I made the trip to IKEA and picked up all the boxes and the interior fittings, including hinges, full-extension drawers (standard) and soft close drawer dampers. For my entire kitchen, including my island/peninsula, serving bar, cabinets for my built-in banquette, and wall of shallow pantries, the total was approximately $2700. Frankly, I was stunned at the savings.

Now I have found another door vendor that already sent me a quote for my doors and drawer fronts, and it is less than $1000, including hinge boring for the Blum hardware. With both the cabinets and door/drawer fronts, I could not touch that amount with the other lines.

The reason we decided to even look at IKEA is that friends of ours lived in Europe for many years and had IKEA cabs, and they absolutely swear by them. There are people on the Ikeafans site that have had their cabinets for 10+ years (One has had them for 20 Yrs) and have been delighted. If you don't do your own modifications to the cabinets (i.e. change the widths/heights), you can easily switch out the door/drawer fronts at any time. IKEA comes out with new door styles every year.

We are just about finished installing (well, having our contractor install) ikea cabinets in our kitchen. We spent about $3500 for stat white, for about 14 linear feet of base and wall cabs, up to the ceiling of 111". (Kraftmaid would have been 10k, for comparison). Our feeling is that we'd rather save for custom cabinets down the road, if we even need them.

Oddly, I would recommend installing them yourselves. We have full-time jobs and 2 little kids, so it was out of the question for us. But by the time I'd planned the kitchen, pored over ikea's web site and literature, and placed my order (and gone back twice for things I forgot or screwed up), I felt like I knew the system better than my contractor. We did knock together the boxes, however.

Our contractor did a good job, but he didn't understand how the cover panels could have eliminated the need to miter around the crown molding and undercab lights, and he installed the crown molding inboard of the door fronts rather than overhanging to match up with the doors. But I wasn't about to make him redo it. His only complaint with ikea (and he's installed it before) is that the legs aren't very sturdy. Like any stock cabinets, if your kitchen isn't square all around, they need shims, filler and caulk.

Once the cabs are in and calked, they look pretty good. No one's going to mistake them for custom or even mid-range stock, but they do have a distinctive euro flair. We jazzed things up a bit with mid-range Bosch appliances, and pricey crackle-finish subway tile.

The beauty of ikea, provided you're near a store, is that they're so cheap that you can hack them any number of ways to make them serve a need, and if you screw up, heck, a 30x15 box is only $36...

Hey, sorry to hijack, but Shelayne, can you remind me who your door company is? I know we talked about this before and you decided against Scherr's I think. Well I'm having a devil of a time getting a proposal out of Scherr's now that Dea is gone and my boxes are all installed (look great by the way).

To the original poster, I did all the research and legwork and found that IKEA with custom doors was the way for us to go. It's been a bit tricky (note the above problem with no doors or drawerfronts yet), but overall, the savings are hard to beat for the quality. Consumer Reports rated IKEA very high for quality and durability. My friend just sold her house with a 10 year old IKEA kitchen and they fetched top dollar so I don't think it's a detriment to the value of your home either.

Hi Caligirl,

I actually am thinking about going with a different company than the one I was leaning toward. The one I am looking at now is called AMZcabinetdoors.com. I got a quote (the day after I e-mailed them, so they are quick)for less than $700, including shipping! This is paint grade wood, but the better woods were not bad at all. This company is out of Texas. I even mixed it up a bit from what they offer on their website, and they gave me a quote for exactly what I stated. They say it takes approximately 9-10 days once they receive your order.

I am going to order a couple of doors from them, but so far I am liking what I am seeing. You really cannot beat $8.99 a square foot!(They also do NOT upcharge for drawer fronts as other companies tend to do.) I inquired about the Pattern B hinge boring, and that was also part of my quote.

The other company was refacedepot.com. I really liked the doors that I received, but they do not do the hinge drilling I need for the Blum hardware. I asked specifically, and he said it is all done by machine, and they only have the one pattern. Too bad. The nice thing about refacedepot, though, is that you see the cost of your doors immediately. You choose your door style, wood, edge profile, etc., enter the dimensions, and the total price is shown. I liked knowing what I was "getting into".

I noticed that some posters on Ikeafans have used MaplecraftUSA.com for their doors. They do the specific Pattern B hinge boring, but I do not know of their prices. One poster said their quote was $1000 less than Scherr's and averaged to about $17 per square foot.

HTH! Let me know how it goes! I am excited to see your kitchen! :^)

I would NEVER do it again!

We chose Ikea for our laundry room trying to save some of what we spent in the kitchen. Here are the problems we had:

Ikea kitchen staff are not well informed about options; they can only do what they've done a million times before

 Ikea staff make a ton of errors over ordering some things and not ordering others; since every single piece has to be separately ordered for every cabinet there are tons of places for errors to occur and you'll never catch them all so you end up going back and forth

 When you do something differently you'll start running into problems. If you call them (a full morning's activity), they can't diagnose them. I had to have an Ikea trouble shooting team come to see why the doors on my sink cabinet couldn't clear the bottom of the sink. Turns out it will only work if you have counters between the cabinet and the sink designed to go in it. With only room for one sink cabinet next to my washer and dryer, there was no need for or room for any counter. I have ugly scars on the front of the carcass where we had to gouge out relief for the hinges so the doors would close.

