IKEA kitchen experiences

[KvetaBarry]

We've just bought our first place, and need to rip the kitchen out and start afresh (it was last renovated in 1960s apparently - when the house was built - and was not done well at all!).

We do not have a huge budget (house was cheap, but needs lots of work to make good, most of which requires us to get someone in)- probably about £5k in total, and we are attracted to IKEA by their 2 years interest free credit offer!

can anyone share IKEA kitchen experiences, like how much fitting actually costs, do they do any of the measuring for you, how good they are at actually fitting the kitchen, sorting out plumbing etc etc. Our local store is Lakeside, btw - I'd guess each store has its own team of fitters who will vary in quality!

any stories?

thanks :)

I love our Ikea kitchen. We found someone to fit it on RatedPeople and he was very good though a bit needy. It cost 1/4 or 1/3 of the Ikea fitters' prices and would have been less if we'd assembled the units ourselves. Our builder (did the extension the kitchen went in) refused to fit an Ikea kitchen and I know others who do as well - mix of snobbiness and knowing it is a bit extra work dealing with the different depth base units.

We went for gloss white too and I know friends were very doubtful about my sanity in doing so with a toddler and hoping for more kids, but it has proved me right - easy to keep looking good with just a wipe with a microfibre cloth. I went for different worktops though - didn't want solid wood and wasn't impressed with their laminate. I chose my own built-in appliances too (just oven/hob/hood) - I heard Ikea was Whirlpool and not so reliable. Same with sink & tap. I probably didn't need to but in my defense I had LONGED for a really efficient kitchen for over a decade of rental idiotic design hell and I had a long list of things to never suffer through again!

I tried using in-store planners at B&Q and Magnet but I was seriously unimpressed with their ability to understand (or believe) what I was telling them I wanted. I'd thought about it loads and knew exactly how I work and what I wanted and am a control freak and a bit ocd so I used the online planner (for hours and hours and hours, with many variations till I was sure) and they just went with my plan. Everything is now working exactly how I wanted it and now I just have to train dh to remember to put a thing back in the place he found it...

My favourite thing about Ikea over other makes is that you do get deeper units. An extra 7cm on the wall units makes a difference to what you can store there, and the full 60cm for the bases is brilliant too. I followed a mumsnet tip and kept all my water & gas along one wall and made that worktop extra deep to allow a gap for the utilities. Otherwise the fitter would have had to faff a lot more, and I get lovely deep working space.

Sorry long - reflects how happy I am with our results!

We had one fitted over five years ago. We did agonize over more expensive custom units but in the end couldn't afford them. Our builder also complained about fitting them as was used to more howdens style ones but after doing it actually said they were good quality. We had gloss white and really liked being able to plan it with their online tools. Anyway I am now an ikea kitchen bore and will recommend them to anyone that will listen. Five years later they still look perfect and are easy to clean.

A Which study recently had John Lewis first, then Ikea then someone else (can't remember) then Howdens etc

Ikea Kitchens Reviews , Go to www.ikeakitchensreviews.co.uk

[url=www.ikeakitchensreviews.co.uk]Ikea Kitchens Reviews[/url]

I wouldn't recommend you have Ikea fit your kitchen - I ordered mine in October last year and work still isn't completed + the cost turns out to be twice what my builder would have charged. The kitchen itself is good but Ikea has serious failing in its communication between the customer and its supply chain. If you go with Ikea I would advise you keep a record of all agreements you make, take the name of the employee you have made that agreement with, confirm who is responsible for actioning agreements and prepare for delays, non delivery of parts, delivery of wrong parts and allocate time to deal with the frustration. At the end of the day you may well have a nice kitchen! I have to add that Ikea staff have always been charming. Less so their fitters - I am an older woman living on my own and I have the distinct impression the fitters could benefit from some equality training - I doubt a man would have been given the same mocking, illogical and disrespectful answers to his questions.

This info has been very useful as we are planning to get a new Kitchen, Bathroom and fitted Bedroom-so expense is key to our choices.

