@ RE3Designs, Wrong. The Ringhult fronts are NOT melamine, the backsides are, which is totally adequate. While the gloss is a foil, it's thick and hard, nothing like the infamous "thermofoils".

We've had the high gloss Godmorgon vanity in the kid's bath since early 2010, it's getting a workout from the kids. And numerous times I've bumped various hard vacuum parts into the drawer fronts (the bathroom is small, it's hard to manoeuver). Yet, the vanity has no scratches, no dents, in fact, it still looks brand new :-)

Plus, for the kitchen, I could easily buy extra replacement fronts should we ever in the future bang up a door with one of our cast iron pans. We'd still be way, way ahead, financially.

Plus I really dislike the look of the mirror like gloss finishes, especially the ones with a pattern underneath...ugh.

It's a thin foil over melamine that is why it apperars thicker.

The point is... It is not the same quality as high end!

It's like buying off brand named sneakers vs buying Nikes.

Buying a purse at Walmart or Gucci.

Having a free cell phone or a new iPhone

You get what you pay for.

You would not put high end kitchen cabinets in a 100,000 house for the same reason you wouldn't put an ikea kitchen in a million dollar house.

That being said, we can only expect to buy what we can afford. I just want everyone to know there are differences and that it is defintly not the same quality.

I have an IKEA kitchen and I love it..... BUT.... the warranty is phenomenal as long as you have the original receipt. The ink on the receipt fades in a matter of months rendering your warranty null!!! Photocopy your receipt and put the original with the copies.

I gutted my kitchen and installed this entire Ikea kitchen myself. Super easy to do and the most functional kitchen I've ever had. I love it!

Old post

I wouldn't use IKEA, esp since all that you can afford is their foil line, and you said that you hate the foil that you have now. If you really want wood, I would go to Lowe's or Home Depot and buy wood ones, and paint them myself, rather than pay that kind of $ for something I already know that I wouldn't like from the start! I generally don't like IKEA, and I bet that you can find a cabinet that's already assembled from a different source in a price range that you need. Maybe you can go to the Kraftmaid or some other outlet and find something that you like in your price range. Maybe you can find a local cabinet maker who will work with your budget, etc. Good luck, take your time. You might be pleasantly surprised!

We installed an IKEA kitchen because at the time, we too were on a tight budget. I have never been sorry. My only suggestion is with regards to the warranty. You will need to take advantage of it, but one of the stipulations is that you have your original receipt. The warrant is for 25 years, but the ink fades to nothing on the receipt in less than 5 years. No receipt ... no warranty!
Photocopy the receipt and attach the original to the copy and store away in a safe, dry place!

We had an IKEA kitchen in our previous home including an IKEA butcher block counter top on our 4 x 8 island and our home sold for over a million dollars. Very few people today really look for, or understand true quality, what they want is a "look" and not only did the kitchen look great but everything closed and opened smoothly. I will be using IKEA again for the kitchen in this house. I took one of the smaller doors with me to a kitchen designer as they are the exclusive distributor of a product I wanted and the owner couldn't believe the quality and design of the door. Nothing is perfect in this world but for the price, you get great quality and a fabulous warranty.

I love the designs of Ikea kitchens when I see them at the store. I don't have an Ikea kitchen though.

Do!!!! Perhaps don't do the sink, faucet and appliances but the cabinets are excellent.

ikea kitchen themselves look great. A few things to keep in mind, for the installations and measuring its iffy. At our house there was a mistake made on the measurements for the frig., the installers had to do some last minute adjustments. Get a copy of plan review it with friends and family before ordering. there will be mistakes like panels beside the dishwasher, colour panels on the end of the cabinets. This designers and sale person are NOT draftsman. But lastly in Calgary, Modus Enterprises -their contractors do NOT clean up anything. Be prepared they over order a lot of things and you're responsible for returning anything. DON'T FORGET YOUR RECEIPT AND THE PERSON AND CREDIT CARD WHICH IT WAS PURCHASED MUST BE PRESENT. Would I use them again, yes for the cabinets but not for design or installation.

