O do IKea kitchens for all kinds of clients becuase IMO the best bang for your buck and a great warranty . I have often heard Ikea is hard to design with but I never use their planner . The big savings for me is to get my clients to put the cabinets together this is time consuming ans can save you big bucks . It is actually kind of fun too. Ikea can design a kitchen for you but there could be designers in your are who work with IKea too. I have been doing them for 25 yrs almost and still love them for price and innovation for function I have done many in very high end homes where clients do not want to waste money but want a decent kitchen

If you share your layout it will help - but IKEA's boxes are good, warranty is good (well past your 10-12 year outlook), hardware is good, but sizes are limited. If your kitchen doesn't have a ton of constraints / need custom sized cabinets AND have door style you like - they are great.

Design and installation are key. IKEA have a TON of configurations (inside their limited sizes) and you can create something really special with all the fitments.

Use their design service - I found them to be quite good. Also - a competent installer is critical. And building the boxes yourself is not hard and can save $. You can also ensure that each box is solid and SQUARE. Careless assembly can easily create racking which can then muck up installation.

Ikea only works if you are a DIYer for it all and can accept it’s many many limitations. The value received is far too low for those limitations and paid labor. If you are paying labor, already assembled factory brands will be head and shoulders above Ikea. It’s only popular because of the Ikea Effect of personal involvement.

You are getting pretty budget minded quotes, as the standard full gut budget should be around 20% of the home’s value so you don’t over or under improve for your neighborhood.

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/ikea-effect?srsltid=AfmBOoqUUZGgo-IxX7irZWpj49uFitMfVUNFAAgCTVt_z8aoyDjuZJ7h

What is a reasonable expenditure will be different for each of us and no one else can make that decision for you.

When you need to sell, you might not recoup some of the price of the updates, but you should be able to sell much quicker than any other house in the development without any updates. Sometimes just being able to sell the house is the goal.

Ikea would be a good option in that market and price point.

DIY Ikea requires the space to lay all the boxes out and an assembly table, plus space to store the assembled cabinets until you are ready to do the demo. Or else you have to buy and transport 1 cabinet at a time, assemble and then install in an already demolished kitchen. Thats a lot of time without a kitchen and a lot of eating out, or not living there.

Which is why most people prefer to hire out to pros who have the logistics handled with minimal inconvenience.

The people who think Ikea provides a good value are the same people who don’t own an allen wrench set. They know nothing about cabinet construction. Ikea cabinets serve a basic purpose when you involve yourself as the DIY agent. Their lack of sizes makes them really unsuitable for small kitchens. Their lack of quality finishes in their doors is an even bigger problem for most. Involving a 3rd party for doors is nuts. Those are the expensive bit, and you aren’t saving anything over another brand at that point.

Does saying the kitchen doesn't work for you mean you just don't like it? Looks solid and sound to me, have them painted, replace the hardware, counter top and sink is all it would need. Then spend the extra money on a new Lexus.

Below is a great older cost comparson, for cabinets only, without any labor. The labor is what kills you. Labor is THE biggest cost. Increasing the amount of paid labor on a job greatly increases the cost. Exponentially. Algebraically. And it does so without increasing the actual quality of the results. When you are already paying a whole lot of paid labor, upgrading the materials quality to be better isn’t a big jump in cost. Reducing the amount of paid labor through a decrease in overall scope, or DIY is how you really save money.

What is so bad about what exists that it HAS to be a full gut? Dead rodents under the toekick? Cabinets literally falling apart? Because what you have could be professionally painted, with new counters, backsplash, new appliances, and add some lighting, and be 30K or under, if you made some budget selections instead of the $200 a square quartzite, etc.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5647040/white-shaker-battle-ikea-vs-the-rest-of-the-cabinet-world

Personally - I would listen to Patricia about the Ikea cabinets. She has a lot of experience with them. Others just sound a bit bitter. I have not worked with Ikea cabinets but have heard lots of great things about them. Not everyone can afford - nor does a home warrant - custom cabinets! Yes there are great framed cabinets that are assembled at great price points. Look into some kitchen showrooms and see whats out there.

Good luck!

I'm not seeing a horrible kitchen either (though the listing photos likely don't tell the whole story). Very typical for the year it was built. Without an overhead layout, it's tough to see how it could be dramatically improved, other than replacing all the base cabinets with drawers. Is there a pantry in the house? I guess adding pantry cabinets could be useful as well.

More details on how the kitchen doesn't work for you (what do you really hate about it?) would be helpful.

Personally, my 3 favorite words are "some assembly required", so I would love to do an Ikea kitchen! That said, when we remodeled our kitchen last year, we went with a local custom cabinet maker. The incremental improvements we wanted to make required included things like specific drawer heights and non-standard cabinet boxes (our kitchen isn't very big). We are in a much lower COL area, but our kitchen cabinets cost about $31K - and almost half that was for quartzite counters and backsplash.

Where are you putting new flooring? Since you have the same flooring throughout the house, I can't imagine you could replace it all for $25K (we spent twice that putting hardwood in our great room alone).

I have been surprised by some of the IKEA kitchens that I've seen posted on here. There was a woman who had to redo her entire kitchen due to a flood or something. She did purchase third party doors - but the entire price for her kitchen (which was large) was under 30k for everything (it may have been under 25K - I can't remember) and that included appliances + doors/drawers for a large built in in the family room + a large island (all panels were from the third party - Scherr's - and they were rift sawn white oak) + toe kick drawers. All doors/drawers/panels were professionally finished by Scherr's)

She had a special door made for her microwave - it flips up (which is how I'm going to do my microwave - so, I asked her details about it). She showed the hidden microwave with the door up in the photo below for me.

