Kitchen Renovation

[hijackn]

Somewhat off topic but we are planning to renovate our small kitchen. It's not a fancy house but we'd like it to be functional and durable. We've been reading lots of positive reviews about Ikea kitchen cabinets both for ease of install, quality of hardware, and options to customize. Anyone have any first hand experience with Ikea cabinets for better or worse?

 

[WildBoar]

We tore out some of the original kitchen cabinets and installed some Ikea stuff that we used for a couple of years until we were ready for a full redo. The ones we had were okay, but nothing beyond that. The lazy susan in the corner cabinet was pretty bad, and crapped out after a bit. With out current cabinets we have the lazy susans loaded with a LOT more weight and almost 10 year later all are functioning fine.

The Ikea stuff is good for the price point, but that is about the best I can say for it. If you really use your kitchen the wear and tear will be obvious within a couple of years.

 

[Jovidah]

My parents experience in about 10 years is pretty positive. Only thing they complain about is the electronics; they have no regrets about getting all the cabinetry but they did regret not dropping in some Bosch or something for the appliances. Any problems they had were all with the appliances.

For myself... I'm positively surprised. My rental appartment had one of those cheap kitchens already in it that I expanded with the complete bargain basement stuff, but it's actually holding up far better than the original non-Ikea stuff, which is actually more expensive than even the normal tier Ikea stuff.

There's probably better stuff out there, but you'll be paying significantly more for it. For the price you'll usually get better quality than you'd get elsewhere. Within Ikea I'd say you get what you pay for in the sense that it's usually worth paying a bit more for the more expensive lines; there is almost always a noticable quality difference. For example my el-cheapo bottom line cabinets can't fit all the normal cabinet stuff to customize them.

An option to keep in mind that is applied quite often: people often buy Ikea cabinets and add custom fronts to it.

 

[ptolemy]

I would be very careful with Ikea based on others recommendations. Ikea changes their lines so much, that a positive recommendation from few years ago, might be outdated and new model is nothing like old.

 

[AT5760]

I looked into this a few years ago. If you go this route, you should seek out an installer that does a LOT of these. The pros will assemble off site and bring them in and install like any other cabinets. I’m assuming you’re in the Boston-metro? If so, I think there are a few of those types of installers in the area.

 

[Luftmensch]

functional and durable

I don't have any experience with Ikea kitchens.

I have some with their Ivar storage unit. It is perfectly functional and semi durable. The wood (pine) is structurally strong but soft and easily dented. The worst part are the hinges. They don't inspire me with confidence. They have lasted two years but they feel light duty and a bit janky. You have to spend sometime tuning them - there are a lot of bad reviews from people who didn't take the time to adjust them. If you blindly screw them in, the door gaps wont align.

I believe Ikea owns their wood production across the whole supply/production chain? The advantage is their panels are criminally cheap (sometimes in both senses of the word - I hate chipboard). If you are a DIY type, 'Ikea hacking' can increase the durability (you can use extra brackets or find stronger hinges) and personalise your installation. So Ikea can be a good buy for the price point....

Again, I don't have first hand experience, but my gut agrees with @Jovidah... avoid the appliances! Select your own

 

[coxhaus]

Somewhat off topic but we are planning to renovate our small kitchen. It's not a fancy house but we'd like it to be functional and durable. We've been reading lots of positive reviews about Ikea kitchen cabinets both for ease of install, quality of hardware, and options to customize. Anyone have any first hand experience with Ikea cabinets for better or worse?

I helped my friend install Ikea cabinet's in his daughter's house a year ago. They were a white Formica over particle board. They came flat and you had to assemble them and then install the built cabinets. They looked OK installed. I would say very modern looking.

He helped me with my kitchen remodel so I owed him.

 

[Jovidah]

I would be very careful with Ikea based on others recommendations. Ikea changes their lines so much, that a positive recommendation from few years ago, might be outdated and new model is nothing like old.

They sometimes replace one line with a new one, but as long as it's under the same name it tends to remain very similar. And stuff like kitchen cabinets doesn't get replaced much. I think there was a bit of a ruckus 5-10 years ago when they changed the kitchen cabinetry line, but before that it had been going for 20+ years. What they change more often is stuff like accessories, small furniture.

I looked into this a few years ago. If you go this route, you should seek out an installer that does a LOT of these. The pros will assemble off site and bring them in and install like any other cabinets. I’m assuming you’re in the Boston-metro? If so, I think there are a few of those types of installers in the area.