 The first faucet we got had a wobbly stem due to a manufacturing defect. Ikea replaced it but we had plumbing expenses to install it, de-install it and install a replacement. And then it leaked from the undersink faucet connection within 6 months and we had another plumbing bill.

 You don't want the carcasses to ever get wet because the particle board starts turning to oatmeal when wet for any prolonged time. Unfortunately, we didn't know the sink was leaking until the following day. Fortunately, I insisted on the legs that keep the sink cabinet off the floor. The cabinets are raised on feet anyway but if I had chosen the toe kick look, that stuff would have been ruined.

 The white finishes that are "supposed" to be wood really look like plastic or Termofoil. We tried to live with the doors but had to replace them in the end.

 We used their butcher block counter on the opposite wall for my sewing area. They don't tell you that they can't access certain parts like that counter until the store is closed. So they're not even available until you make a second trip.

 The shopping experience and return process are excruciating and better designed for trained mice than people. So you don't want to deal with it more than necessary. I'd say I had 6 trips to the store to get an 7'x7' room done with one lower cab, one tall cab and 5 upper cabs. I'm lucky to only be 20 miles from a store. I can't imagine what it's like for someone who has to travel a distance to get there.

But, other than that, for a low visibility spot like the laundry room, they're OK. And I've seen some really gorgeous kitchens that people who have more patience and DIY experience than I have have hacked together.

We ended up with an attractive and useable space but I doubt I saved any money and had far too much aggravation over it.

Sorry to sound negative but these are things I wish someone had told me when I was in the oh-but-I'll-save-so-much-money phase.

Sorry the room is too small to get much in frame. Those are Elfa units under the counter in the sewing area. Ikea makes their own version but Elfa gave me far more options for widths.

Laundry side:

Sewing/storage/utility side:

The quality of Ikea today is nowhere near the quality 5, 10 or 20 years ago. My in-laws have 20 year old Ikea dining table and chairs and 2 coffee tables and they are all made from of solid wood, not particle board with a thin veneer on them. 7 years ago we bought our oldest daughter a dresser, it was made of particle board and veneer. Last year we bought our youngest a dresser and it was made out of particle board and some kind of glued "wood look" paper. It has already buckled from the weight of a table lamp, now the top drawer doesn't close anymore. We also bought the Lack wall unit to store books and the veneer is already scratched, just from books being slid on them. So I asked them do you use the same quality veneer on the Lack that you use on the kitchen cabinets, and they didn't know. I'm an Ikea shopper (half my house is from Ikea), but there are some things that I just wouldn't risk.

I really don't think you can compare their furniture and their kitchens. Even ten years ago everyone I knew who lived in Ikea territory said yes to the kitchens, no to most everything else.

I'm sure experiences like imrainey's with IKEA do happen but I just have to report that our experience doing our new kitchen has been very different (and I don't think our kitchen is "hacked together" either).

First, I agree that some of the IKEA staff are not well-informed about the various options (and the kitchen system is really a kit of parts that can be assembled in a multitude of ways -- even ways that IKEA never imagined, with no hacking involved). The lack of great service is part of why the cabinets don't cost so much. You have to do more of the upfront legwork yourself and be very well informed going into the ordering process (there's another site, ikeafans.com, that was very helpful with that part of the process).

The major drawback to IKEA, as I see it, is the limited door styles (and as others have mentioned here, it's possible to get around that by ordering doors/drawers from another vendor). I also agree that the white styles were not to my taste. Our doors are shaker-style, solid white oak frames with oak veneer centers. They wouldn't necessarily have been my top choice if money had been no object but combined with the soapstone we could afford because of using the IKEA cabinets, they've definitely grown on me.

I had no trouble with the ordering process. I knew what I was ordering (after hours poring over the really cool IKEA on-line kitchen planning software, which generates a list of parts after you make your plan) and in our store (Round Rock, Texas) the draft order included each cabinet with its individual parts grouped together. I was able to quickly review that draft order and find places where I wanted to make modifications (extra shelves or a door instead of drawers). We ended up with no missing parts, only one part we didn't need, and a few we changed our minds about and returned or exchanged later.

We also had no problem with ordering things like butcher block; we went to Kitchens, placed the order for the material and picked it up immediately after check-out. Our doors and drawer fronts were a special order (the store didn't stock our style, which is apparently not wildly popular) but we knew going in that it would take 2 weeks to get them.

We assembled all the boxes ourselves (not difficult) but had a contractor do the installation. I agree completely with Pasigal that I knew more about the IKEA system than our carpenters and that was frustrating at times.

