The lift door although with more options have their limitations. There is a size and weight restriction for that hardware. The long (60" x 15") ones on display use three mechanisms of which you have to buy two pair and didn't really go up that smoothly (or need to be adjusted better). Also the door that covers the two side by side 30" boxes used in this are just narrow pantry doors turned horizontal and the unfinished round holes where the hinges would go are exposed. In general I like the new system better but it's not all that much different.

This is a little OT, since not specifically about IKEA, but I'd considered putting a lift up door cabinet over my OTR microwave. The KD advised against it saying I'd need a stool just to close it. I went to the local IKEA last week to check out the new SEKTION. They had a lift up door on display, which I lifted up... and had to leave that way since I could not reach the top of it to close it.

Disanto, yes that is the same as with their old line. All "doors" are pre-drilled for 35mm hinges. Usually, they do give you little plastic pieces that you can fill the holes with. I haven't been using Ikea doors lately. You can buy doors from many suppliers that are a lot more interesting than what Ikea offers (shiny lacquer from 27estore.com for instance). They introduced a lot of lighting options in the new line. I'm pretty hooked on Hafele lighting myself, but one little thing is Ikea has bags of 5mm hole plugs now so that you can make the interior of the cabinet look more finished.

Carriebor, lift doors, when used, need to be well thought out. I'm fine with their use on a cabinet that is up high in some instances. If you needed a stool to get into the cabinet anyway, then it doesn't make a difference how it opens. I have a tall refrigerator, but I still put a cabinet over it. I used lift doors with an interior pull out... yes you have to get out a stool.

On the other hand I wanted fancy lift doors on a row of cabinets that will be used frequently and for this I used a type of Blum lift mechanism that Ikea doesn't offer(Aventos HS). The HS isn't a simple flap up, it goes up and over and the handle rests comfortably in reach when the door is raised. The Blum mechanisms are costly, but they can be retro-fitted into Ikea boxes quite easily.

This is good to know. Did the hole placements change for the hinges so you need to make sure if you order doors/drawer fronts from another supplier that they are up to date with the Sektion placements?

lyfia, a lot of the door sizes changed so it is likely that the hinge boring may have some quirks. They changed the interior cabinet hole pattern so that the hinges attach to the box with two parallel holes instead of two vertical holes with a plate. This makes the hinge look more compact and neat. I'm pretty sure they are still using the same 32mm hole spacing vertically which is fairly standard on cabinetry. I'm starting a project shortly and will be able to be more specific once I have a few boxes around to take measurements from.

Sritacco,

Not the same as the old system. There were specific cabinets that used lift doors and drilled accordingly. I'm not talking about the small holes here. Like I said the large holes drilled for the cup of the hinge (1-3/8") are visible. This looks silly to me.

The 35mm holes are standard. The old ikea pull-out cabinet set used to come with 35mm gray plastic plugs for the holes. If you have this situation I would go down to an ikea and see if they can find you some of the 35mm plastic plugs. See photo...

PS: I agree that the "turned sideways" doors with holes in the wrong places look silly... II never used them in the old line, and so I assumed it was the same before. The old-line only offered lift door cabinets in two sizes (I think) 30"x15" and 39"x15" which were the same dimensions (turned) as common vertical oriented doors as well. I'm not a big fan of the Ikea selection of doors as I mentioned above.

Thanks for the info sritaaco - I'm far from an IKEA so it would be really helpful to hear the outcome as I'm not too fond of their current door colors with what we need to fit into our existing house.

The first small project I'm doing involves only drawers. I can tell you this, the drawer-front boring pattern is entirely different. The shelf holes remain spaced 32mm which is somewhat of a standard, but there are now two columns from top to bottom and the distance of those rows from the front of the cabinet is entirely different (looks like 19mm & 52mm ?). It's pretty much a sure thing that the swing-door hinge boring is at a different spacing. The old hinge plates attached to two of the 32mm spaced holes which would have located the hinge in the center of the pair of holes vertically. The new system has the hinge plate directly on one of the 32mm holes, so the spacing from the edge of the cabinet door can't be the same.

lyfia, I wouldn't worry too much about the hinge boring being different, you can just buy a few of the cheaper doors, send the to the door supplier and have them use them to determine the boring placement. Also, if you have a cabinetry person doing the installation you can always have the hinge boring done on-site. Blum makes nifty gadgets that make the hinge boring fairly foolproof.

Just finished up my first Sektion hack. I love the 15" depth wall cabinets for non-kitchen applications. The Ekestad doors are pretty handsome too. This piece is composed of a 30"x 15" wall cabinet on each end and a custom sized center cabinet and door to fit perfectly under a cut 80" long trim panel. (center cabinet is about 18-3/4"). The center door folds down on hafele hinges with a sugatsune soft-open stay. Just can't beat wall hung furniture like this in my book. I'm moving on to my next project of a bar area.

sritacco - that looks great and thanks for the info on the door holes. I would be doing it myself (I've used the old style several times to do hacks, but used the Lidingo doors as they worked great for me, new doors don't thrill me) and would like to save me the work of having to bore the hinge holes. Your suggestion for sending some off for them to use is a good idea.

How about hacking Sektion for old Akurum & Rationell boxes? I don't see anyone doing that. I was a bit of an expert on Akurum, so it seems feasible that a Section could be adapted. The sizes aren't all that different.

That is so interesting. The wall hung is beautiful. Does that mean that putting feet/toe plate on the kitchen cabinets is now entirely optional/decorative?

Hi Practigal, No, for base cabinets you will still need feet to handle all the weight they end up carrying. That's not to say wall hung base cabinets aren't possible, but I think you would have to do significant reinforcement. You would probably also want to float the cabinets higher than 4" off the floor and therefore use 20" high cabinets instead of 30." I don't think the Sektion hanging rail is as strong as the older design either so it may be necessary to do something about that as well.

"No, for base cabinets you will still need feet to handle all the weight they end up carrying."

Really?

LOL go Joe

Gene:

While the picture of me is amusing, I use it to myth-bust. I can't stand "facts" that have no basis:

1. "Granite is heat proof."

I've been called to repair heat damaged granite. There is a pizza place several miles from me that's had their granite destroyed by the heat lamps above. The MIA requires trivet use, but the myth continues.

2. "IKEA cabinets are cheap junk."

The hacked IKEA cabinets pictured above have no backs, feet, or toe kicks, yet easily support 180 pounds.

3. "All Chinese quartz is junk."

If the Chinese are going to rip off your Breton process, they'll do a damn fine job.

I'm sure there are more. Maybe we should start a whole 'nother myth-busting thread, but you've got to have documentation to substantiate what you say.

Please do start a myth busting thread! I would love to have no see or talk later on the bottom of the cabinets so that Mr. Roomba can do his job better. While I see that they can certainly support you, do you think they were intended to be used without bottom supports?