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lisa_vanstrien

Do not buy an Ikea kitchen right now...

5 years ago

Ikea has no capacity to just ship your items when they are all in stock so you will have some items shipped and multiple trips to the store each time something comes back in stock. I'm so glad I did not do Ikea cabinets for my main kitchen. I've been working on getting all the parts and pieces for two months.

Comments (102)

  • 5 years ago

    @Trista Robinson- We changed our design so we didn't have to (so we got to spend 20 minutes returning all of the 30" drawers/drawer fronts, in addition to the trip upstairs for a 24" drawer front I couldn't Click and Collect, even though they had plenty in stock- I kind of hate Ikea right now).


    In theory, the 30" base bottom piece should be exactly 6" smaller- but we didn't have one to measure to confirm that, and we don't have a table saw or tracks for our circular saw, so we were not confident that it would be a good cut even if it was the right size. We definitely would have used the sink rails for the top rails rather than trying to either cut the 36" or using wood.

  • 5 years ago

    The problems w IKEA are being felt by all furniture an other manufacturers. There is a huge demand for wood for new houses. The Texas power outage caused problems for companies making ALL plastics, like binders for MDF, the cabinet material and TX makes a large percent of that. Wait a year until things settle

  • 5 years ago

    Any updates on stock for the cabinet frames? I have several clients waiting in IL and wondering if anyone has heard any updates?

  • 5 years ago

    I've been waiting for two tall sektion cabinets since March. Luckily I have all the doors and drawers etc... but I'm starting to think about how to possibly recreate these cabinets from scratch or redo my design. I think it will be months before they come back in stock.

  • 5 years ago

    I gave up on IKEA about a month ago after hearing all of these and other horror stories. (I know someone who can't finish her kitchen because she has been waiting months to get a wall oven cabinet.)


    We were planning to have the IKEA cabinets assembled and installed rather than doing it ourselves. I am instead having truly custom cabinets made by a local cabinet maker whose price including installation is about 1/3 more than I would have paid for IKEA. For that price I am getting solid wood cabinets with custom, natural maple slab doors. I am mentioning this because I suspect that for those people who were planning IKEA boxes with doors from other manufacturers, my price will be comparable to the overall cost of that scenario.

  • 5 years ago

    For tall cabinets, you can always stack regular base cabinets. You'll lose some flexibility about where you put shelves & drawers, but it should still work. We're waiting on a tall cabinet for our bathroom remodel, but if the delays continue, I plan to just buy 3 30" wide base cabinets and have the contractor stack them up.

  • 5 years ago

    There are a lot of ways to modify Ikea cabinets espically when doing custom doors. We do it all the time but you have to have somthing to work with. And even that is getting harder but not impossible. Don't think a ”custom guy” is immune to the current sortages. Many sheet goods and things like Blum slides are in short supply.

  • 5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    But LocalCustomGuy will at least let you order your kitchen/get in line to order it all at once, rather than just hoping you're one of the lucky ones who snag a cabinet when they individually become available.

  • 5 years ago

    “Get in line” yeah call my supplies ask them when they are getting a shipment of MDF or pre-finished maple plywood. its not like that for every product and every supplier but the ones who are out of stock cant tell you when they will have it so hard to say how long that line is.

  • 5 years ago

    I ordered my Ikea kitchen in mid May/21. My original "missing out of stock" items listed at 16. I am down to only 5 items missing and not in stock. I have been able to check daily and have ordered several items that finally came back in stock. The items I am missing are SEKTION base frame/cabinet. I have been checking back daily and even found some of the undercabinet lighting that came into the Ikea near me. My contractor can use some substitutesor custom frames if needed so I am still on scheudule for the kitchen build out in a few weeks.

  • 5 years ago


    So are the Sektion base cabinets coming back in regularly? I am interested in some of the 15" depth with drawers ...

  • 5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    @Samantha Jones - " I've been waiting for two tall sektion cabinets since March. Luckily I have all the doors and drawers etc... but I'm starting to think about how to possibly recreate these cabinets from scratch or redo my design. I think it will be months before they come back in stock." Which size/finish are you looking for? Item number?

  • 5 years ago

    @Susan Soto- You might be able to order them online or in store for delivery, but they're not sending cabinets to the stores at all right now except for reservations (which they stopped taking before mid-February at the closest store to me).