Returns and exchanges have not been a problem, unless we were trying to do it at 3 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon, when there were long lines. Weekday nights are much quieter. Our experience with the IKEA home delivery system was also pleasant; everyone involved was professional and did what they said they would do when they said they would do it.

We started out planning to get KraftMaid cabinets. The estimate was $10,000. We bought basically the same cabinets from IKEA for $3,800 -- but they came standard with full-extension drawers and soft close doors and drawers. We would have paid thousands more to get that from KM.

As I said, I'm sure bad experiences with IKEA happen. But for us at least the difficulties -- which were really limited to needing to be well-informed up front and the limited door style choices -- were far outweighed by the positive results.

sw_in_austin-

So glad you had a better experience!

I just want to say that when I use "hacked" (which I think is the term in use) I use it with great respect. The people who hack rely on great creativity and skill to get looks that are individual and utilitarian beyond Ikea's design. They make the products fit their design and don't design to use the products.

I'm sorry you've had a tough time, IMRainey, but it seems to me a lot of the problems you have are pretty much 'to be expected' when dealing with a retailer of this type. It's like expecting the nice lady at Walmart who hurries over from the sewing department to be able to answer technical questions about the plasma TVs.

They are marketing these to the DIY market, and expect the consumers to be pretty proactive, creative, problem solvers.

Ordering cabs from HD isn't a cake walk, either-- it can be simple if you get a good salesman, but if you don't it can be a real pain.

I think the key is to use their planning tool [which is pretty darn good, actually, and easier to use than some others I've tried], use the 'item' list to generate a hard copy, and take that to the store. Make sure everything you need is on the list, and everything on the list gets in your truck.

Actually though, I'm speaking hypothetically: haven't actually bought mine yet...

Imrainy --

My apologies if I'm a bit sensitive about our new IKEA cabs. One of the carpenters working on our project had a bit of an attitude about working with the IKEA stuff and I still haven't quite gotten over it.

I also admire those who use the IKEA products as a starting point and do something really cool with them. We didn't do that so much (except for the 18-inch trash pullout that I wanted and that IKEA says doesn't exist even though they sell all the parts -- it's working great, btw, after I finally managed to convince the carpenters that I knew what I was talking about).

In any case, thanks for the explanation. And I am sorry you had such a miserable experience.

My wife and I looked at Ikea fairly seriously while planning out kitchen remodel.

We found the kitchen staff at the store we went to here in Toronto quite helpful and knowledgeable. We generally haven't had any major issues with Ikea stuff we've bought - occasionally a missing screw, or a hole drilled slightly off on a piece (cheap TV stand for den). We did have a bad experience with a staff member in the curtains section - she was completely unhelpful and even got snippy for no reason when we asked for further explanation. The info on the website didn't match up with what we saw in the store and it turned out to be much more expensive then we had first thought it would be.

We decided to go a completely different route for our kitchen remodel. A friend had gotten some antiques from a local Asian furniture store and importer and got an email from their mailing list about their new kitchen cabinets.

We took a look at the stuff and really loved the style. We've got a fair bit of space to play with which made the decision easier. The cabinets aren't exactly the most space efficient as far as the actual storage they provide. The freestanding design and their use of reclaimed solid wood beams seems to be the reason for this.

Cost wise its really not bad either. We're getting a 6 foot island, two 5 foot wall cabinets, a small tray cabinet, 6.5 ft of upper cabinets, and a 5 foot pantry - all coming in at around $14,000 with shipping.

We were a bit worried about going with a small company selling what seemed to be a pretty unusual product, but asked around (including here if anyone recalls) and got fairly positive responses. Apparently freestanding cabinets are pretty common in Europe, and the fact that the wood is reclaimed will make it more resistant to damage from water and humidity and such.

Here's my IKEA kitchen.

Yes, planning and ordering has to be done extremely carefully, since you are on your own. Sorry you had a bad experience.

We spent about 3 hours in the store ordering - checking our lists, double checking against their computer printout, finding some items with differing part numbers than appear in the design software and doublechecking that they were the same, then later at home sitting and counting over 100 boxes coming off the delivery truck and checking the items off the lists.

I was lucky - no pieces were missing or damaged. The only drawback was that we did not order enough toe kick and cover panels. So back to the store for those. Thankfully there's a store nearby.

For a total kitchen, you need to have another person help you double check your design measurements and parts list, and go with you when you order so that you don't go crazy. It's detail work like you'll never have to do again.

:-)

Gina, I love your kitchen. Do you mind if I ask you how much you spent on your kitchen? I have a friend that is interested in doing a moderately priced kitchen- I'd like to be able to tell my friends a ball park for doing a great kitchen with Ikea. How do you find the quality in person?

Your kitchen IS lovely, Gina.

Our experiences with Ikea have been good also, most especially the incredible savings over the closest competitor, although checking over my large order by myself before driving off with it was tedious. My husband went fishing that day, leaving me to go into town to buy it myself (he got to install). They advertise that their components come in compact flat boxes that can fit in cars, and it's true. Our whole kitchen, minus the doors I didn't get there, came home in the back of our pickup, with minimal tiedowns needed, although it drove like it was carrying a giant water ballon. Those innocent-looking boxes are heavy.

