Ikea kitchen cabinets ?

[2disneyboys]

So we are considering getting some cabinets from IKEA for our kitchen. We have visited a nearby ikea and "touched" the ones we like and they seem just as sturdy/nice as what you can get in your local big box dept store. Price is about 25% lower so I am curious if any dis'ers have cabinetry from IKEA and if so, love it? Hate it? would do what differently. my sister just had a custom house built and her "higher end" custom cabinets are, well, they seem very flimsy. A friend used IKEA cabinetry for an office nook, and it's 10 times nicer then my sisters high end custom cabinets. Just looking for some opinions. Thanks!

 

[ToodlesRN]

My husband is a builder and remodels homes. He uses the ikea kitchen cabinets all the time. Yes, it's a pain because you have to assemble each cabinet vs ordering from a company that delivers them built. Each way has its pros/cons. Our home has custom cabinets and a few came damaged it took weeks to get replacement cabinets vs Ikea if damaged return it and grab another box.

 

[Aliceacc]

We're just beginning the remodel process as well.

Everything I've read about them has been positive... and I've been doing LOTS of reading.

But the one contractor we've spoken to so far said that, because they're un-assembled, the difference in cost would be pretty much eaten up with additional labor costs.

 

[2disneyboys]

Thanks. We have been reading on them also, and so far the only negative is having to assemble yourself. I love the cabinets (bottom) with drawers instead of shelves. Humm.. I'm still looking but it's nice to get some first hand dis'ers reviews also.

 

[Firefly09]

Love my ikea kitchen!! It was cheaper than anything we saw and liked in the big home improvement/hardware store. We had far more options regarding customizations. My husband put them up himself with help from my in-laws.

If you are having them professionally installed, don't let the workers put the cabinets together. It was honestly not difficult, although we have had experience with ikea furniture before. Once you get one cabinet done the rest of them go like an assembly line. It is a little time consuming but I think the contractor will milk the hourly pay for something you can do yourself.

Forgot to add that you definitely get the soft close option on your drawers and doors! Love those!

 

[Aliceacc]

Yeah, we want to go with drawers as well. We met with the contractor last week; we meet with their kitchen design person next Saturday. We'll see what we come up with together.

 

[kellia]

We just got an Ikea kitchen at Thanksgiving. I love it! I put all the cabinets together, dh installed them. Not that hard at all. We are still working on finishing the rest of the kitchen since had to stop for Christmas. I love how much nicer it is to work in my kitchen now. I got all big drawers on the bottoms and just love them. It makes it so much easier to find things and get to them. Not to mention now it is easier for the kids to get to things and put them away. We looked all over and they seemed to have the best quality and definately the best price. I will admit I was extremely overwhelmed after we ordered everything and had to load it up! When the pieces were all stacked up on 5 of those big carts and I had several sheets of paper just listing the parts, I had serious buyer's remourse and wondered what we had gotten ourself into! The first cabinet was a little scary, but after that it was easy.

 

[Tiggs14]

I have no complaints about the cabinets. We got drawers on all lower cabinets with the exception of the sink and corner cabinet and love them. We had some issues with warped doors but that was easily fixed by exchanging them for new doors.

No one believes us when we say they are Ikea cabinets!

 

[VandVsmom]

We had Ikea kitchen cabinets in our old house. We assembled and installed them ourselves. It was very easy. I loved them and wish we could put them in our current house, but can't justify redoing a kitchen at this point. I loved the drawers especially.

I agree that even if you have someone else install them, save money and assemble them yourself. It took us a while to get the first one together, but after that, rest were easy. If you do that, start with one of the smaller ones.

They were sturdy, easy to clean, had nice options for customizing the interiors and looked great.

 

[SSDonut]

Have to agree with all the other posters so far: we have an IKEA kitchen--I built all the cabinets and our contractor installed them--they are fabulous--large drawers for dishes, soft close cabinets etc.

I won't say that assembling all the cabinets was fun (in fact I think I just recovered last year, and we did our kitchen in 2006!), but I could never have gotten the kitchen I did, with the number of cabinets we have any other way. Kellia is right, too--we had to make a few trips in our minivan with all those huge and heavy boxes, so that whole process, not to mention having assembled cabinets scattered in every room of our small house during a remodel was a bit overwhelming!

If you find something you like, and you are up for the hauling, assmebling etc challenge, though--well worth it!

Good Luck!

 

[tzolkin]

Another one here who loves our Ikea kitchen

DH did ours last fall. Everything still looks perfect (even with 3 kids). My parents put in a new kitchen a few months before and are still jealous of how much nicer our cabinets are.

Our cost was only a fraction of the cabinet quotes we got from Lowes and Home Depot. That allowed us to spend more on countertops, tile backsplash, sink, etc. Our entire kitchen was still significantly cheaper than cabinets alone from somewhere else.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

We put in an Ikea kitchen last summer and it is wonderful. I could not be happier with it.

