I ordered long-distance by e-mailing the Ikea Woodbridge store. I was living on the West Coast at the time, but the kitchen remodel was happening in our new house in NoVa. Delivery from the store was less than delivery through Ikea direct. If you are not close enough to a store for that to be an option or you prefer dealing with Ikea direct, you can call Ikea direct and talk with the kitchen people. I know you can fax an order in to them, I do not know about e-mailing. Lots and lots of help is available on ikeafans to find out what sizes/finishes are available and get the item numbers and put together a draft order.

Catherine

Pickles ca, I am totally in love with your kitchen! I was wondering about the fagerland. I don't think it's available in Alberta. Is it a different line from the Akuram? What is the colour name and brand you used on the island? Did you have to strip the original finish first? I also really like your hutch with the plate holder in the middle. What cabinets did you use to make this piece? Also, where did you get the hood fan and how did you make it match?

Ours is in progress, its Askome (ash), currently missing some doors/filler pieces, and with a plywood countertop that we hope might be soapstone soon!

Mike_67 -- we have a microwave and wall oven together in the tall cabinet, just waiting for the micro trim kit to come.

My husband has assembled and installed everything, we are really pleased with how it is going. We need some filler pieces and are waiting for some doors/cover panels (waiting for backordered items has really been the only drawback to IKEA). I love the pull-out pantry (between fridge and oven). And I love being able to have a kitchen we like this much for this cost.

Mayland - looks great. Love your frig. What kind is it? You did a really great job making it look built in.

BTW...I was watching Tyler Florence on the Food Network yesterday and I thought his kitchen looked awesome. Did a search and found out his cabs are IKEA. Here's the link.

Thanks Mahlgold! Its a Jenn-Air cab-depth. We love it and preferred the single fridge door for ease of use. but now that we have the island in place, we are thinking the SxS would have given a little more space when the fridge is open.

We will put filler pieces on either side of the wine/cubby thing that is on top of the fridge, to close in those gaps.

I think IKEA kitchens are the best.
Alittle hard to get parts but for the price U cant beat them. Plus you can nicer countertops w{{gwi:1957598}}ith that extra money.

Does anyone know - Do the IKEA cabinet boxes (frames) still come in birch effect? I've looked online and have noticed that some, but not all, of the cabinets are available with birch effect boxes. Are they phasing the birch out?

Having the birch effect interior choice was one of things that really made me seriously consider IKEA.

Hi bayla_reno - Sorry I missed checking back in after my last post. thanks for the compliments on our kitchen.
I would think the Fagerland doors should be available all across Canada. I did not take off the finish- I just painted them because I was going to do an antiqued finish - but then DH suggested we just let time take its toll and do the antiquing naturally - so that is what I did. The paint it staying on really well, for now.
I used a BM paint that I had colour matched to one of the Travis collection from Canadian Tire - I don't find BM has really great reds at least they didn't back then.

The hutch is just base cabs with stacked wall units on top - they are 15" glass doors stacked on the outer unit with 12" cabs beside them and then the plate rack. The plate rack is IKEA - painted the same as the island.

Funny - when I was designing the kitchen - I knew every cab width and dimension - now I had to go and measure them!.

Hope I am not too late in answering your questions. if you have any more questions - let me know.

Oh yes - my neighbour built the hood and I painted it - it is just mdf. I also painted the crown molding and the baseboards because I had my base cabs up a bit as we are all tall here. I will say that the butcher block area between the stove and fridge is lowered for cutting - and I love that space.

Has anybody used the Ikea boxes and had a custom cabinet maker fill in with boxes where the Ikea boxes didn't quite work (for example, I need a 33" sink base to fit my space and I'm hoping to get a 42" built-in fridge)? Would love to use IKEA boxes for the price (would really help make my LaCanche/Modern Aire dream come true) but I'm concerned about the limitations of the box sizes.

I'm pretty certain you could find someone to make a few custom pieces.

The hangup might be getting the builder to match the Ikea doors-- probably not too big a deal if you go with white, but for the wood doors matching the materials and finishes could be quite a job.

It's possible that they'd have doors that could be made to work, or perhaps the builder could cut down the doors to fit.

Have you registered with Ikeafans yet? It's a fairly large community of people who can offer a lot of first hand info on making Ikea cabs work for you. I *think* Ikea owns it, and they ask for an uncomfortable [for me] amount of personal info, but they do know of what they speak.

I've thought about doing IKEA boxes + custom boxes/doors, or IKEA boxes + Scherrs boxes/doors. Scherrs, from what I understand, uses leveling legs (like IKEA does), and they are ready-to-assemble. Quite a few people have bought the boxes from IKEA and the doors from Scherrs because they have lots of door options. It sounds like they are very well equipped to provide doors for IKEA cabinets (this includes knowing how to drill for the way IKEA places their Blum hinges).

Thanks, jraz wa. I looked at the Scherr's Website. My only concern with Scherr's is the quality -- if these are good cabinets, why do they only have a 1 year warranty? I find that very troubling. I really like the look of the metal drawers, organizers, etc. (and no worries about doors swelling and sticking), but the 1 year warranty is kind of disconcerting. This is supposed to be my forever kitchen.

Also, I was trying to figure this one out -- I want to do 36" deep drawers, but the largest size I could see on the ikea website was 24" for the blum deep drawers.

I'm afraid this could be really complicated to try to make the ikea boxes work, and I'm not sure I'm up to the challenge!

I'm still exploring the Scherrs options. I'm not too worried about quality since they use 3/4 inch board when many [most?] use 5/8s.

You can also order with either blum metabox, which I have now and love, or tandembox, which is even better. So the only potential weak link I see to the system would be how the panels attatch to each other. If they seemed flimsey at that point, I'd add some reinforcement, maybe add a few screws...

There are definitely 36" deep drawer bases at Ikea. There are also 30" ones. All of Ikea's drawers are Blum.

The cabinets, hardware and doors all have a 10 year warranty.

I've got 36" drawers - in fact, most of what I have is that size. I love the top drawer where everything is layed out, and the deeper drawers underneath that everything fits in.

Ikeafans is not owned by Ikea. Some employees post there, but that's the extent of the involvement.

The Ikea kitchens now have a massive 25 year warranty, actually--BUT that's as long as you don't mod them in any way. Which knocks many of us out :) (we have *some* in the laundry room that aren't modded, actually, but I took the edge banding off every single one in the kitchen and re-edgebanded it, so I have to fold wrt those)

Here's an Ikea in progress on a budget. Consists of:

Cabinet boxes - Birch effect
Doors/drawers - Kalsebo
Floor - Tundra maple laminate

I purchased cabinet boxes, doors and drawers for just under 3K and put them together myself. Purchased and installed Ikea laminate flooring for under 500. Ordered Livingstone countertop installed with integrated double sink, under 3K, (coming end of month). www.livingstonesurfaces.com

Ikeafans on ikeafans.com provided exceptional help along the way. Labor so far consisted of 4 sons (demo), just had to feed them, and handyman for drywall patching and help to install cabinet boxes. Still going, but progress pics below...

Old Kitchen
{{gwi:1957599}}

Demo
{{gwi:1957600}}

{{gwi:1957601}}

Painting and underlayment for flooring
{{gwi:1957602}}

Flooring done by me
{{gwi:1957603}}

First cabinet hung
{{gwi:1957604}}

Removed old outside exhaust (I don't cook much)
{{gwi:1957605}}

Doors and drawers mostly done - leveling still to do
{{gwi:1957606}}

Have to fill my 8 inch gap with a modification
{{gwi:1957607}}

Need counter depth fridge
{{gwi:1957608}}