Oh, one more thing. Our local Ikea (College Park) had a decent selection of countertops including quartz. They were priced between $59 and $89 a sq ft depending on color/grade. The white we were looking at was a pure white Caesarstone and would have been $79/ sq ft plus the 20% off, which was a very good price. We decided to go with Quartzite, but otherwise would have ordered our countertops from Ikea based on price.

Check your specific store's policy, because they differ. My store (Draper, UT) gives you the discount until the next sale starts. I went back 6-7 times over the course of 3 months.

Great post. Thank you!

Great advice!

With respect to counter tops, about a year ago, I was told at the CP IKEA that they can sell you way more counter tops than the ones that are on display, basically any CS, marble, etc. I also think other brands. They gave me a detailed price list.

This is really helpful, thank you. About how many miles away from the store do you live? Just wondering how that $59 deliver would relate to me. We're about 70 miles from our store.

We are about 15 miles or so.

Great post and timely for me, thanks!

We are just finishing up our new Ikea kitchen and love it! We paid the delivery fee (at about 55 miles from the store, delivery was about $99), which was well worth the fee. Our store is the Portland, OR Ikea. We also had the installation done through Ikea which, fortunately, turned out to be a godsend, as our house is a log cabin with uneven walls and floors and the installer, who was very experienced, did a fantastic install. We feel we lucked out on that. We also found Ikea's "no back order" policy to be a real pain in the neck, as did KL. It turned out that a few of the items never came in at all between the time we ordered and the install (about a month), but the kitchen helpers at Ikea were all really helpful and were able to come up with other solutions for missing panels and filler pieces (which probably wouldn't have worked as well with a less experienced installer). I did make several trips to Ikea even after ordering as a part or two would come in that we needed, but was projected to be in stock only a day or two. So that was incredibly annoying and I hope they come up with a better solution in the future. And we ordered our Cesarstone through Ikea (with that 20% discount, it was a great price) and the contractor that Ikea uses did an excellent job. We also have four of those "secret 21" medium drawers" in a cabinet (not sure why they don't make drawer fronts for them, but it's working out fine in a cabinet). Overall, we are very happy with our Ikea kitchen.

Patricia can you share your installer's name and how much it cost? We'll probably be getting our cabs from Ikea Portland. We've installed an ikea kitchen before, but we're not sure we want to do it again.

Can you tell me about the secret 21" drawer? Are you talking about width? We are planning all drawers in our lowers, but on spot will only fit a 21" cabinet. I hate to lose a couple inches and go to an 18" but the 21" cabinet door may be a bit out of place with all lower drawers. (Although it is at the end of the kitchen and next to the range, so it may not be too out of place.) Would love to figure out how to configure the 21" cab for external drawers.

There is a 21" cabinet available but it doesn't come in all the variations that the other cabinets have. The 21" base unit comes with a door and shelf, or a door with 3 medium inner drawers behind the door. It's not my first choice since it doesn't come with just drawers, however I am using one on each side of my stove. I have 18" wall cabinets next to the stove but I wanted the extra 3 inches so my 30" stove has 36" wall above. Both the 21" wall and base cabinets are listed in the Sektion buying guide.

There is a 21" base and then a 21" medium drawer insert. If you are doing IKEA drawer fronts, you are limited to three medium drawers. However, we are doing Semi handmade, so we will attach 15" high drawer fronts to the 21" wide medium drawer boxes.

I understand the backordering issue ... do you think there is much of a time limit on installation-oriented services like countertops? I'd like to order custom installed quartz with the kitchen sale, but all the cabinet installation might not be done for months. (And not using IKEA for that part either). I can guesstimate the square footage closely enough.

How did you add in your accessories to your order (ie. dividers, spice inserts, etc) Is there a way to do it on the planner. or do you have a list together and have an associate add it to your order at the store?

Also, K L, I am with you on the "meh" about the internet ikea designer. Although I used a different one, but I spent $395 for the same amount of revisions. So at $195 you may have gotten a better bargain than me. I am still waiting on my last revision....supposed to be back in 5 business days, but we're going into the 6th business day on Monday and they don't work on weekends.

In the end, I have spent HOURS and HOURS doing my own layouts in the Ikea kitchen planner to get my kitchen to work out anyway, so I feel a bit sick to my stomach spending so much on a service that just didn't live up to my expectations by any means.

I, too, experienced many challenges with the IKEA internet 3D kitchen designer when I tried to make any changes from home. I have a MacBook, which was likely a large part of the issue, since Ikea's system does not appear to play well with Macs. Ultimately, I just gave up and went to the store when they first opened on a weekday and worked in-store with the kitchen helpers on their store computers. The Ikea employees were incredibly helpful and knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the new system and I was able to make my changes and get their suggestions on what would/would not work. However, I had set aside a couple of hours to hang out in the kitchen section, as there is rarely time for one-one-one help at the store, so it's helpful to not be pressed for time when you go.

I just got back from buying my kitchen. I got there a little after open, and was out of the store, including loading everything into my truck, by 3:45. I was pretty thrilled by that, last time we bought a kitchen we didn't leave until after closing. My husband wasn't able to come with me, but one of the Ikea workers helped me load, which was nice. It's 8pm, and I've unloaded the truck, and am having a well-deserved glass of wine. :-)

One note, my store (Kansas City) did not allow the accessories to be used as part of the discount. I ended up just buying an extra cabinet to use in the laundry room to get to my $4500.

For the accessories, we came with a list and they added it into our order. They will all be shipped to us. There is a list of what is included -- I think its pretty clear that most kitchen accessories should be included in the required buy. Per the Ikea website:

*Offer valid Friday, February 27 – Sunday, April 26, 2015. Includes SEKTION cabinets, fronts, drawers, shelves, cover panels, molding, toe kicks, legs, hinges, countertops, appliances, sinks, faucets, knobs & handles, UTRUSTA interior organizers, and UTRUSTA & OMLOPP countertop & drawer lighting. IKEA FAMILY membership required to receive kitchen discount at IKEA College Park, IKEA New Haven, IKEA Pittsburgh, IKEA Portland and IKEA Tempe.

I just placed my order for cabinets yesterday, our ikea did allow for accessories to be included to get you to the 20%. But this ikea does not allow for additional purchases to be made after the original purchase at the 20% discount. It kind of stinks...they said you get the one time purchase and that is it. The associate told me they used to allow people to come back and purchase additional items, but they had too many contractors taking advantage and making one purchase, then coming back over and over, so they decided to make it a "one time purchase" only at 20%.

I had fallen in love with the Atlantic Salt Caesarstone displayed at our ikea...at $55 sq/ft with the discount, it would have been a great price. Unfortunately, I am 80 miles away and out of the range to have the counters fabricated with Ikea's fabricators. Locally I can't find it for less than $100 sq/ft, so I'm back to searching for different countertops....