Regarding the quality of the furniture, since it was brought up, Ikea sells various lines of various grades. When looking for a dresser narrow enough to build into my closet, I bypassed the particleboard they did offer and went for solid wood with soft-close glides instead.

I should have noted that I dealt with the store in Burbank, CA. Other stores may well have better trained staff, be more accessible by phone and not be so busy that you wait an hour (minor hyperbole but not misleading) for everything. Your experience may be -- hopefully, it will be -- different than mine.

That said, those were my actual experiences. It could be that if I had done a whole kitchen I would have saved a considerable amount of money. For a small room like mine, the savings were minimal and the aggravation not.

to sw_in_austin- I hear ya about the contractors! My GC -- with whom I had a fantastic collegial relationship all through our project -- began treating me like a small stupid child when I first suggested Ikea for the laundry. In the end, it worked out but mostly because he was able to make it work. ;>

And, the glossy plastic shine on everything white aside, I think Ikea has put together very attractive cabinets. Plus, the people who use them as a canvas and then get creative (like the woman many months ago who showed her red, blue and yellow very traditional Scandinavian kitchen) can really make them sing.

Mazel tov to those of you going the Ikea route! ;>

Hey, Burbank! That was the first Ikea I ever went to, when it first opened. Seeing how customers were channeled through the entire store was a whole new thing to us and very amusing and impressive. Also that my friend who walked out on her husand could have outfitted her new apartment in one cruise through one store--if it had been there the month before. Nostalgia...

Ikea gives a 25 year warranty on its kitchens. I think it's pretty much understood that the kitchen stuff is a different grade to the rest of their furniture (and I speak as someone with Ikea bookcases, beds, all sorts of stuff).

I found the advice at the Ikeafans website to be essential: they have parts lists available to download, which helped me hugely in preparing my order. Additionally, they recommend, if possible, working with the Ikean in the Kitchen dept. to draw up a Draft Order. This stays in their system for 30 days. I then took home the print out and spent a day going over it, checking it with my GC. I then went back and confirmed it. (I believe this can be done by telephone and fax if you don't want to make a second trip).

I think, if you can do it, it's well worth paying for the stuff to be delivered. It really made life so much simpler.

My GC was also initially wary, but once he realised I knew what I was talking about, he was happy to work together to make it happen, and he checked with me every time there was something to resolve. He was also much happier when he realised they include cover panels, toe kicks etc. We made it a team installation :) My experience with the Ikea New Haven kitchen folk was a good one.

For myself - and maybe it's being European - I love the finish on their white doors, and in fact have the Adel White ones. Shiny finish is typical in Europe and what I'm accustomed to. (So is particleboard, for that matter, so that didn't worry me).

Plus, at a cost of approx $2,600 for cabinets and parts, compared with the $18,000 for custom . . . well, it's obvious.

Yes, chinchette, I haven't ordered yet (still resolving some code questions and a lot of preliminary work needed before we're ready for cabs), but in the Ikea planner the cost for a kitchen including an 8ft run along one wall, an 11 ft run on another and an additional 10 ft of lowers only (dining area sideboard), in their Lidingo white style (a medium priced door), came to just over $5000, including butcherblock counters, end panels, toekick, cornice moldings, knobs and pulls, full extension drawers, soft close dampers, and the single Ikea fireclay farmhouse sink. That's for 28 cabinets.

Now those were the prices prior to June 30, when they had a price increase, but I think it's only about ten percent overall, if that much. You just can't beat their prices.

BTW, Kalsebo and a couple of other Ikea kitchens are 30% off right now. Not Akurum cabinets, only doors, drawer fronts and cover panels.

We also had no problems ordering our cabinets from Ikea, and got everything right on the first go-round. However, we had already spent a lot of time planning things out using their planning software, so we knew what we wanted and which parts we needed. It is a DIY product, so you do have to be prepared to do a lot of legwork yourself. That's where the savings come in.

Here are some photos of our white Abstrakt cabinets. We have not yet installed the stainless steel legs we plan to use in lieu of the toe kicks. We also modified our sink cabinet to be a pullout, which is great for access.

Also the pics show some open shelving - also from Ikea. The cost of our cabinets for our small kitchen (9 x 10) was $2900 all taxes included.

We installed our cabinets in November and are extremely pleased with them so far. Friends of ours installed their Ikea cabs 10 years ago and they still look like new.

Sorry these photos are a little dark. Also taken mainly from one angle to show someone else the pic of our oven. (last photo is a BEFORE shot).

kailleanm, what is your sink?

Chinchette, go ahead and email me - click on my user name and go from there.