ikea kitchen themselves look great. A few things to keep in mind, for the installations and measuring its iffy. At our house there was a mistake made on the measurements for the frig., the installers had to do some last minute adjustments. Get a copy of plan review it with friends and family before ordering. there will be mistakes like panels beside the dishwasher, colour panels on the end of the cabinets. This designers and sale person are NOT draftsman. But lastly in Calgary, Modus Enterprises -their contractors do NOT clean up anything. Be prepared they over order a lot of things and you're responsible for returning anything. DON'T FORGET YOUR RECEIPT AND THE PERSON AND CREDIT CARD WHICH IT WAS PURCHASED MUST BE PRESENT. Would I use them again, yes for the cabinets but not for design or installation.

IKEA is the way to go. We design and remodel kitchens for a living. We have installed over 260 to be exact. We will install any cabinet brIkea is the way to go. We remodel kitchens for a living. We have installed over 260 to be exact. We will install any cabinet a client decides on. In my professional experience.

The quality is extremely good. They can easily support marble, quarts and granite.

and our client decides on. In my professional experience Ikea is the best choice.

The quality is extremely good. They can easily support marble, quarts and granite.

They come with a 25 year warranty (personally I would not want the same kitchen for 25 years and received the JD Power rating as having the best overall customer satisfaction!

Ikea is the largest retailer of home goods in the world. They consume wood than anyone else. In other wood, they will be in business if you every need parts.

Many cabinet retailers will tell you the IKEA cabinets are no good because they are flat packed. This is false information. The cabinet retailer is simply attempting to sell you their line of cabinets. They do not have access to the IKEA cabinets.

To prove my point. Have you ever seen cabinets growing and hanging from trees. Well my friend, all Kitchen cabinets are assembled at sometime and somewhere.

Ikea saves on warehousing and especially freight and labor for assembly.

The cabinets are not that difficult to assemble. The cabinets utilize dowels, cam locks, Blum hinges and Blum glides. The drawers are full extension , utilize the full width of your cabinets. They offer many sizes Door dampers and a wide selection colors, finishes and numerous designs.

Do NOT get the IKEA cabinets confused with cheaply built office furniture.

The cabinets are priced fairly
You will have to drive to the nearest store to to place your order and pickup your cabinets. If you new st his, plan on spending a day. If all the cabinets are not available you will most likely need to make a second trip.

If you assembly them correctly you will have a beautiful, extremely well built and functional Kitchen for many years to come.

I would rate IKEA an easy 98 out of of 100.

The above statements and comments are my own. They are based solely on mine first hand knowledge and experience with IKEA. I am not compensated in any anyway.

I have include some pictures of our resent work.

We currently install in Chattanooga, Knoxville, Johnson City, Kingsport Bristol and most placed between. We would consider traveling to most anywhere in the U.S. to complete an assembly.


Sincerely,
J.D. Jenkins
865-466-6668 office
865-360-5556
865-360-5555

Complete Solutions - I hope your installation skills are better than your editing, grammar and spelling skills...

@pippabean How rude, judgemental and completely irrelevant to the topic.

Complete solutions has been spamming the board all morning with this same cut and paste on any post with the word IKEA. Not helpful or professional.

jane - nope, Complete Solutions' post is inappropriate.

He's using this discussion thread as free advertisement. That's inappropriate.

And doing it in an extremely sloppy way, which to my mind doesn't bode well for a kitchen installer, who's job demands forethought, attention to detail and exacting work.

jbuurst very curious what you decided?

Just spent my Sunday evening in the Gardenweb (haven't gone Huozz yet) vortex reading this post and replies!