If you have the time I'd be inclined to just do most of it yourself. Putting Ikea cabinets together is like lego for grownups, anyone can do it. Almost a waste to hire people for that unless you really don't have the time, since it saves you a significant amount of money.
Over here Ikea also has an installing service themselves, but I have no experience with them or their quality of service.

 

[hijackn]

I would be very careful with Ikea based on others recommendations. Ikea changes their lines so much, that a positive recommendation from few years ago, might be outdated and new model is nothing like old.

Thanks that's a great point, I'll keep that in mind

 

[hijackn]

They sometimes replace one line with a new one, but as long as it's under the same name it tends to remain very similar. And stuff like kitchen cabinets doesn't get replaced much. I think there was a bit of a ruckus 5-10 years ago when they changed the kitchen cabinetry line, but before that it had been going for 20+ years. What they change more often is stuff like accessories, small furniture.


If you have the time I'd be inclined to just do most of it yourself. Putting Ikea cabinets together is like lego for grownups, anyone can do it. Almost a waste to hire people for that unless you really don't have the time, since it saves you a significant amount of money.
Over here Ikea also has an installing service themselves, but I have no experience with them or their quality of service.

This is what we are planning on, doing most of the install ourselves. We are relatively handy and there are great guides on youtube.

 

[Jovidah]

I think there's a good amount of long term reviews / 'few years later followups' floating around as well. Just make sure that it's applicable to what you're buying. Different lines might be in different price categories and thus be of different qualities. It's also possible that some lines are specific to certain regions.

 

[LewRob80]

Currently doing a full remodel of our new house and went with ikea for the cabinets. Price point wise they look and work great so far and assembly is very possible on your own. I’ve been doing it all with just 1 friend. Spend the money on better fasteners for rails, attaching cabinets together and attaching counter tops as they don’t include a screw over 1 1/2”. We did not buy any appliances or internal lighting for cabinets except the hood fan. Mid Reno shot!

 

[swarfrat]

Back when I was researching for our remodel, I did notice that the world seemed rather fixated on IKEA. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I think their products are pretty cool in general and their cabinets are perfectly fine. I just found it rather odd because, relative to the other suppliers' I considered, IKEA's options were more limited for sizing/spacing/styling/function. They were also more expensive than products that seemed directly comparable.

...we are planning to renovate our small kitchen. It's not a fancy house but we'd like it to be functional and durable....

The plus side to a small kitchen is that you don't need to buy as much of everything to fill it up. If you opt for higher quality/price/performance products it doesn't hit you as hard as a bigger kitchen.

Our kitchen is small and oddly shaped. When it came time to remodel we could either use stock cabinets and have a lot of unused, awkward and wasted space (like the original builder gave us) or have custom cabinets made to utilize as much space as possible. With the small overall size we were able to justify custom cabinets and nicer countertops but keep to something resembling a rational budget.

I'm very happy we were able to spring for the pull-outs, soft closers, ball-bearing slides and Rev-A-Shelf do-dads that were affordable simply because there were fewer of them. Buy once, cry once. When there's less of them, cry less.

A lot of budget cabinets come with generic, no-name, unknown hardware. For long term durability, reliability and maintainability I try to stick to hardware from well-known companies with established reputations like Blum, Accuride, Grass, Sugatsune, etc. They're functional, hold up well and you'll always be able to get replacements/parts.

.... Putting Ikea cabinets together is like lego for grownups, anyone can do it. Almost a waste to hire people for that unless you really don't have the time, since it saves you a significant amount of money....

Putting them together is the easy part. Installing them is different story.

Walls and floors are rarely (well, never) straight, flat, level, plumb and perpendicular. The trick is knowing what to trim, shim, fill and cover to make it all work. Of course, that's true for anybody's cabinets, not just IKEA's. But a lot of people get themselves into trouble seeing only how easy it is to order and assemble DIY products without looking at the bigger picture.

 

[hijackn]

Currently doing a full remodel of our new house and went with ikea for the cabinets. Price point wise they look and work great so far and assembly is very possible on your own. I’ve been doing it all with just 1 friend. Spend the money on better fasteners for rails, attaching cabinets together and attaching counter tops as they don’t include a screw over 1 1/2”. We did not buy any appliances or internal lighting for cabinets except the hood fan. Mid Reno shot!

Awesome looks amazing. Did you use their software for designing the layout?

 

[LewRob80]

Awesome looks amazing. Did you use their software for designing the layout?