    @marianneschmid- It's those last few boxes that get you! If we hadn't changed our plans, we would either be cutting down boxes, or wouldn't have started yet. We planned on doing the kitchen in April, pushed it back in the hopes that we would be able to get the 30x90 pantry cabinet, and are debating whether to put in the Klearvue pantry now, or destress from the rest of the kitchen for a few weeks. We've given up on getting it from Ikea in the near term.

  • 5 years ago

    my local IKEA is not even showing a 30 x 90 pantry cabinet as an option.

  • 5 years ago

    Paid for my kitchen order in Dec 2020. 6 basic cabinets are still not in stock. I'm stuck with delivered cabinets, but can't start the remodel because of basic cabinets missing. No word from Ikea on when this will be resolved. It has now been over 6 months. Did someone start class action suit yet?.

  • 5 years ago

    I have bailed on IKEA as a solution for our kitchen in our new house. We've now lost 4 months because now I have to start from scratch designing a new kitchen with non-IKEA cabinets (we'll be using Shiloh Eclipse at a hefty amount more). I feel terrible for Mix-It Modern, who we were going to use for the cabinet doors. They can ship in two weeks. IKEA has failed epically.

  • 5 years ago

    For those in the Midwest, I was just able to snag a 30x90 cabinet from the website! It was $50 for shipping, but on the other hand, we don't have to go there (it was 40 minutes before the road construction that will take 4 years started).

  • 5 years ago

    I am still missing 3 Sektion pieces, 2 are Sektion frames and one corner cabinet frame. I would be lucky to find them.

    When I purchased my kitchen I was told that all shipping charges on my out of stock pieces

    could be refunded. I started (less than a month ago) with 16 missing pieces and now down to 3. As I had mentioned before my contractor will custom make the frames for me. One piece came last week and one two more pieces will arrive this week. The big order comes next week. Then the work begins.

  • 5 years ago

    You give me some hope! What is your closest ikea? Ours is Atlanta but it’s still 5 hours away.

  • 5 years ago

    I am very luck I have one that is only 10 minutes away, but all the missing pieces for the cabinets were ordered from other Ikeas in other states. I am in Wisconsin. I was able to pick up the new undercabinet lighting at the Ikea near me, other than that all parts are being shipped. I found one more today, so now am down to only 2 pieces (Sektion frames) missing. The Sales person at Ikea has been super helpful in also looking for missing items for me. Good luck.

  • 5 years ago

    We did our laundry room in November, a partial kitchen in March/April, and are doing a Murphy bed wall in our old guest room, all with Sektion cabinets. I just came from IKEA, attempting to buy the last pack of 15" deep shelves they said were in the warehouse but no luck.

    With the laundry room, the 80" tall pantry cabinets were not in stock in Tempe, but luckily we had a friend coming from LA for Thanksgiving and he went to grab them from one of the LA area stores and brought them out to us.

    With the partial kitchen, we ended up using a pair of 36" base instead of a 30 and a 36, we just redrew the schematic and then put a filler on the end of the existing cabinets we were backing up to, and you can't tell what we did unless you know we did it.

    With the bed wall, we bought the 80" pantry cabinets well in advance of actually hanging them (and the 20" uppers we are going to install on top of them) and stored them until we were ready to install. We are doing the install ourselves and waiting until it cools off to finish putting the door/drawer fronts on the cabinets, so right now it's just half finished open shelving.

    We did custom faces/fronts for each project, and it's not just IKEA that has issues - we have multiple fantastic lumber yards in PHX and there was about 4 months where finding MDF slabs for the trim was almost impossible and if you could find it the prices were crazy. We used rift sawn white oak veneer for the fronts on the laundry and the kitchen and the prices per sheet doubled between Nov and April.

    It's not just IKEA, it's everywhere. We had to stalk every Kraus vendor in the US on a near daily basis to get the sink we wanted since it was out of stock and the comparable ones were also unavailable from other manufacturers.


    I would say that overall this isn't the time to build unless you are patient and have somewhere to go get the materials as they come available and then hold them until you have enough to do the majority of the project. I can live without door and drawer fronts in my office/guest room, and we did live without a real kitchen countertop for more than 3 months, but luckily we had ordered and paid for our countertop slabs and had those delivered to the fabricators since the importer had limited stock and we got the last 2 good ones for our style.

  • 5 years ago

    A couple months ago we just gave up on the idea of using IKEA cabinets for our kitchen. Your posting is reinforcing that decision for us. Thanks for the tips about all of the other shortages too. I guess I had better get hot and order some things soon.