My last kitchen we did all custom everything, cabinets, fronts and I love most everything about it. But we are downsizing and moving now and I am considering IKEA with custom fronts. It just seems so extravagant to spend money on the cabinets when there are ones ready made. Yes, I am finding I have to get creative with some of the sizing but I still want to be able to budget in a new appliances (I want another Bluestar range) and have money for the rest of our house renovation, and I guess it comes down to prioritizing when considering these things. Where I live it is costing $250/sq ft for renovating so I have to be mindful.

Would love to hear and see some IKEA success stories. Lot's of opinions stated above without a lot of pictures!

macswim - plenty of success stories on the web. Google Ikea completed kitchen projects, you'll find lots of pics and stories:

http://www.chrislovesjulia.com/2015/09/idaho-home-full-kitchen-reveal.html

http://www.thekitchn.com/living-with-marble-countertops-one-year-later-203189

http://thenester.com/2016/05/our-ikea-kitchen-almost-3-years-in.html

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2423134/the-most-half-aed-reveal-ever?n=79

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3576931/ikea-sektion-reveal?n=55

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3777874/my-ikea-kitchen-reveal-wouldnt-be-nearly-as-cool-without-this-forum?n=47

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3691044/big-reveal-mid-century-ikea-and-semihandmade?n=94

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3703891/ikea-laxarby-sektion-reveal?n=41

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3692743/big-reveal-ikea-kitchen-reno?n=41

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2688316/white-kitchen-reveal-long-post-with-photos?n=59

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2668562/lurker-reveal-adel-white-and-soapstone-and-blue-tile?n=29

macswim - Look at my Houzz page, lots of completed IKEA kitchens there.

@macswim - here is my favorite Ikea kitchen: (with loads of pics)

Tangrig's kitchen reveal

Can't believe this thread is still running but here's mine

hgstef - Congrats, very pretty kitchen. You put your lowers on furniture type legs too. Cool, I haven't seen that done with Ikea cabs before.

You should post your kitchen as a reveal over on the gardenweb kitchen forum. Peeps there love kitchen reveals, especially picture heavy ones.

Hefstef that is a lovely kitchen! Did you use all ikea cabinets or did you have the fronts/hardware custom? Curious how you like your countertops?

Several decades ago I purchased Ikea kitchen counters and a desk. Moved since then but I still have the desk and it's very high quality (no problems with the counters while I lived there either). However, looking at the Ikea offerings today, the quality isn't even remotely close to what it was. the desks in particular look as if they would collapse the first time you put a piece of paper on them. Wouldn't purchase from them today.

I had an Ikea kitchen installed by an Ikea-certified installer. It looked great for 6 months but then the foil finish started peeling. It had a 25 year warranty, which so far Ikea has not made good on. Enclosed are some photos including how nice it looked and how badly it peeled. I am very careful with my stuff, and expected it to last 25 years.

@classicart - It is plain to see that you are letting water drip off the front edge of your sink and down the front of the cabinets - even your countertop is delaminating. That kind of water exposure will ruin any type of cabinet door, no matter how "custom." And the chipping at the bottom corner of that wall cabinet door is a bit of a red flag - something has been allowed to bang into it either once or repeatedly.

Plus you have a Frigidaire dishwasher. There are entire blogs dedicated to the design flaws of this machine (e.g., http://frigidairedesignflaw.blogspot.ca/). The older model Frigidaires vent out the sides of the doors, venting hot steam directly onto your cabinets, ruining them. This would happen no matter what brand of cabinetry you used.

I advised you in a Houzz post from 20 months ago ([https://www.houzz.com/discussions/have-you-used-ikea-cabinets-in-your-kitchen-dsvw-vd~647427?n=311[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/have-you-used-ikea-cabinets-in-your-kitchen-dsvw-vd~647427?n=311)) to replace that dishwasher ASAP. Sadly, I see you haven't done it yet.

I had a tight budget too. What I did was do half of the kitchen (other than tiling the floor and painting the walls and ceiling). The cabinets were custom built by a local company (Cowboy's Remodeling).

Totally finished. What you can't see is the area to the right, which didn't have any remodeling done to it. Because the kitchen isn't large, there's a mobile table rather than a fixed island.