Thanks! I did use there software to get the basic layout, have made some adjustments while things have been going in but so far so good. Biggest problem is Ontario locked down again so I’m stuck waiting on 2 cabinets to finish the whole kitchen, which I can’t go and get. (Whole other nonsensical ikea story). But honestly good value if you’re going to do it yourself! And then spend the savings on nicer appliances.

 

[hijackn]

Back when I was researching for our remodel, I did notice that the world seemed rather fixated on IKEA. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I think their products are pretty cool in general and their cabinets are perfectly fine. I just found it rather odd because, relative to the other suppliers' I considered, IKEA's options were more limited for sizing/spacing/styling/function. They were also more expensive than products that seemed directly comparable.

The plus side to a small kitchen is that you don't need to buy as much of everything to fill it up. If you opt for higher quality/price/performance products it doesn't hit you as hard as a bigger kitchen.

Our kitchen is small and oddly shaped. When it came time to remodel we could either use stock cabinets and have a lot of unused, awkward and wasted space (like the original builder gave us) or have custom cabinets made to utilize as much space as possible. With the small overall size we were able to justify custom cabinets and nicer countertops but keep to something resembling a rational budget.

I'm very happy we were able to spring for the pull-outs, soft closers, ball-bearing slides and Rev-A-Shelf do-dads that were affordable simply because there were fewer of them. Buy once, cry once. When there's less of them, cry less.

A lot of budget cabinets come with generic, no-name, unknown hardware. For long term durability, reliability and maintainability I try to stick to hardware from well-known companies with established reputations like Blum, Accuride, Grass, Sugatsune, etc. They're functional, hold up well and you'll always be able to get replacements/parts.


Putting them together is the easy part. Installing them is different story.

Walls and floors are rarely (well, never) straight, flat, level, plumb and perpendicular. The trick is knowing what to trim, shim, fill and cover to make it all work. Of course, that's true for anybody's cabinets, not just IKEA's. But a lot of people get themselves into trouble seeing only how easy it is to order and assemble DIY products without looking at the bigger picture.

Thanks for the recommendations. Did you have a local cabinet maker build your cabinets? I've actually heard that Ikea's hardware is one of their strengths. I've read that Blum manufactures them (but I can't verify that). Our floors and walls are definitely not flat/plumb/level/square. That's part of the appeal of their base cabinets since it's easy to adjust the feet for floors that are uneven. I'm not totally stuck on using Ikea but there seem to be a lot of upside for DIY installation that surprised me when I started looking into it

 

[larrybard]

No firsthand experience, but in connection with the contemplated remodeling -- which seriously intimidates/overwhelms me -- of my very old kitchen I consulted with a greatly respected friend who is smart, thoughtful, carefully researches everything, and is frugal. He outfitted the two kitchens in his house with Ikea cabinets a few years ago and highly recommends them.

Personally, in part because I am reasonably satisfied with the configuration of my current cabinets, and they are generally very well built of solid wood, I am likely headed in a different direction: replacing the cabinet doors (and hardware) with new ones for a more modern look -- "full overlay" -- and repainting the cabinets. But based on everything I have read and heard so far, I almost certainly would go the Ikea route if I were instead to entirely replace my cabinets.

 

[coxhaus]

I saw my buddy as he came over to drink some beer yesterday. We are social distancing outside. I asked about his daughter's Ikea's kitchen cabinets. He said they are working fine with no problems. They installed quartz counter tops on them. We did not do the counter tops as he hired it done.

We gutted the whole house as it had aluminum wiring and poor insulation. He switched to copper wiring and had spray foam sprayed in both the walls and ceiling. I helped demo and build kitchen cabinets and install them. He contracted out a lot of the jobs. He had cousins that were master electricians which took care of all the wiring and new breaker box. He hired a sheet rock crew and they were fast and good as they do it every day.

 

[Boynutman]

The IKEA cabinets are cheap but solid. So what I did was cut them up to tailor size them to make maximum use of the space.
Afterwards I measured the final dimensions and ordered semi-custom wood fronts elsewhere. Asked for extra hinge points in the doors to compensate for the heavier doors (probably being over cautious).

 

[Bodine]

As a general contractor who has built or remodeled hundreds of kitchens, read Swarfrats post above and take it to heart.

 

[parbaked]

I built a small Ikea kitchen this summer during the Covid lockdown.
We bought a mid century condo that required complete renovation and Covid struck during closing.
It was the best (only) choice during the lockdown, because the kitchen & countertop fabricators were forced to close, but Ikea could still deliver.
I designed the kitchen on the Ikea website and had it delivered in a week.
Fortunately the counter top fabricators reopened before we finished, so I could return the cheap Ikea tops and install quartz.
It's no fun to build or hang the cabinets, but the end result is fine,
The clean look fits our new place.

