Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
writersblock_gw

Budget kitchen, not ikea?

I'd been planning all along to do an ikea kitchen whenever we finally have the time to get started, but in view of Ikea's recent actions towards ikeahackers and especially to ikeafans, which did have a strong relationship to the company, I just don't think I care to do business with ikea anymore.

So now it's back to the drawing board to start looking at other rta cabinets. I know several people here have been pleased with Barker and Cliq, but does anyone have other suggestions for something they've used and been happy with?

Here is a link that might be useful: ikeafans sues ikea

Comments (24)

  • joygreenwald
    9 years ago

    We are going with Barker, but my friend did Kitchen Resource Direct's fully assembled Deerfield cabinet line. We wanted slab doors and custom sizes, so we spent more for Barker. (Honestly, it wasn't that much more, and we got cherry wood instead of maple and didn't have to compromise on anything.) But my friend's cabinets are very nice for what she paid. And she didn't have to assemble. (Our sample assembly was easy, but that was one, not a kitchen's worth, and it wasn't one we were installing. Hope the assemby isn't a total pain.)

    Of course, my cabinets are still under construction, so I can't give a reference yet. I have been impressed with my sample cabinet, especially the door, and with the communication from the owner.

  • chrissyb2411
    9 years ago

    I didn't know that about ikea, too bad

    We priced out ikea and kraftmaid. Kraftmaid was slightly more (around 10%) for the same layout, shaker style stained cabinets. Soft close, wood drawee boxes were standard. And we didn't have to assemble them. We did get them through lowes both on sale and with a lowes rebate offer. The cost does go up significantly if you are looking at glazed or painted options. Hope that helps!

  • lannegreene
    9 years ago

    I didn't know about the lawsuit. I'm disappointed with Ikea's treatment of ikeafans. Ikea is finally opening a store in my area this fall. My hope is they will treat their employees better than Walmart and provide more contemporary and more sustainable products. We'll see.

    Sorry I'm no help with your cabinet question.

  • nosoccermom
    9 years ago

    On the other hand, they will increase salaries for US employees based on MIT's livable wage calculator.

    Here is a link that might be useful: IKEA livable wage

  • rmtdoug
    9 years ago

    To all those reacting to Ikea, they are not suing anyone, at least not yet. The issue is non-Ikea web sites using Ikea's trade name in their website names, nothing more. It's a simple trademark issue. It's starting to sound like a name change to these private web sites will be enough to satisfy Ikea.

    Ikea handled this rather badly from the beginning but they were entirely within their legal rights to protect their trademark name.

  • Fori
    9 years ago

    Isn't boycotting IKEA the same as boycotting IKEAFans? :)

    IKEA should have handled it better--those sites get them business on the bigger ticket items. That's not the behavior of an internet savvy company. Check out all the related websites for, say, a big name video game. The game producers just soak in the glory and encourage it.

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    It's not ikea suing Ikeafans, but the other way round. The actual lawsuit filing is linked on the page. Ikeafans is suing Ikea, because after giving them legal permission, featuring their site on the ikea site, providing them with inside information,ikea documents like assembly instructions for posting on their site, prizes for giveaways, and so on, now they say ikeafans has no right to their domain name.

    This post was edited by writersblock on Fri, Jun 27, 14 at 18:28

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks for the suggestions, joygreenwald and chrissyb2411.

  • Skyangel23
    9 years ago

    yes, this was a bad move for Ikea. How much money did they get from members of Ikeafans and Ikeahack encouraging and supporting those who were considering Ikea items but unsure. How many people would never have bought an Ikea kitchen without all the detailed guidance on these websites? Short-sighted to a fault, in my opinion. Penny-wise but pound-foolish. I could go on. ;-)

  • Elraes Miller
    9 years ago

    BMW MINI Cooper did the same thing. Although only in the US. They won and the forum had to change names. The forum was huge and had resources for MINI parts, etc. Gratefully, the name change didn't affect the huge numbers of fans and grew beyond regardless of the name change. Nothing in the US was allowed to use the word MINI in it unless approved. I'm sure they now get Royalties from all

    I have a collection of Miniature Coca Cola items which also got the same hit. Anything outside of their owned trademark was taken off the market. Any thing sold is branded and of course is made in China.

  • nosoccermom
    9 years ago

    Anyways, to get back to the original question:
    Maybe Costco cabinets?

