I have followed houzz for a long time and I notice the comments on the design dilemmas about ikea are skewed negative. I have seen ikea cabinets used in high end homes particularly the contemporary style cabinets. You may want to search the houzz photos for ikea to get an idea of what kind of homes they are being used in as well. Maybe you will get lots of positive comments, but just wanted to throw it out there.

I say yes. I could not have achieved the kitchen I wanted in my new home without IKEA. My kitchen is now 14 years old and overall looks better than when I first renovated it (adding crown molding, fresh paint and oak hardwood floors). A year after buying my house I visited an open home listing for 2.5x what I paid. Imagine my surprise and delight to see an IKEA kitchen in my style. for For context, I live in the SF Bay Area and home prices are a little higher than elsewhere. In the past two years I've seen IKEA kitchens in three other completely renovated homes.

When we had our new countertop installed I got talking with the guy about renovations. We were discussing cabinets as we kept our oak ones, and out of the blue he told me that the IKEA cabinets he sees in homes he installs new countertops on are usually falling apart after 5 years. I don't live near an IKEA so I have no opinion of them other than his comment.

We are using high end appliances, marble countertops. but as I said, the high end designer who has been featured on HGTV uses them all the time.

Sarah Richardson uses them all the time but I wonder what her financial arrangement is with IKEA since she is often featured shopping and buying curtains, furniture etc at IKEA too. I remember the first Sarah's House I realized she was using IKEA and I remember being taken aback.

I would expect custom made cabinets for 700K with a custom finish, door style, Blum hardware, etc. It really depends on your area though. In some parts of the country, a 700K home can be equal to a 250K in another area. What do realtors say in your area?

Part of it depends on location. Custom made cabinets, etc might contribute to the house being over a million. Where I live people would pay $700k for a fixer. Look at the remodelista website. They like ikea. (I have no personal interest - not trying to be the defender of Ikea - I just know it's not uncommon in expensive homes).

. I pay attention to the real estate market where I am and I can't imagine this would turn off a lay person looking in the $700k range. Maybe double check with a realtor liked mentioned above.
http://houzz.com/photos/11139055

My projects are predominantly the Southern California Coastal/Beach area. That being said the average home price is in the millions......I use both custom millwork and at times I use Ikea. An Ikea cabinet is just a box, it can be made to look like so many different things. There is an incredible resource called "Semihandmade" that is a PRO on Houzz that makes the most spectacular custom doors for IKEA boxes. This option will be significantly cheaper than a totally custom made cabinet by my millworker.

Frequently the choice is dictated by the clients budget, sometimes the Ikea option is a really good option. Sometimes they would rather allocate more of their budget for other high impact parts of the project and using an Ikea cabinet allows them to extend dollars in other areas. The photos I am posting below are very high end media room and office/yoga room. Both projects were in the category of $$$$ done in a combination of Ikea and custom milled cabinets.

http://www.semihandmadedoors.com/

done in a combination of Ikea and custom milled cabinets.

http://www.semihandmadedoors.com/

And no, I do not get a kick back or have any financial arrangement with Ikea.

Come on Kirk, wasn't that you having lunch with Sarah Richardson last week... Haha... Just joshing.

LOL. My wife is much cuter!

The nice thing about Houzz is that we usually agree to disagree. Good luck with flip.

We are looking to get 700K in the current location. But if you go 15 mins in any direction we could easily command over 1.5K which is conservative for the size of the house and land. That being said the people moving into the area are being priced out of the higher end locations.

Where are you located? $700k in LA or DC is a moderately priced home, so IKEA is fine. Other locals, $700k may be a much higher end home, and custom cabinets would be expected.

central new jersey, surrounded by short hills, westfield.

So not really close enough to NYC to be that effected by prices. I think, before you make a decision, to either hit a bunch of open houses in your area, or work with a real estate agent to help you choose, because this kind of decision can cost you some bucks.

Phhhppkplo,he hanhopo mppun,,paying u m in but on ppm

I'm not able to comment on how Ikea cabinets might affect resale value, but before embarking on an Ikea kitchen redo, you might want to check stock levels of the cabinets and fronts that you are likely to use. The launch of the Sektion line has been plagued by supply issues. I have been waiting for my Bodbyn gray drawer fronts since March 23, and know for a fact they are not coming in any time before July 20! Not what you need for a quick flip, I imagine.

Makes me want to cry when I read that a choice is influenced by HGTV. ikea Ok for secondary rooms in high end homes, but not in a kitchen with High End Appliances.

As a contractor I have designed and constructed scores of IKEA kitchens (check my Houzz page) - many times in homes valued over $1 -1.5 million, once even in a home worth over $2 million (this is Toronto, house prices are insane here. $700k is practically an entry level starter home in this city).

Anyway, anyone who turns their nose up at IKEA cabinets is sadly misinformed - they are excellent. They do not 'fall apart' in five years - that is complete hogwash (the doors are warrantied for 25 years BTW).