Definitely not comparable to what one gets from a good kitchen contractor.

One side is laundry, dishwasher, fridge and storage for glasses dishes, silverware etc.

Other side is pantry, induction range and recirculating hood.
No exhaust in this building so I bought the best non venting hood I could find.
You can see where we had to build out the existing plaster wall because there were no studs to hang these cabinets.

The pantry side cabinets open vertically so I can keep them open while cooking.
Microwave is in the cabinet above the hood, but wifey can't reach it...whoops!

Created a small counter seat for wifey to supervise from.
Floating Ikea cabinets way from a wall is a challenge unless you can bolt them to the subfloor.
We ended up bolting the peninsula to two by fours that we glued to the concrete floor to avoid radiant heat lines.

Shallow drawer insert for the knives....

 

[coxhaus]

I wonder if he demoed his cabinets already? Taking them out is a lot easier than putting them in. A lot of people paint and replace doors on cabinets rather than replace the whole cabinets. The other simple thing is to change hardware on the existing doors.

I added slides to my cabinet drawers when I remodeled. It was a pain as my cabinets were built in place back in the sixties and none of the drawers matched as they were a one off for each drawer. I could do about 2 drawers a day as I had to hand fit each drawer using a block plane. I had 11 drawers and 2 of them were big.

 

[swarfrat]

Thanks for the recommendations. Did you have a local cabinet maker build your cabinets? I've actually heard that Ikea's hardware is one of their strengths. I've read that Blum manufactures them (but I can't verify that). Our floors and walls are definitely not flat/plumb/level/square. That's part of the appeal of their base cabinets since it's easy to adjust the feet for floors that are uneven. I'm not totally stuck on using Ikea but there seem to be a lot of upside for DIY installation that surprised me when I started looking into it

Yes, I had a local cabinet maker build our cabinets. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that everybody do it that way, but with our kitchen's small, weird floor-plan it worked well for us.

There's also the in-between option of semi-custom. The vast majority of "custom" kitchen re-modelling contractors are cabinet installers, not fabricators. They use manufacturers' design guides to specify cabinets from mix-and-match sets of standardized build-to-order variations. This works really, really well if you don't have a freakish kitchen like mine.

I wouldn't be surprised if Blum, another well-known manufacturer, or some combination of multiple manufacturers make IKEA's hardware. Big players tend to partner with big players (think Sears appliances). Those products may be customer specific with replacements only available from IKEA. But I would expect that replacement parts are easy to get from IKEA.

Hardware for simplifying installation of anybody's cabinets, like levelers and such, are readily available. https://woodworker.com/search.html?search=leveler&searchmode=2 And there's always the old-fashion way, shims.

 

[Jovidah]

I'm genuinely curious where you find options that are in the same quality as Ikea but cheaper. For a lot of things I can barely even buy the materials for the price that Ikea is selling it for. The original kitchen in my house is one of those 'same price range as Ikea' things, but it doesn't hold a candle to even Ikea budget lines in quality. Most of the inserts you mention (pullouts, softclose) are available in the Ikea lineup.
I agree that if you get full custom etc it's probably going to better and more efficient, but that's not in everyone's budget. In the end Ikea is more a 'bang for your buck' than 'best quality' place.
The appliances are mostly big name brands too, but not necessarily the best ones. You're not getting rebranded Bosch/Siemens.

 

[swarfrat]

I'm genuinely curious where you find options that are in the same quality as Ikea but cheaper....

This was a few years back so everybody's price structures may be different by now. But at the time, IKEA was actually the most expensive of the stock suppliers I looked at. Some were of lesser quality (and immediately dismissed), but some appeared to be equivalent quality, similar materials, thicknesses, construction methods, hardware, etc.

Unfortunately, I didn't keep my notes on all of that after I made my decisions. So I can't name names. And like I said, prices have probably changed anyway. I also live in a large and highly competitive market. I had a lot of vendors to choose from.

It's always best to look at what's going on right around you, right now.

... For a lot of things I can barely even buy the materials for the price that Ikea is selling it for. ...

That's very common for manufactured goods. The price you pay for anything represents the entire supply chain it took to get it in front of you, every organization and person who handled every piece of it, every intermediate mark-up, all the value-added activity, all the transportation and warehousing, all the waste disposal, all bureaucratic taxes and fees. It all has to be paid for and it all adds up. The more complex and convoluted the path, the more muddled and less comparable the final result.