This is when it was 95% completed

Complete Solutions is TN licensed contractor. We are a master at kitchen remodels. We install most major brands as well as fully custom cabinets. We specialize in IKEA Products. We have designed and assembled over 300 + IKEA kitchens alone. Our installs include owner occupied and homes being flipped, rental units and condos.

The home values have ranged from $120,000 to $1,500,000.

Simply stated, IKEA cabinets, appliances are some of the best built and best looking cabinets.

We installed IKEA cabinets in the HGTV Mid-Century Modern house of the year.

I am not employed by, nor am I compensated in anyway by IKEA.

If you have questions concerning quality, design, assembly or modifying IKEA cabinets you may reach me on this board or call my office st 865-268-8500.

If you need help with design, assembly or installation please feel free to contact me. We install in TN, GA, NS, SC, KY, AL.

We can also take care of your entire kitchen makeover.

J.D. Jenkins
Complete Solutions
www.CompleteSolutionsTN.com
865-268-8500 Ext 262

Thirty years ago, when I lived in Vancouver, Ikea had quality items. I had a kitchen counter and a big desk from them. I still have the desk and it's as good as when I purchased it. For several years there was no Ikea where I live now, and I was really excited when they opened a store near me. However, when I went there, the quality seemed very poor. I'd never buy a desk there as they look as if they came from Walmart. Based on how the quality of the desks have gone down, I wouldn't buy anything else from them either. It's too bad really because they used to have quality products at a reasonable price. Now they are just cheap.

Jerry, the quality of IKEA is garbage. All 4 floors of junk. Its college furniture. Buy for your apartment or dorm. Don't have to worry about parties destroying it cause its cheap. Throw it out when you graduate. Its smoke and mirrors. Looks nice, but its complete and utter garbage. IKEA is the reason I know people have completely lowered their standards. Theres tons of people out there that actually think its quality. LMAO!!!

Jerry - Ikea's kitchens have always been very different from most of their other offerings as they are permanent built-ins for home owners and are not designed for the college crowd.

Your allegation of loss of quality over the years is ludicrous.

On the contrary, Ikea has improved its kitchen boxes every time they changed their system, while always offering doors/drawer fronts of varying quality at various price points. Their first kitchen system sold in the US with only 1/2" particle board construction. We put one of those into our first home. That house sold years later at a much higher price due to the Ikea kitchen. We still have friends in that neighborhood, so we know that that kitchen has received an addition, but our 80s Ikea kitchen cabs live on in the current owner's in-law kitchen.

Later, Ikea came out with the much improved 3/4" Akurum line, available for about 20 years. The current Sektion system has again been improved, especially in regards to ease of installation and modularity.

So your allegation of loss of quality over the years is just rubbish.

Also, your post is a repeat from other threads. It's off topic here, The OP asked about advice on Ikea kitchens, not desks. As you have no first hand knowledge about Ikea kitchens you really contribute nothing but unsupported personal biases.

We also had white foil cabinets that got cracks and bubbles and got discolored. We were on a tight budget as well and found very nice cabinets at Ikea. Compared to the lower end price at Home Depot the cabinets at Ikea were much more stylish and sleek. They look great and have held up very nicely. We get many compliments on our kitchen. However, we found that their prices for counter tops were pricey and not that nice, and more limited in selection. We went to a granite yard and got a remnant granite at a great price. They have all sizes, we have quite a large kitchen and were able to find a slab large enough. We also shopped around for appliances. I would do the cabinets and hardware at Ikea, and shop around for counter tops and appliances elsewhere.

Utter garbage? Irrefutable FACT? Really? Because you Tony, say so?

I've lived with an Ikea Akurum kitchen for the last 20 years. We are finally updating now, with, guess what, another Ikea kitchen. The current kitchen is in near perfect condition and in fact will get a new home in my son's lake house.

But I guess, I, like so many others, have no idea what we're talking about... While you, clearly must be the one and only one who knows anything at all.

