I installed Ikea cabinets about a year and a half ago, in a vacation home. It may become our permanent home in a few years, so I had to really like my choice. I can't comment on wear and tear yet because we are not living there full time, but they look terrific. They are very modern, not their wood cabinets. The kitchen looks a lot more expensive than it was. I'm not sure if that would be the case with the wood ones although it might be. But I think the modern ones can pass for higher end Euro designer brands from an appearance standpoint. I think where they fall short is if you want a lot of inserts in drawers, etc. I wanted dish drawers and bought the inserts that Ikea sells, and they are pretty flimsy and don't stay in place well. But as for the quality of the cabinets and drawers and shelves themselves, they seem pretty good.

How did the install go? I have just installed oak flooring and I now hate my old cabinets.

I had repainted them and installed laminate countertops 6 years ago. I would now have to take out the soffits to update with new cabinets. What style /color did you go with?

SherylJ - would love to see pictures of your modern IKEA cabinets. I am looking at IKEA also for a short run in a MIL space.

I did a beachfront condo in IKEA. They are great quality but the money you save in cabinets may be eaten up if you have to pay someone to assemble them. It isn't that complicated, but it takes time.

We did cabinets almost 11 years ago, a now-discontinued birch door, and all still looks great. Did it all ourselves, no trouble at all.
Check out the Ikea fans website, which I think started here long long ago

Here is a link that might be useful: Ikea fans

This post was edited by sushipup on Thu, Oct 24, 13 at 21:22

Sheryl, which cabinet style did you use? I like the Abstrakt but am worried it may be too modern for my house.

Thanks for the feedback, I am looking at the new color addition of cabinets to ikea which is on the main page of ikea.com the grey ones,(indigo grey) with a quartz grey countertop and the white old fashioned farm/apron sink , the picture on line does not do it justice as it shows in the ikea showroom it is awesome looking.

We installed Abstrakt cabinets in white gloss and then used some of their glass cover panels in aqua on some of the doors. It looks great, but definitely very modern. We were starting from scratch - a bare room that we turned into a kitchen (so modern was the most cost effective way to go and worked for the house which was basically a shell).
We used a kitchen design comany that works with Ikea, because we were doing the whole thing long distance. After discussing everything with our contracter, he and we decided to use Ikea installers to do the installation of the cabinets. They are familiar with the product so can do it much faster and therefore cheaper. They did a pretty good job but of course there were some details they didn't get right and which we didn't catch because we weren't there. Our contractor had to do a few fixes later, but still overall it was a great deal and we would do it the same way again.
If I was there now, I would take some pics and upload them. But I will see what I can find on my computer or phone and if I have anything, I'll post them here (tomorrow).

Unfortunately I don't have any pics on my computer of the finished kitchen, but here's a tall cabinet with the aqua glass panel that I mentioned. Bad photo but at least you can tell what I was referring to.

Here's another angle and another poor photo. Everything looks pink, but it's not.

We installed Ikea Tidaholm (white oak) cabinets in 2003. They have held up wonderfully, and we still like them. The only thing I would do differently now is install more deep drawers in place of cabinets. Ikea doesn't sell Tidaholm any longer--I feel so betrayed!

Shallow pantry of stacked upper cabinets & bookcase of oak butcher block and dowels.

Kitchen at 95%; still hadn't finished backsplash over stove.

I used the Ikea glossy white cabinets for part of my kitchen, and custom walnut doors on Ikea for another part. The Ikea cabinets are holding up just fine so far - it's been a year. The only thing I don't like is that the glass doors can't have the soft close hinge on them because they're not as thick as the regular doors.

I also used Sherr's cabinets for the island and niche outside the kitchen.

DH and I assembled everything. It took time but was relatively easy to do. I would use Ikea again.

Here is a link that might be useful: Finished kitchen: Ikea, walnut, marble and glossy white

Ikea has betrayed me too! We have Adel birch, about 5 1/2 years old now. Added a pantry a couple years post-remodel and Ikea had changed the color to a pinkish-birch, and now they don't carry it at all! :-( I'm finally coming around to accept it will never be back and that I need to shell out for custom door etc on our pantry.

That said, I love our cabinets! Five years of heavy use, with two boys (now 8 and 4). I've had some issues w/the poly flaking off around the edge-banding on a few of the drawers, but I'm planning to just sand them and re-poly at some point. All the hardware is still going strong.

Would I do Ikea again? I would definitely use their boxes and hardware, but if I had it to do over I would order the Sherr's doors b/c they aren't changing their styles too often, and most of what they offer looks more standard. The Ikea Adel door style is like a wide-Shaker that will have to be duplicated by a custom cabinet maker.

we have abstract red kitchen, had it for 6 years. still looks like newâ¦

I used Ikea boxes and hardware with aftermarket fronts (I used Scherr's)

Ikea hardware is second to none (esp. the drawer slides and door hinges). The drawer design is genius, the cabinet boxes are rock solid when assembled and installed properly, and the leg/plinth design is great. You aren't gonna find kitchen cabinetry that works better.

The biggest downside of Ikea kitchens is that you have to go to Ikea, which can be fairly traumatic. I did get some good ideas walking around the showroom, but it's always an ordeal going to Ikea.