Actually my pictures don't do the kitchen justice - everyone who's seen it says the pix suck compared to the real thing. That was my old camera - that's my story and I'm sticking to it, LOL

I do need to take better pix. The Adel white is a thermofoil cab, non-glossy. It looks fabulous in person. I'm lucky that the look I wanted was available from IKEA. My granite cost more than the cabs, including assembly and installation.

Yes, do not expect any service over the phone from IKEA. I mean, you are really on your own. I used the Carson IKEA (SoCal). If anyone needs help, email me.

I'm not finished yet. I've been too busy. I'm going to put a shallow pantry cab in (in the pic there's an old bright red console where that will go). I want the Linjar bright blue or the Nexus with the opaque Rubrik glass doors. (See I have no children so I can have stuff like glass doors, nyah-nyah!)

Linjar is being discontinued in the US this year, and is being offered at discount, so if you want it, you better buy it soon!!! (it does look great, but apparently not popular in the US)

WritersBlock - my sink was purchased from EBay, but I can't find the seller now. It was listed as a stainless undermount urban series.

It is super quality - 16 guage - and was a perfect fit for the Ikea 24" sink base. Good price too - $329 Canadian.

I wish I could find it for you on Ebay!

Thanks, kailleanm. I'll rummage around and see if I can find it there.

A couple of other people had asked about the sink as well, and I did post the info a couple of times before - probably Dec/Jan period. But I can't bring up those posts on gardenweb either by searching for my name.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Kailleanm, that's a great kitchen, too. I love what you did with the window. It really makes it special. Between you guys alone, I suspect some salespeople out there have lost some big commissions today.

Thanks Rosie.

In an ideal world, the garden window would have been much nicer above the sink where the view is better. (Instead of looking at our neighbour's house).

But we had to replace the existing poorly installed 4 x 4 window with someone of equal or larger size. Making it smaller wasn't an option as we have exterior bottle glass stucco that is unique to our area and nearly impossible to match.

In the end, I love the extra counter space, and the peripheral views to the north and south are much nicer than the east view of my neighbour. So not a total loss and the sunshine in the morning is so welcome here on the Wet Coast of BC.

It really expanded the kitchen. My DH pushed for it, and I'm so glad he did. We get a nice cross breeze through the sidelight windows.

My experience so far has been very positive. As I said before, a few weeks ago I walked into IKEA, armed with a list I had painstakingly created the night before and sat down with the Ikean there to place my order. My son and I went to have a bite to eat in their cafeteria did a little shopping and then went down to furniture pick-up, where they had several carts all ready, loaded with my kitchen. A gentlemen came over and loaded my van--that, in itself, took 45 minutes. I had over 35 linear feet of base cabinets--including pantries-- and about half that in uppers, plus all the "innards". My van was jam-packed--thankfully, I had persuaded hubby to remove the seats the night before or it wouldn't have fit. My van was practically scraping the ground, LOL.

The entire process took a couple of hours. Of course this does NOT include the hundreds of hours I spent designing our kitchen (and changing the plan probably 20-30 times) and poring over the catalogues and parts and price lists until my eyes bled. I find Ikeafans has been extremely helpful as well.

We have a lot of IKEA in our home, and upon telling my hubby that I thought we should go with IKEA kitchens, he was NOT convinced. We have Malm dressers for our boys, and the front of the drawers continually loosen and pull away from the sides. He was not impressed, and he believed the kitchen cabinets were the same. I definitely had my work cut out for me, so I bought a base cabinet, assembled it (I LOVE how the drawers just click together--easy peasy) and put it in our hall closet for bath and cleaning products. We use it every day, and he is much more relaxed about it, though he still worries about the whole "particle board thing".

I am feeling very comfortable with the upcoming installation, as I am the "assembler" in our house, and I have assembled every single thing in our home that has needed assembly. I find IKEA products to have the easiest assembly of all.

So far, so good. :^)

Seems like Ikea is the way to go in the recession. Thanks for all the data folks.

Sorry this is so long, but the more you know the better. Here goes:

If by "hacked together" you mean "infinite customization," yes, you can do that with Ikea cabinets. But YOU need to be ready to do it. Your Ikea custom installer can do it but your contractor who has never used Ikea cabinets may balk at the learning curve, because there IS one. We are doing DIY install. My husband, a retired Navy engineer is tickled with the modularity of the cabinets. He has made any number of comments about the design quality being sound and well-thought. If it's not going together easy, guess what you are doing it wrong. Need to tweak it after assembly? Yes, it's a pain, but you CAN take it apart and do it again.

The Ikea staff are first and foremost retail workers. What do retail workers get paid? How much do you really expect them to know? Think about the guy working in hardware at Wally World. Last week he was working in lingerie. How much can you really expect him to know about hardware? The folks working at Ikea may or may not be the rabid Ikea aficionados that you will find posting at IkeaFans.

I, too have had more than my share of frustrations with the Ikea retail "experience." Personally, I have found the "Ikea shopping experience" punishing. HINT: unless you crave rubber cafeteria food that you will wait in line for over an excessive period of time, eat before you go; don't take the kids. If I didn't stand to save a great amount of money, I would NEVER shop there. My "local" store is 100 miles away; it takes at least an hour and a half to get there. I feel like I need to plan on spending a full day and at least $500 to make it worth going there.