I don't think she put the cabinets together DIY - but she might have done so.

IKEA now has white oak doors that you can purchase instead of ordering third party ones instead = much more economical (using Scherr's wasn't inexpensive - about 15K - but that included custom doors/drawers for other rooms + extra panels + toe kick drawers for the entire kitchen = the drawer box + cover panel for the toe kick drawers).

The above is only one of several IKEA kitchens that I've seen that have looked amazing. I've seen many that look more like higher end kitchens than an IKEA kitchen.

@Patricia Colwell Consulting has posted her red IKEA kitchen from her previous home - it does not look like a lower budget kitchen at all.

If the cabinets are original to the home when it was built - over 50 years ago if the Zillow build year of 1973 is correct - they likely may be in need of replacement. Yes, they used to build things "better" with regards to "solid", but the updates since then can make it well-worth replacing what you have. E.g., drawers instead of shelves (all but one base is a cabinet, not drawers), better glides on the few drawers (smoother, full-extension, soft-close (this one is a nice-to-have)), etc.

[The pics don't tell us what's inside those base cabinets - roll out tray shelves? stationary/moveable or fixed, full-depth shelves?, half-depth fixed shelves? something else?]

For the uppers, it looks like at least one cabinet does not close fully - it may be a matter of adjusting hinges or it may be the hinges are shot.

There's a lot we don't know about the cabinets and, to be honest, they don't actually look all the great to me in the pictures - they look worn (look closely at the upper cabs to the left of the sink), but in-person is better when determining their true condition, not pictures on Zillow. (My experience while house-hunting over the past 3 or 4 years is that most Kitchens aren't as "nice" as what the pictures show in the real estate listings - they're distorted to make them look bigger than they are and flaws are usually minimized or avoided/missing from the pictures.)

If the Kitchen does not work for you (for whatever reason), then go ahead with your plans. As to budget, if you're going to live there 10 to 12 years, I would not worry about resale. When we remodeled the Kitchen in our previous home in 2008, we over did it with respect to the other homes. Fast forward about 10 years or so, and most people had re-done their Kitchens and even though our Kitchen was still somewhat over done, it was nowhere near as "above" as the now newer Kitchens. In fact, we didn't even have to list our house, a friend of a neighbor saw our house, fell in love with the Kitchen (and overall space) and purchased it -- all without us having to paint or make general repairs we were going to do b/f putting it on the market and it was at fair market value given we didn't do much to it other than clean. (An agent friend of mine thought we could get around 35K more, but when factoring in the cost of a professional paint job, professional pictures, staging, and the lack of a seller's agent to pay, we figure we broke even on the 35K difference. And, to be honest, I'm not sure we would have gotten as much as she said b/c housing prices had already been stabilizing if not dropping a bit this past spring when we sold).

Sorry about my rambling - my point is, just b/c you might be over doing now, it doesn't mean it won't be over done in 10 years - it may be on-par and you will have likely spent less than your neighbors (b/c remodel costs will keep rising) and you will have had the benefit of living with it over the years! In our case, the Kitchen sold the house!

So, don't worry about over doing it if you can afford to do it - it may be well-worth it to you over the years. But, stay within your budget. While I have never had an IKEA Kitchen, I have seen many here over the years that looked very, very nice. Yes, they have limited sizes, but we (especially the pros who have done IKEA Kitchens) can help you work around that AND there are a lot of IKEA hacks out there to modify them to do more than they were designed to do.

If you do go with IKEA, here are a few hacks that might help if you need to modify some cabinets to work around the limited sizes. Unfortunately, the IKEA Fans website was taken down many years ago, but there are other sites as well as the "Wayback Machine" that still have hacks.

From our various FAQ-type threads: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4306128/ikea-hacks-compilation-of-ikea-hacks

I agree with the commenters who suggest that you not replace your kitchen cabinets. Instead, repair what needs repairing, install undercabinet lighting, replace the counter top, and have the cabinets painted a cheerful color. Then use your money for other updates to the house.

Assuming since your kitchen layout does not work for you, its not just a matter of repainting the cabinets. You might try a big box store like Home Depot or Lowes for an estimate and ideas for new layout. They use industry wide design software and have a wide price point of cabinets and counter tops.

Dear friends are in the same boat as you. Redoing a kitchen that truly needs it and is falling apart. They will be in their house a bit longer than you, but are about to retire, don't need a Lexus. Need to stay on budget. They won't get out of the house what they put into the kitchen when they go to sell.

They got quotes for three vendors, knowing their own contractors would install:

1. A local cabinet shop,

2. Ikea,

3. Lowe's Kraftmade.

They ended up going with Kraftmade. They clicked with the Lowe's sales person, had a great design experience with them, and got fantastic pricing. All cabinets under $20k - but they have a small kitchen.

I suggest you get quotes from the three same types of places. They had to pay a $150 design fee for the local company to design/price it all out. It is worth it to pay $150 here and there to really get a feel for tens of thousands that you will pay for cabinets.

I have heard great things about Ikea cabinets' longevity. Certainly well beyond the years you will be in that house. When we were house hunting we saw a few homes with older Ikea kitchens and the cabinets were still in great shape.

Remember when you get quotes to consider the cost of assembly, install, and what the warrantee includes and for how many years.

A big thank you to everybody. I am going to go two things.

(1) hire Ikea to come to my house, take measurements, and design a new kitchen.

(2) hire a local kitchen design shop come out, make plans, and give me an estimate for final job.

A big thank you to everybody. I am going to do two things.'s for the countertop. My spouse and I hate shopping for granite. In the past, it wasn't easy to get a final price within a reasonable time. With Ikea, HD, or Lowes, I know quickly what the final price is.