Some things I really like:

The slow-closing feature on the drawers and cupboard doors - protects a lot of little fingers!

The drawers for my pots, baking dishes, etc. So easy to get what I need rather than digging through cupboards like I used to do.

I have one section of lower cabinets (under a window) which is deep enough to easily store my blender, food processor, mixer, bread machine, etc. My counters are clear, but when I need to use one of the machines I just lift it up and plug it in.

I like to bake, so I created a baking area with three under-the-counter pull-out pantry drawers, each with two smaller drawers above them. The first has sugars in canisters in the bottom, cake decorating items above it; the second has flours in canisters in the bottom, ingredients like salt, baking powder, etc., in the drawer above it; the third has cocoa, oils, etc. All the top drawers have spices. Next to these pull-out pantries are three drawers with all my baking pans, muffin pans, etc. and my measuring cups and spoons in the top drawer. Baking is now so easy and enjoyable! Everything is right there and easy to find.

I think the cabinets are very sturdy. Of course, we have only had them about seven months. They are very easy to clean, too.

TP

 

[tikilyn]

Would any of you guys like to post pictures of your cabinets? Dh and I will be building our house and one of the ways we are trying to cut the budget down is with the cabinets. I would love to see how they look. Our nearest Ikea is 6 hours away, so we cant just go to a store to look at them.

Thanks

 

[Aliceacc]

Would any of you guys like to post pictures of your cabinets? Dh and I will be building our house and one of the ways we are trying to cut the budget down is with the cabinets. I would love to see how they look. Our nearest Ikea is 6 hours away, so we cant just go to a store to look at them.

Thanks

Take a look at www.houzz.com . Type "IKEA kitchen cabinets" in quotes in the search feature. You'll see lots of possibilities

 

[natfrac]

We love our Ikea cabinets, and we've had them for over 3 years. They still look like new. We went with Ikea because our kitchen is very small and with all the cabinet choices, we were able to fill every inch with cabinet space.

 

[2disneyboys]

I am so excited to get so many positive responses. My dh's initial response was No Way, so a few months later, we went on a weekend trip to fredickersburg And he saw themin person and was real impressed. With all the options available I can have much more customized kitchen for a fraction of the cost. Their website has a 3d planner and once you have measured your room, is actually very easy to play around with your options. I REALLY wish IKEA would open a store a little closer to us.

 

[tzolkin]

I am so excited to get so many positive responses. My dh's initial response was No Way, so a few months later, we went on a weekend trip to fredickersburg And he saw themin person and was real impressed. With all the options available I can have much more customized kitchen for a fraction of the cost. Their website has a 3d planner and once you have measured your room, is actually very easy to play around with your options. I REALLY wish IKEA would open a store a little closer to us.

Me too. Ours is over 4 hours away. DH and I have had many long Ikea days. We always try to get as much done each trip as we can. I always say it would be so nice to be able to just go to an Ikea like a regular shopping trip- look around a bit and buy one or two things.

 

[Aliceacc]

Honestly, I love some of their stuff.

But their store scares the life out of me. I'm a teacher, so fire drills are something pretty ingrained into my consciousness. Every single time I go to IKEA (and it's about 2 miles from here) I can't help but think: if there were ever a fire, it would be impossible to get out of this store!!!! It's like a rat's maze; there are no straight lines longer than about 50 feet long.

That said, I love those kitchen cabinets!

 

[kellia]

Also check out Ikeafans.com. There are pictures and modifications there, too. There are also a few threads on Gardenweb.com that were very helpful to us.

After we got them, I started panicking that they were going to look like cheap, put together cabinets after we did them, but I'm very happy with the way they turned out. We got the Adel off-white. I decided they'd be the best to keep clean with my kids and dh, the therma foil or whatever coating is nice. I also love how they go all the way to the ceiling so there is so much space in them. I actually have 3 cabinets that are still empty! I'm sure they won't stay that way for long. We also added 2 rev-a-shelf's so we have a 6 inch slide out for spices that filled in some gaps we had. Awesome! I did get my drawer pulls and knobs on Amazon, though, I didn't like Ikea's.

Their kitchen staff is great, too. Go for one of their nights where they have classes on how to put them together. The guy doing ours was very helpful, showed dh how to modify one of the corner base cabinets so it would fit our kitchen and still do the pull out (though we voided our warranty by doing it).

 

[karice2]

I completely redid my 1965 brown kitchen with Ikea cabinets in 2005. My dad and I completely gutted the old kitchen and installed new walls and cabinets from Ikea. I did the horizontal cabinets instead of vertical with frosted fronts. We got them and I put them together during the week while watching TV. Dad and I then installed them on a weekend. They are really easy to install and I love the look.

I am about to redo another kitchen and going to do Ikea cabinets again.