I don't appreciate being treated like cattle en route to slaughter, so I have to be especially motivated to go there. As a denizen of Florida, I can assure you that the folks at The Mouse could take a few lessons from Ikea. The day I bought my cabinets I spent about $4500.00 for the features that come standard from Ikea, I would have paid $15K easily anywhere else. There was a lady in front of me in line waiting to pay who had about 3 items totaling $28. I would NEVER stand in line for 45+ minutes if I was not going to save a huge amount of money. Apparently, though LOTS of folk are happy to spend the day standing in line for the privilege of being given wrong information..

ORDERING PROCESS: I used the Ikea Kitchen planning software, which is free. If you haven't used any CAD software before, there will be a learning curve. If you HAVE used a CAD software before the learning curve will be easier. The software will generate a parts list for ordering. On first blush, this sounds great. Unfortunately, my local store would not look at it. I had to manually transcribe the list from the software to the paper format favored by Ikea. The software IS helpful. The thing you need to know is that when you print out the order list, it does NOT group like items. This means that when you print the parts list it won't say "buy 2 37" corner base units, 1 36 inch sink base, 4 24 inch wall cabs," etc. The software will list the cabinets in the order that you add them to your kitchen plan. This is exceedingly tedious when you start to transcribe that computer generated parts list on to that hand written form that Ikea demands.

Knowing this, I would use the Ikea Planner software to plan my kitchen as I want it, save it and print it out. Take a break and analyze your plan. How may X cabs are there? How many Y cabs are there? How many Z cabs are there? Then on another day, I'd do it again using a different file name. But this time use my analysis of the first plan and I would place my cabs by type, so that when I print that parts list out again, it will be easy to use when I place my order. When you transcribe the order you need two sets of eyes that are familiar with the plan. Use bright ink to check thinks off as you add them to the hand written order list.

There are places on the net like IkeaFans where you can learn anything and everything that you want to know about what you are trying to do with your Ikea installation, whether it is standard or if everything needs to be tweaked.

DELIVERY: We bought on a "cash and carry basis," and then walked over to the service desk and arranged for delivery. We have a large truck that would accommodate the cabinets, all 210 boxes, but we opted for delivery starting at $89 to our zip code. Ultimately it ost about $250 for delivery - well worth the cost, IMO.

I can't address the issues of return/exchange of damaged items. We will be going back to Ikea tomorrow or the next day. Our two 36" wide wall cabs had 3 of 4 doors that were damaged. The other upper cabs have had a much lower damage rate.

I second everything abejadulce wrote, except that you CAN get Ikea to print out a component list, cabinet by cabinet, but you have to know that you can ask for it - I got them to print me two versions (I learned this from Ikeafans.com) which helped when it came to going through everything.

I was short one door in my delivery, and a set of hinges: I called Ikea immediately and they sent them by UPS the next day, at their charge. Greatly eliminated frustration, and they were very helpful.

Also, I don't think you really need anything resembling CAD training to use the software. It is very easy to use - pretty much drag and drop and you get the hang of moving things around reasonably quickly if you're reasonably adept at using the computer.

Yeah, as someone who's primarily a mac person, I never could get anywhere with Sketchup, but when I had access to a windows computer, the planner was very easy to use (except for its inherent bugginess).

I'm actually a little surprised at the grumbling about the bother over shopping other places. It was definitely the easiest several thousand dollars I ever saved out shopping and beat all to heck what it took to earn it as takehome pay. As for waiting in line for my kitchen behind people picking up a coffee table or crib, as an egalitarian at heart I found it both funny and reasonable.

Sketchup is definitely much harder to use than the Ikea tool, I agree.

I was really lucky at the store too, Rosie. I had zero problems with my order and it went quite quickly as I knew already exactly what I wanted. All our door/drawer fronts, etc, were in excellent condition, too.

It helps a lot to ask them when their quiet times are. DO NOT go on a weekend if you can help it. Also, my particular location has a certified kitchen designer working sometimes, but not always. So it pays to do your homework about timing, too.

I am in the process of putting in an Ikea kitchen in Adel Birch. I did not even want to look at Ikea originally and then I did a search online and found lots of glowing reviews, saw the Consumer Reports rating of 4th place and found ikeafans.com
The rest is history :)

olchik -- do the birch veneer cover panels and fill/plinth pieces match the color of your Adel Birch cabinet doors/drawers or are they a little bit different? I am trying to decide which look I want but the cover panels and fill pieces appear to be a slightly different (maybe more yellowish) color. Is that right?

Sarchlos, it depends on what batch you get. Our first set of doors were probably 6 shades darker than the toekick (although our doors were much darker/more yellow, not the toekicks). The doors we bought when we changed from false drawers to long doors started off 2 shades darker than the toekick, 4 lighter than the existing doors. We took those back, but it's pretty much split between the old door color and the toekick now. I would post a picture, but I can't find either the card reader (I have its cord though!) or the cord to connect directly!