  • spanky_md
    9 years ago

    Have you researched these other companies' business practices, both good and bad? Are you familiar with all of IKEA's business practices, good and bad? I'm not, but before ruling out one company on a major purchase that I'd be living with for many years, I'd want to have a clear picture of them overall, I guess. (I've heard good and bad stuff about IKEA, for what it's worth.)

  • hilnaric
    9 years ago

    Costco, thanks, nosoccermom. We're just about to get a Costco here, so I'll definitely check those out once it opens.

    Spanky_md, yes, I do know a bit about Ikea's business practices that has always made me uncomfortable. In the rest of the world it's mostly a pretty good company to work for, but in the US it's been pretty bad, bad to the point that their employees have sued them a few times. They do a lot of greenwashing, too. Most companies do, since it pays these days, but of course the scale that ikea operates at gives it a lot of options for good and ill.

    Let's just put it that while I think Ikea cabinets have been the best bargain out there, I was always a bit uneasy about a lot of things and this is the tipping point for me.

    And fori, yeah, that is the dilemma here, but I don't think this is going to work out like the MINI situation that technicolor referenced, one way or the other.

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Argh, sorry. Conchita is one of my neighbors and we've been looking at real estate listings on her computer. Sorry, I didn't think about the log in, but that post was from me, not her.

    She mostly only posts in the gardening forums.

  • nosoccermom
    9 years ago

    Costco doesn't have kitchens on display in their stores. They have to be ordered online.

  • sjhockeyfan325
    9 years ago

    What is "green washing"?

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    What is "green washing"?

    The Green equivalent of white washing--pretending that you are much greener than you really are. For instance, phosphate fertilizer that advertises itself as made from "natural earth minerals", which I've seen lately.

    Ikea likes to pretend that all wood is a renewable

    sustainable resource, for example, ignoring the fact that hardwood takes a loooong time to grow and that they're wrecking the ecosystems in the areas where they clear cut old growth wood in the vast quantities they need. And of course even if that weren't a problem, those massive container ships coming across the world aren't exactly "green", either.

    The sad fact is that no choice is really as simply and easily green as most people think, but it's possible to spin almost anything to make it seem like it is.

    Here is a link that might be useful: wikipedia on greenwashing

    This post was edited by writersblock on Sat, Jun 28, 14 at 13:08

  • raee_gw zone 5b-6a Ohio
    9 years ago

    I had been contemplating an Ikea kitchen as well, was very inspired by their designs, accessories and fittings. I also looked very closely at Barker and thought that would suit my needs better. I ended up getting a (semi) local cabinetmaker to build my frameless cabinets for a price that fell in between Ikea and Barker.

    It is puzzling about the Ikea/Ikeafans brouhaha. I heard a similar story not long ago about the arcade game, SkeeBall, and a group who have started a league for playing it.

    I just noticed the other day that Ikea has adopted the toe kick drawer "hack" and is selling a toe kick drawer unit now.

  • dcward89
    9 years ago

    joygreenwald...don't mean to hijack the thread but I wanted to reassure you that assembling Barker Cabinets really is just as simple as the sample cabinet. We are finishing up our remodel using Barker and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my cabinets. We are doing this mostly DIY and we assembled all 18 cabinets very quickly. Everything is pre-drilled and they provide very simple instructions and all the hardware. The most complicated ones were the 36" corner cabinets with lazy susans but even those were done in about 15 minutes.

  • joygreenwald
    9 years ago

    Dcward89, good to hear it! That's what we are counting on. I just didn't want to offer a reference prematurely. ;)

  • Mags438
    9 years ago

    Barker keeps coming up. Costco too. Is Costco a membership thing?

  • Fori
    9 years ago

    I don't know if Scherr's is budget budget, but not only are they nice to work with, their cabinets are well-regarded as well.

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks, everyone.

    Raee, Ikea has always had toe-kick drawers in Europe because the toe kick area is higher in their European lines. Not sure what it is in the new stuff, but in Faktum toe kicks were almost 6 inches high, so it really made sense to offer them.

    >Is Costco a membership thing?

    I was wondering about that myself, if they're not sold in the stores. I know you can buy most things on their website if you're not a member, but you pay a premium for not belonging. I guess the thing to do would be to put a kitchen in your shopping cart and see.

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Hmm, just tried the cabinetry on costco's website. It takes you to a site called tuscanhillscabinetry.com, with supposedly special features for costco members. I'm very leery of their design service, which takes your measurements based on digital photos that you upload.

    Googling around, it appears that ordering cabinets where Costco is involved isn't just a great thing.