....... Most of the inserts you mention (pullouts, softclose) are available in the Ikea lineup......

Yes, they are. And nowadays they're available from everybody, sometimes as an extra cost, sometimes as standard. That's why it's important to figure in all the costs and specific details for an apples to apples comparison.

.......I agree that if you get full custom etc it's probably going to better and more efficient, but that's not in everyone's budget. ......

You're absolutely right. Which is why I said I don't recommend it for everybody. Everything in life is a trade-off.

 

[hijackn]

No firsthand experience, but in connection with the contemplated remodeling -- which seriously intimidates/overwhelms me -- of my very old kitchen I consulted with a greatly respected friend who is smart, thoughtful, carefully researches everything, and is frugal. He outfitted the two kitchens in his house with Ikea cabinets a few years ago and highly recommends them.

Personally, in part because I am reasonably satisfied with the configuration of my current cabinets, and they are generally very well built of solid wood, I am likely headed in a different direction: replacing the cabinet doors (and hardware) with new ones for a more modern look -- "full overlay" -- and repainting the cabinets. But based on everything I have read and heard so far, I almost certainly would go the Ikea route if I were instead to entirely replace my cabinets.

That sounds like a good plan, our current setup really isn't functional so unfortunately we need a whole new layout which means new cabinets. We definitely are considering upgrading the doors like you're suggesting since that's the primary thing you see when you look at a kitchen. The interiors of cabinets matter way less in my opinion at least

 

[hijackn]

I saw my buddy as he came over to drink some beer yesterday. We are social distancing outside. I asked about his daughter's Ikea's kitchen cabinets. He said they are working fine with no problems. They installed quartz counter tops on them. We did not do the counter tops as he hired it done.

We gutted the whole house as it had aluminum wiring and poor insulation. He switched to copper wiring and had spray foam sprayed in both the walls and ceiling. I helped demo and build kitchen cabinets and install them. He contracted out a lot of the jobs. He had cousins that were master electricians which took care of all the wiring and new breaker box. He hired a sheet rock crew and they were fast and good as they do it every day.

Do you know why he picked quartz over granite/natural stone? I am up in the air about that. I'd like to do butcher block wherever we can but some sort of stone around the sink

 

[hijackn]

The IKEA cabinets are cheap but solid. So what I did was cut them up to tailor size them to make maximum use of the space.
Afterwards I measured the final dimensions and ordered semi-custom wood fronts elsewhere. Asked for extra hinge points in the doors to compensate for the heavier doors (probably being over cautious).

Did you do anything after cutting them to customize size to be sure that structurally they would be sound?

 

[hijackn]

As a general contractor who has built or remodeled hundreds of kitchens, read Swarfrats post above and take it to heart.

Do you have a recommended cabinet line/manufacturer? Or would you just opt for a local cabinet maker?

 

[hijackn]

I built a small Ikea kitchen this summer during the Covid lockdown.
We bought a mid century condo that required complete renovation and Covid struck during closing.
It was the best (only) choice during the lockdown, because the kitchen & countertop fabricators were forced to close, but Ikea could still deliver.
I designed the kitchen on the Ikea website and had it delivered in a week.
Fortunately the counter top fabricators reopened before we finished, so I could return the cheap Ikea tops and install quartz.
It's no fun to build or hang the cabinets, but the end result is fine,
The clean look fits our new place.

Definitely not comparable to what one gets from a good kitchen contractor.

One side is laundry, dishwasher, fridge and storage for glasses dishes, silverware etc.
View attachment 108711
Other side is pantry, induction range and recirculating hood.
No exhaust in this building so I bought the best non venting hood I could find.
You can see where we had to build out the existing plaster wall because there were no studs to hang these cabinets.
View attachment 108712
The pantry side cabinets open vertically so I can keep them open while cooking.
Microwave is in the cabinet above the hood, but wifey can't reach it...whoops!
View attachment 108715
Created a small counter seat for wifey to supervise from.
Floating Ikea cabinets way from a wall is a challenge unless you can bolt them to the subfloor.
We ended up bolting the peninsula to two by fours that we glued to the concrete floor to avoid radiant heat lines.
View attachment 108718
Shallow drawer insert for the knives....
View attachment 108714

Looks amazing, nice work. Beautiful assortment of knives. Any suggestions on doing the design or install that you wish you knew at the start?