We just had an IKEA kitchen installed, so here's my assessment so far.

Planning. The IKEA planning software is pretty easy to use, even without any prior experience with CAD/3D programs and despite some idiosyncrasies/bugs in it. Its 3D perspective is great for visualizing how your cabinets will look in your space, and it's really handy to have the entire IKEA cabinet inventory in the database to plug and play with different options. It also dynamically updates your cabinet order and recalculates the total cost depending on your selections--another nice feature.

Ordering and payment. The IKEA kitchen sales people, as other have said, are mainly sales people. They seem to have some specialized knowledge of the kitchen products, but don't expect them to provide design assistance. You need to know exactly what you want. Make your list and check it twice! Our person at IKEA Emeryville was mostly competent, but there were were minor two goofs with our order: (1) He ordered two hinge dampers per door, when one is generally sufficient for all but the heaviest doors; and (2) he ordered two giant island cover panels instead of a bunch of smaller ones, which our installer/contractor later said wouldn't work. After placing our order, we walked over to the long line at the cash registers. When it was finally our turn, we gave our list to the cashier, who incorrectly told us to bring our order to the pickup area and pay there. When we went over to pickup, they said we had to pay at the cashier. Thankfully, when we complained that we were directed to go to pickup, they took note of the cashier who misdirected us and processed our payment without sending us back into the queue.

Delivery. We had our order of 20 cabinets delivered by IKEA. It cost a bit more, but considering it was well over a ton and that we live on the third floor of a walk-up, it was a bargain. The delivery people were competent, considerate, and careful. They delivered in a middle of a heatwave and didn't charge us extra for the stairs, so we tipped them generously. There were over a hundred pieces, so I spent the better part of an afternoon verifying that the correct pieces were all accounted for. This was made harder by the fact that the same parts may appear more than once on your order sheet, rather than being grouped together.

Resolving Order Issues. Four of the doors that were delivered were of the wrong style, so I ended up calling the customer service number to notify them of the error. (You have only a couple days to do this or else.) The call center is in Philadelphia, and our customer service rep handled the call well and seemed competent. The problem arose, however, when our case was handed over to the Emeryville, CA store where we made our purchases. The Emeryville IKEA was somehow responsible for calling us to confirm our new order in a couple of days, which they never did. When I called to inquire about my order status, they said that two doors were on their way to us via UPS. I told them there ought to be four doors, but they insisted that I had only ordered two, and that I had no further recourse. When I asked, if this meant that even though I paid for the four doors, and called the problem in using their protocols, that I wouldn't get what I paid for, she said yes. This is when my wife stepped in. She spoke to additional representatives and the customer service manager in Emeryville, all in vain. At one point, one of the reps had the audacity to claim that she herself had called me in the days after I placed the new order, and that I had confirmed the order of two doors. My wife said she had the call records to prove that was a lie. Finally, the rep gave in and said she'd order the two extra doors, but that if we had any other problems, that they would not help us any more! We were appalled that they would treat us like common criminals, having spent more than $5,000 in their store! We since learned that IKEA Emeryville is notorious for terrible customer service, and that Bay Area customers are advised to go to IKEA East Palo Alto for better service.

Installation. We are not DIYers, so we ended up using an IKEA-recommended installer/general contractor. His bid came in only a tiny bit higher than our usual contractor, so we went with the IKEA guy, since he had much more experience with the cabinet system. He was really easy to work with, fast, and efficient. His experience modifying the cabinets for custom installations was also a bonus. His experience was most evident in assembly; one guy fully assembled all 20 cabinets in just a matter of hours! He said they do quite a bit of work installing cabinets from other manufacturers (they only get 33% of their business from IKEA), and IKEA is their favorite because it has the fewest manufacturing defects.

Reflections. On the whole, our IKEA experience was positive. For the price, you get a nice looking, pretty decently constructed cabinet with really nice hardware and features (e.g., Blum hinges and glides). The styles and sizes may be limited, but we were able to find something we liked. We are really happy with the cabinet ergonomics, and most folks so far are surprised when they find out we used IKEA. I can't speak for the longevity, but there is some peace of mind from knowing there's a 25-year warranty behind the product. Our contractor, who does warranty work for IKEA, said he could vouch for IKEA, that they stand by their warranty. He said he once even did a warranty replacement of all the doors and cover panels in a kitchen for a customer who had a problem with a single, older door no longer being manufactured! Despite our bad customer service experience with the folks in Emeryville, we are still happy with the value we got for our money.

Tofu Dog--

My sis and her husband just bought a "fixer" in Palo Alto...I am appalled at what a fixer goes for there! Can you share the name of your installer? They are going to need to gut and re-do the kitchen...