By any chance Tony, do you sport an orange comb-over and your current residence is 1600 Pennsylvania Ave? I could have sworn that the only one who knows everything resides there...

modellie, this guy is not worth your time, ignore him. He's got anger issues: Troll.

IKEA kitchens are quality, well made and strong. They easily support marble, granite or any other top of your choice. I install kitchen cabinets professionally. My crew and I have installed hundreds of IKEA cabinets as well as custom and off the self stock cabinets from other manufacturers. The key to a good kitchen is a good design and good installers who pay attention to detail and install the cabinets properly

WE did a lovely ikea kitchen and we picked up the backsplash as well as the flooring and did that separate to the kitchen! It turned out lovely here is the link for it. If for any reason the link does not come through please head over to mango tango interiors Facebook page and it will be there or send me a message and i can direct you to it. https://www.facebook.com/MangoTangoInteriors/videos/1376160885742076/

home reborn, there is NO water dripping down my cabinets. That is fake news.

Additonally, the frigidaire dishwasher was also from Ikea. All Ikea problems.

Looking for information from those who have installed IKEA kitchens in high humidity areas ie. Florida Keys / Puerto Rico / Caribbean island area.

I've read online that the extreme high humidity +55% makes the cabinets peel, crack and delaminate etc.

Also that extreme humidity voids the 25 year warranty.

Ref: https://www.reddit.com/r/IKEA/comments/4pb4dg/ikea_cabinets_by_the_beach/

"Care instructions: Cabinet frames, fronts, shelves and drawers
At IKEA we recommend using a soft cloth dampened with water or a mild cleaner, if necessary, for cleaning your cabinet frames, fronts, shelves and other wooden surfaces. Use only cleaning agents that are intended for the materials you have. Avoid any agents that contain ammonia, alcohol, bleach or an abrasive. . ****** Exposure to heat and the high humidity increases the risk that the countertop or door may absorb moisture and swell."******

I had an ikea kitchen in a rental unit. After 15 years of abuse, the kitchen held up nicely and we didn't need to make any improvements to stage the place when we sold it (most people at open houses thought it was almost new).

I think contractors don't like IKEA because they have a strict return policy and don't offer any discounts/kickbacks to pros.

My latest IKEA kitchen project (in my own home):

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

classicart Do you remember the name of your front? Thanks.

vickicz What cabinet doors did you buy and how are they holding up now?

audreyka Which door style did you purchase and how are they holding up?

Did you ever get the ikea kitchen and how is it going?

I DID do Ikea cabinets! I designed everything using IKEA cabinets and then had custom-made fronts out of reclaimed local trees. My last kitchen I had all custom-made cabinets. Ikea cabinet saved me thousands of dollars and they are completely functional and durable. It's just about 4 years now and I haven't had any problems. I would highly recommend.

We purchased an Ikea ”Kitchen” for our Laundry room, and after 12 years, the doors are finally giving up and are bubbling and yellowing. They do have a 25 year but believe me when i tell you, they make it extremely difficul to get any satisfaction. The warranty states that if Ikea doesnt sell it anymore they will provide an appropriate replacement.

Well this is not the case, they offered us a partial buy back for the damaged pieces, at the original price we paid ( because of inflation) Any replacements will not match or fit the rest of our cupboards. Their call centre employees could use a course in customer relations, they can be downright rude, and not helpful at all.

Our cabinets were called Akurum, and they have been replaced by Sektion, and those components do not fit Akurum. so think carefully before you buy at Ikea, their Warranty is worthless!

HU-864536264 -- Ikea today is nothing like the Ikea of the seventies and eighties.

My combo IKEA 12’ kitchen island with 23 feet of Home Depot cabinets with new slab doors. That IKEA island is supporting a 12 foot quartzite slab.

My IKEA bathroom primary suite and upstairs jack and Jill bath with tub. All IKEA.

I will use them again in my new house- designing the kitchen now.