    Can you tell me about the plans to make a Murphy bed with IKEA cabinets? It's an intriguing idea.

  • 5 years ago

    I just (5 days ago) ordered a small kitchen which included a variety of base, wall, and tall cabinets - and everything was in stock and was delivered today. I was... not expecting that. (We haven't even started the remodel yet.) So perhaps the stock situation has changed!

  • 5 years ago

    That is so lucky Liz, better to have to walk past the boxes than walk past the unfinished project ;)

    I got an email from IKEA last week about shelves I was trying to get being in stock, in the meantime we've just made do with some MDF that we cut and stuck in the boxes. I didn't get back to it for 4 days and they still had stock, so perhaps the situation is getting better. I sure do hope so or I'm going to look the fool in a few weeks when they are out of stock and I don't have the shelves ;-}}}}

  • 5 years ago

    We just finished our IKEA kitchen and had hardly any problems. we were going to buy stainless steel appliances and had trouble getting the oven we wanted. We switched to black stainless, which we love better, and we have everything. there was a slight delay at the beginning, but we needed time for demolition, moving of plumbing and electrical work, so we actually had our delivery before we needed it., We live in Florida. Our experience with the kitchen department in Jacksonville (Jai) was phenomenal!! We put the cabinets together ourselves and built our island!


  • 5 years ago

    For anybody interested, I just risked ordering a kitchen (I'm in Santa Cruz, near SF Bay Area). Most of the cabinet items were in stock for delivery, but almost all of the drawers were out of stock for delivery online. The drawers ARE available in store at Emeryville though, so while it's a little hard to get all the pieces, it's not nearly as hard as people were making it sound 4 months ago.

  • 4 years ago

    Unfortunately, it seems like the problems just got worse again! Just stopped by IKEA near Chicago (Nov 12, 2021) and was told that the factory stopped (really?!) producing boxes due to lumber prices and shortage and it would take at least 8 months, maybe more, to complete a medium sized kitchen. I needed only 5 boxes for a small basement project but was told to "forget it" and go elsewhere. I asked for inventory check at the store and except for one size of 24" base cabinets (30") nothing was in stock or had any expected dates. Hoping IKEA resolves this soon but we are changing our plans and going with a different cabinet option...

  • 4 years ago

    I'm having the same issue. I can't buy the last three things I need to complete my kitchen build, and because they can't seem to keep any more than eight of them in stock, they won't let me buy them online and go pick them up. I have to race to Ikea only to find out someone else beat me to it. It's infuriating. If I had known, I would have spent the extra $500 and had a local cabinet builder do my cabinets.

  • 4 years ago

    We were told 3 cabinets we needed were 2-3 weeks out and so we paid and had the rest of the kitchen delivered. Now we have waited more than 3 months and can't finish our kitchen and ikea won't give us an ETA!

  • 4 years ago

    I read all these comments and was freaking out since I had planned my kitchen around Ikea cabinets, but it actually went really well:

    1) Order over the phone - There is literally no wait time (no hold music, just ringing and answering) and the people can walk you through the ordering process.

    2) They have a good system to sort and ship what they have while waiting on the rest, so I can get most of my kitchen within a week, install countertops, and just be waiting on a few pieces.

    3) I live 4 hours from an Ikea, but once you pay the delivery fee once they will keep shipping to you for free until you complete the order. Definitely worth the price of gas!

    4) Our local cabinet builder had a 4 month lead time (+30%) cost, so waiting and calling back is a little annoying, but not that different than expected.


    Conclusion - Ikea is easy to work with, but plan 4 months ahead just like you would with custom cabinets and you might be without a door or drawer for awhile.

  • 4 years ago

    Nathan, Did you call the main ikea 1-800 number or the store directly? i called the Centennial, CO store directly and they said i had to come in to order.

  • 4 years ago

    Support over the phone has been hit or miss, but mostly hit. We're almost done with the the whole process. It requires some serious patience. We've had a couple of misses with the order system where items we needed were out of stock, in stock briefly, missed the window, and had to wait for the item again. I'm waiting on two drawers to be in stock hopefully next week and we'll be 100% there in terms of cabinet parts here at the house. It's starting to look great! I'd do it again, even with the frustration with their inventory.