I think those are the original 1950's wall ovens, and yes, that is nasty brown laminate. The house is an early Eichler they got from the estate of the original owners. Sis is pretty certain she's going to use Ikea...the styling is good for the mid-century modern vibe the house has going.

mjsee--

The contractor we used was Skyland/Cal Am Construction. Is it just me or is your sister's kitchen not that bad? Sure, it could use some more modern appliances and maybe some fresh cabinet hardware, but overall it looks serviceable. Maybe it's just a really great photograph?

Tofu dog...

It's not horrible...but it's very dark. It lacks counterspace, too. She wants to get rid of the wall ovens and install a high end stand alone range. She's been told that this is bad for resale...wall ovens are considered more "high end"...I told her to talk to her agent. I think the additional counter space would be a plus. Honestly,the kitchen functions really well...but they will probably only be in this house 3-5 years and they have to think of resale.

This end unit is pretty imposing:

Her thought was to take out the middle section of cabinets to create a more open feeling/pass-through to the LR. (Were it me, I would leave it as is and put glass doors on the top two tiers...it's an incredibly functional piece. (And I'm not a huge fan of the Completely open floor plans now in fashion...I'm a messy cook!) There's no point in eliminating the unit entirely...it is placed between two support posts that must remain.

Another shot: into the DR:

Trust me...when it comes time to design this thing...I'll be posting my own thread. I'm in NC...she's in CA...with three little boys (2, almost 4, and 7) and she works full-time from home. (She has an awesome young woman who is nannying for her.)I've done a complete gut/remodel on our former house...on a teensy budget...back when my boys weren't much older than hers. That and the fact that I'm the Big Sis...and the family Google Queen, means that I get called in for advice. (Really, I just like my info boards!)

Thanks for the info--I'll forward it on!

melanie

melanie -- your sister has an Eichler with original fixtures. That is rare and valuable. If she's not planning to live there for more than 3-5 years, she should contact a realtor who specializes in Eichlers before doing ANY remodeling. I know there are Eichler specialists in both So. Cal. and the San Fran area. These people will have lots of sources and information for renovating and repairing her home. Preservation is key to resale value of her Eichler -- and her agent is most likely right about resale value re the range vs. ovens/cooktop in the Eichler. Eichler did not use big beefy ranges in his houses because they would interfere with the streamlined appearance he was going for.

I agree with sarschlos. A big stand along range will not look good in an Eichler! Induction cook top would fit right in. We owned a similarly constructed home. I love that style.

Ditto that. She has pottential to make a lot of money on the house, if done well, and the potential to really make a sow's ear out of a silk purse. :-)

melanie --

I've also been a big sis to a brother in a Palo Alto Eichler ... 4 children later, they've moved to something bigger, but I have fond memories of helping oil down those endless mahogany plywood panels in the kitchen. If your sis is lucky, her radiant floors still work -- loved that!

Check out these resources for some great reno ideas & inspiration pictures from a number of local Eichler realtors and re-designers:

Eichler Kitchen Remodelling

Eichler House Doctor

If you google 'Eichler Kitchen' you'll find a plethora of great stuff. I agree that IKEA is the way to go for any cabinetry beyond whatever's already built-in.
cheers,

I've told her the above...you are preaching to the choir. I've been out to see the place...and here are my observations:

I don't think cab finishes are original...I think the original owners had them refaced, probably in the 1970's. The interiors still have "Eichler gray" on them...but the exteriors are dark, unattractive "walnut" laminate. And the knobs...ick.

The Original Owners (OO's from here on out!)modified their home pretty extensively. They took what was (I'm certain) an 1100 foot floor plan and shifted the footprint. I found what I thought was the original floorplan online--but of course can't find the bookmark right now! Much of the original finish remains...particularly the mahogany ply interior, but much has been changed. For instance...they eliminated sliders. House has almost NO airflow. It has baseboard heat, as well, and according to the engineer it never had the" expected" radiant floor heat. It's an early Eichler...no atrium...built in 1952...and the garage has been divided into a utility room and a (small) family room. Additionally, the master has been shifted somehow...and they added space along the front...it's all rather confusing. At some point the OO's put down carpeting and brick-look ceramic...but I'm certain the original flooring was asbestos tile. It's still visible in the closets.

Sis and her husband have discussed changes with the real estate agents (I think they are Eichler specialists) and are proceeding with caution. Nothing is going to happen before next summer--they are going to have to move out while things are changed. Perhaps by then I'll have'em convinced. to keep to the original kitchen footprint!

Some bad paint happened in that house...I've been researching Eichler colors and finishes for them and am hoping to help them out that way. I think I've found almost all the good sites All the posts and beams have been painted a seriously unattractive brown. Not rich enough to be chocolate...just UGLY. Ditto the exterior--yucky borwn and a particularly hideous taupe. It's all very sad. But my sis and her husband will do right by the house.

I'll link to the web album sis sent me (from her realtor)--if y'all are interested.

Hey, I know this is a really old post but I just have to know...what happened to the Eichler kitchen? I sure hope they found a way to restore it instead of modernizing it.