I'm more inclined to say that a lot of so-called 'custom' kitchens I have seen in high-end homes are the ones falling apart in short order - and try getting back a custom cabinet builder to address a flaking finish or sticky drawer a few years down the road!

This designer makes a better case than I ever could: http://carolreeddesign.blogspot.ca/2009/10/why-i-love-ikea-kitchens.html

Couldn't agree more with Home Reborn! As I said, the Ikea cabinet is just a "box", you can do so much with it. The two homes that I posted in my post above were $3 million and $2.8 million respectively. Both clients were very discerning and both clients have multiple high dollar homes. Clearly there is much misinformation or misperception about Ikea products.

@Drawer Essentials....you do realize that IKEA do actually use Blum bits for their kitchen systems, right?

The kitchen in this pic is Ikea in a 510,000 house that sold in 11 days and most of the reason was the kitchen. I have used kea in my design biz for years and still do as I don’t think you can get better stuff for even a lot more money.

A visually pleasing and well planned out kitchen is great whether ikea or custom everything. Its the vision that matters.

Ikea gets a bad rap and some of it is warranted. Their kitchens though are great. If you want a highly decorative wood product then Ikea isn't for you; but most high end kitchens have melamine boxes (just like Ikea) and top of the line hardware (Blum, just like Ikea).

Mia, we've worked with Sarah for years and I can assure you she doesn't get paid to choose the products she uses and chooses.

Countertop people tend to have a negative perception of Ikea cabinets. I can assure you that ikea cabinets, if installed correctly (different install than the mill work boxes) will probably not fall apart after five years. As a matter of fact, i have a 5+ year Ikea kitchen and it is holding up just fine. Ikea uses Blum hardware and the boxes are pretty much the same as other high end modular kitchen products. The customization of these European type kitchens add to the cost and only the higher brands offer this customization... and then there is Semihandmade....

Astroturing would be more realistic on this forum if old usernames could be sold. It's less believable when people with one comment history show up out of nowhere.

No. For 700k I would expect custom.

When you walk into a kitchen in a $700,000+ house, is there a label in the cabinets that says IKEA or Custom? Is that how so many commenters know for a fact that every house in that that price point has a certain type of cabinet?

sambah006 - so what? I'm a big Pinterest user. Houzz doesn't do it for me and I've never felt like commenting but noticed that a few builders I like are more active on Houzz so I am travelling this site a bit more. That doesn't mean I don't have a valid opinion on Ikea kitchens. Rest assured, being from Europe I certainly know a bit about Ikea and how many people use it and don't have a problem with the brand association. PS: Leicht Kitchens are midrange kitchens in Germany yet they are sold as these high end custom kitchens in the US. They are not much different from Ikea, just have a bit more customization options. Different brand recognition in the US versus Europe. Perception is reality... that is the only reason why an IKEA kitchen might not work in a high end home. Only because people like to overpay for a brand name on a plastic bag or kitchen cabinet and because only customers truly have an eye for quality over brand brainwashing not because an IKEA kitchen doesn't hold up. Ask the thousands of Germans that moves their household including their IKEA kitchen (because these type of kitchens are modular and movable just like Elfa - another smart factor).

Claudia-you are so right! As I previously posted I've used IKEA cabinets in VERY high end project. Cabinets are just boxes....and Ikea makes a great box, the doors can be customized to look beyond incredible. The slides are great and many clients would rather use the thousands they save from using these cabinets, on some other aspect of their project. I've posted the same thing about folks being snobby about appliances and insisting on $30-$40,000 appliances when the actual top rated performance appliances are 1/3 the price. I have been doing this for 30 years and it amazes me still that so many folks are more interested in the "brand" than the actual performance of a product. But as I always say, I give the information to my clients, but at the end of the day it's their money so if they want to spend a crazy amount of money of cabinets or appliance, so be it.

My latest IKEA project (in my own home):

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/complete-open-concept-ground-floor-renovation-with-ikea-kitchen-dsvw-vd~5554957?n=10

No matter the kitchen, high end or low, buyers may not like the kitchen but buy the house anyway...and pay plenty for it.... because it meets all their other criteria: neighborhood, schools, other features on their wish list, , number of bedrooms, etc. . I’ve been to plenty of homes with expensive custom kitchens which I hated and seen lovely kitchens where buyers had everything torn out and redid the whole room.

I speak from experience. My parents’ old and very outdated home commanded a high price simply because the buyers loved the view and because it had midcentury modern bones. The kitchen was awful, a mishmash of conflicting styles and with solid but old ( and not in a good way) cabinets .

And yet the buyers paid a premium price because they had a vision for the home. They didn’t change the exterior but gutted much of the interior, including the kitchen.

Once a home is purchased, the buyer will either live with the kitchen or - if it’s not to their taste - change it as soon as possible. There’s no accounting for taste and spending a ton of money to create a certain high end look may just be money thrown down the drain.

Not sure who “tatts” is talking too, but I didnt restart anything. So calm down. not sure why people are posting to this again it was from 2015.

Of course it wasn't you. It was the post above mine by Home Reborn who resurrected this and 2 other dead threads and posted the same thing in each.