  • 4 years ago

    Do NOT order an IKEA kitchen right now unless they have all the parts in stock -- especially SEKTION frames! We ordered our kitchen a little more than 3 months ago. All my doors and drawers were available from the beginning, but 11 out of our 18 SEKTION frames were out of stock. Like others, I've been calling weekly to see if items from my No Stock orders had arrived. In the first month we whittled it down to 5 remaining SEKTION cabinets which gave me hope, but we've had little movement in the last two months. Today the rep told me they've completely discontinued 18x15x90 high cabinets -- of which I need two -- because they can't find a supplier. (She said they have discontinued some other sizes for the same reason. If you're waiting on cabinets and haven't called in awhile, you might want to check to see if your parts are still being made.) Now I need to redesign that part of my kitchen (and order a bunch of new parts that are also out of stock), and I am wondering if the rest of my kitchen is also going to be discontinued. It could be months until we have a functioning kitchen... even then, I might have to do some redesigning or find a custom cabinetmaker to fill in the empty sections to make it work.

  • 4 years ago

    We are going to be stacking 3 bases to get a 90 high cabinet. This will mean they aren't covered under warranty but maybe worth it? Was it a rep at 1800 number or a local person? I was told the less popular sizes (20 inch wall) were going to be put on hold until the more popular sizes got caught up.

  • 4 years ago

    @Emily Es Menard's Klearvue will fit Ikea doors. They wouldn't be my first pick, but it's available and better than hacking something together. We have a 9" cabinet (with a 10" drawer front on it), and we initially bought, but didn't assemble, a 30x90 cabinet (managed to get one from Ikea before we got to that part of the kitchen). They're not finished as nicely- it feels less solid that the Ikea melamine, and the top edges aren't finished (although the top is a solid piece), but the back is much thicker chipboard rather than the ultra thin Ikea back. The drawer slides aren't terrible, although our local store did have 2 broken drawers (wouldn't open), although who knows what had been done to those.

  • 4 years ago

    At this point, I definitely would NOT go with Ikea.


    We understood about shortages, but the idea that there is no way to order and have the system track and ship or notify you when various components are available (with any type of wait list prioritization) is bizarre. To paraphrase a politician, the 1980's called and wants their customer service system back.


    So that you are not surprised if you make the mistake of going with Ikea, here is how ordering works (through a store). You get your measurements (yourself or pay for measuring service), then map out your plan in their (very difficult to locate on-line) kitchen planner tool (that has some nice features, but some archaic ones, also). Then you make an appointment to talk to a kitchen planner (booked typically 3-4 weeks out in my area). When you go in, they go over your plan with you (that experience is highly variable...some will look at what you have done and make thoughtful suggestions or ask questions...others just do the mechanical process of converting what you designed into their ordering system). Then this is converted into an order. But here's where it gets tricky. The order will tell you what is in stock and what is not in-stock. If you decide to go ahead, the order taker (do NOT confuse with a kitchen planning consultant) will then have to manually transcribe those items that are not in-stock onto a "wish list" and delete those items from the order (of course, there is zero chance of making a mistake with this manual process and the 100's of individual line items that make up an Ikea kitchen).


    You get the wish list handed to you with a hearty "Good Luck." You pick up the items that are available and then begins the process of checking in every few days to see if anything you are missing has come in (assuming you can actually reach someone in customer service). So... what if you've been waiting 4 months for a specific cabinet (of course it's likely a corner cabinet which an installation has to start with!) and someone who just happens to be in the store that morning that it comes in happens to need it for their kitchen?? They get it, you don't, and maybe you wait another 4 months (while they have your coveted cabinet sitting in their garage because they're waiting for another cabinet and hoping that someone doesn't beat them to the punch. There is NO pre-order/waiting list/backorder. Because of this (to quote Dirty Harry): "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do you, punk?"

    It's really a quite unbelievably antiquated system and really makes me think that this is not a service line they really want to be in!

  • 4 years ago

    It’s not that there isn’t truth to what was said above but just to point out that in-store and ordering on line are totally different. Many items ship directly from the distrbution center.

  • 4 years ago

    Ours was ordered at the end of February and luckily we have all the cabinet/pantry boxes and doors but I’m missing about 9 drawers and some shelves. The company we hired designs and installs Ikea kitchens so they have been responsible for ordering/checking stock. They were able to get some missing items directly from the store just before our install at the end of March but I was told I’m on a reservation list for the missing drawers/shelves. I’m not sure when they’ll be in, at least the cabinets are in so we were able to get countertop templated, but yes it’s frustrating to not be able to have it complete.