Our new kitchen will be from IKEA although we won't be using their fitters. The in-store planners are excellent - we planned ours at home and went in thinking it would only be 30mins to go through some final details but we spent the best part of two hours while they went through everything with a fine toothed comb! They're an absolute bargain. I particularly like the pricing - you know exactly how much you're going to pay. None of this "you need a trade account and we still won't tell you the price" rubbish.

We only bought the kitchen units from I kea and paid our builder to install it. White gloss for the main run and red gloss for the island. I sourced our quartz work tops separately as well as all the appliances, sinks, taps, etc since I'm picky and the only way to get the specific non ikea brand appliances I wanted which included a boiling water tap, wine chiller, plumbed in american fridge freezer and a water softener was to economise on the kitchen units. Love my larder units and all my pan drawers - I literally could have as many as I wanted so I did! We also ran over budget on our overall house renovation/extension so the 24 mth interest free credit was extremely attractive. Not to gloat but it looks great and certainly no-one would guess that the units were from IKEA. No-one came close at all on unit price/comparable quality especially with all my pan drawers!

Just a word of warning if you are thinking about IKEA.

We ordered a kitchen back in May for delivery in June (Bodbyn Off White). It was all delivered nicely as expected, except for 3 doors and the extractor fan.

We had a note that we needed to collect the doors and fan from the store when in stock (within 28 days). June came - no stock. August came - no stock. When we came back from out summer holiday I called IKEA...

"Yes - those units are not going to be available until next year". As you can imagine, blood pressure became elevated. Strong words were exchanged. The kitchen went back...

Although, so keen was I on having an Ikea kitchen I went to Ikea Croydon to look again at doors. After a conversation there with the woman running the Kitchens department, I can honestly say that I have never had a worse customer service experience. Ikea should be ashamed of themselves.

So - Ikea may be cheap, but don't plan on getting all of your kitchen delivered (ever) .

We have just started a kitchen renovation business and we have just created a listing on Mumsnet, maybe we can help with your new kitchen? Where abouts are you based?

We installed our own IKEA kitchen, except for plumbing.
The units were easy to assemble.
The biggest hurdles were plumbing (got plumbers in), cutting the worktop (we did, but husband did mess it up a bit), and fixing the units to the wall (we did it according to their instructions and it worked).

Had an Ikea kitchen installed this year by Ikea fitters. When we ordered the kitchen last year we did not know that they were about to change the whole system, what a shambles. We spent many hours at the Croydon store sorting out problems.

Their fitters were lovely, but had numerous problems with deliveries, they did their best with what they had.

The wrong worktops were fitted and although we were compensated they are awful and will have to be changed as they mark terribly.

I understand that the units now have a space at the back for electrics and plumbing so non Ikea fitters are happier.

All in all it was a horrible experience and I wish we had gone elsewhere.

Their kitchen planner was useless in our case and so was the man who came to check the measurements. I do think though that many of the problems were due to the design changeover.

For simplicity we had their worktops, DONT.

They charge a lot to fit anything non Ikea, such as sink and cooker.

I am looking at buying a kitchen from Ikea but I don't want their fitters as they are very expensive. Can you tell me at which stage I should get in contact with you for a quote?

Ikea kitchens are great, although I am only judging from what my DBrother. There are so many handy tools that are available. For instance they have an extractor fan that can rises from the counter top and when your finished, sinks back down!!!

Was just reading this yesterday and lusting after this company's 'pimp your ikea' door fronts (not so keen on some of the other bits and bobs, but love love the pale turquoise fronts in pic 5):

10rooms.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/insane-ikea-cabinetry-upgrade.html

We bought one for our last flat (the old Faktum range) it was great and looked far more expensive than it was (under £1k for the units and £800 for the wood worktops). We've since moved and put a kitchen 10x the cost in and I really can't tell the difference....(back to Ikea for the next one!)

We've just fitted Ikea units with pimped up everything else. Builders fitted it. Fab units and no issues at all with ordering or delivery. In fact, planners at the Croydon were really great. I spoke to several in the weeks finalising plans and have no complaints. We have the grey high gloss & I love it.

Love my Ikea kitchen.