  • 4 years ago

    Adding that my order was placed online, but some items were available to purchase in store. I’m not sure if the reservation list is done from the online shop or the store

  • 4 years ago

    I certainly feel your frustration, I hope your prices are all guaranteed, with the pricing sky rocketing on everything else Im sure IKEA is going to be changing their prices also.
    Good luck everyone, I’m sure it now feels like your full time job just calling and checking and staying on top of it all.

  • 4 years ago

    Almost 5 months after ordering, I finally got everything to assemble the main part of my kitchen. When I opened one of my Maximera drawers to put it together, I discovered the bottom was broken. I called kitchen resolutions to get a replacement, and at first the assistant told me I could not get a replacement because it was outside the initial 48-hour post-delivery window. I was like, "Ma'am, your website literally says not to start your kitchen project until you get all your parts. Why would I have opened all the boxes within 48 hours if you only had half my kitchen available?" Thankfully, she ended up putting my request through. I'm not naturally a self-advocate, so this kitchen process has been a growth experience for me! (Note: I have whittled down my no-stock list to one remaining cabinet, but only because I 1) purchased one cabinet at a markup on ebay, and 2) scour the IKEA website daily and was able to order a couple wall cabs that IKEA failed to notify me were back in stock though I called them earlier that morning.) The lack of follow-up and prioritization for those with standing no-stock orders has been super frustrating. It's a free-for-all.

  • 4 years ago

    If anybody knows somebody in Puerto Rico they may be able to help. They have all the base cabinets for our design in stock at their PR warehouse. We will be shipping them to Atlanta in the next couple of days. I know there are extra shipping cost but the way the package them are favorable for shipment so if you are just a few cabinets short that may be a good way to solve your problems.


    Ikea has a different website for Puerto Rico, here is the link in case somebody is interested.


    https://www.ikea.pr/puertorico/en/

  • 4 years ago

    I ordered my entire IKEA kitchen in April of 2020. I STILL do not have the cabinet for above the refrigerator...Therefore, the entire "fridge surround" is still sitting in my basement waiting to be assembled. I just found out I am not even on a "waiting list." I am supposed to just keep trying to order it to see if one will ever be in stock. 2020. Over 2 years.

  • 4 years ago

    My husband did his mother's kitchen in February and still can't get the task cabinets. They will not place a back order so you have to keep calling to see if they are in based on your list. They save the list. We tried to place an order in May and they had no base cabinets at all. This is in Tampa distribution center. My guess is that it's like this in other distribution . If anyhow knows other distribution centers that have product I'd be willing to travel.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    started January 1, finished about three weeks ago getting the last couple of items took some patience and tenacity


  • 4 years ago

    Garygideon, I too waited over two years for above the fridge cabinet but was able to get the doors and hinges after 24 months of waiting so we built our own simple mdf box and added ikea doors inorder to finally complete my project.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    I initially started my kitchen reno March 2020. Had absolutely nothing ordered and my husband told me to run to IKEA and order everything that night because covid lockdown was going to take place in 24 hrs. Ran to home depot, rented a truck, drove 25 miles to the store and bought the entire kitchen. We were the last order pick up before lockdown happened. After that, everything went out of stock and nothing could be found. Recently found myself breaking my corner cab to pieces to access a water pipe issue and cried like a baby because the corner cab was out of stock with no eta. Tried in vain not to have to tear out the original cab and cussed my contractor out in my mind bc he glued and brad nailed the laminate counter down and we couldn't get it off without breaking the cabinet.


    I luckily got the very last corner cab in stock at the store when I went for replacement countertops. I cried with happiness like a baby and the IKEA rep looked at me like I was crazy. Little do they seem to know how hard it is to get anything in and they have no idea when they'll get inventory.


    IKEA is beyond a mess right now. It will take a lot for them to get back to a decent normal with everything going on in Europe and stock issues in general.

  • 4 years ago

    Have any of you guys tried SemiHandmade.com to perhaps make some progress on your missing pieces? I know that they make IKEA compatible parts and they have also launched a complete line of cabinets - not just door fronts etc - so it's possible that they might be able to help you or make some suggestions.

  • 4 years ago

    I was planning on using their fronts but I have not checked into their new line. If they make the style we are looking for that may be a possibility but I think the price may be much more expensive.

  • PRO
    4 years ago

    SH is way overpriced for being a 3rd party middleman marketer of thermofoil. They make nothing. You are better off going to a local custom maker who actually does make and finish their own products out of better materials.