IKEA kitchen? Anyone got one?

[Joolyjoolyjoo]

Hi guys,

Following on from our fire, we are hopefully soon going to be in the position of getting a new kitchen. I have been looking around. I like a lot of the unit options at Ikea, and, importantly, there is no 4-6week lead time (I want to be able to get it ASAP if we get the go ahead)

It does seem to be quite cheap, compared to some other places. I know nothing about "quality" of kitchen units etc. So! Do any of you have an IKEA kitchen, and how do you rate it? Do you know anyone who does? What is your general opinion on IKEA kitchens?

Thanks in advance!! Would really appreciate your opinions

My Ikea kitchen is 12 years old and still looks good!

Thanks again, guys. Mostly positive stuff (hoping bethelbeth's experience isn't typical!)

I've done the online design thing, although we are getting some building work done after the fire, so don't want to finalise it until I know there aren't going to be any sticky-out bits, and we can have a chance to see where pipes are when old kitchen out, just to make sure that what I want is feasible! I've also got to wait to see what the insurance will pay out.

I really can't wait, though!

Another vote for Ikea kitchens here. We put one in because it was all we could afford and the old kitchen was literally falling apart. We designed it online and then went into the shop (the Lakeside one) and went through the design with one of the kitchen people there. He pointed out a couple of things we'd missed and then we just ordered it. Delivered about a week later and then installed a few days after that. We got the solid oak cupboard fronts (Tidaholm, I think it was called) and they're great. We got all our appliances and taps etc there too and we've not had a problem with any of those either.

I'd recommend sourcing your own fitter, though, or at least get quotes from some independents. Ikea quoted us £2500 for fitting, but we found a bloke who was fantastic and did it for £1500. I've also heard that if you have a problem with Ikea fitters, Ikea blame the fitters and the fitters blame Ikea, leaving you nowhere. But this is just what I've heard.

I love my Ikea kitchen too. We got an independent fitter to do the job for less than half the cost quoted by Ikea, but we already had gas/plumber/electric work being done on the extension the kitchen went in.

Easy fix for the pipes (if you have the space) is to have the relevant set of units installed 5-10cm away from the wall and topped with an extra-deep work surface. This was easy for us as we kept the gas and water along one side of a galley kitchen and I LOVE my extra deep worktop. I especially love the space efficiency in Ikea units - the base and wall ones have about 7cm extra depth and it is amazing what a difference that makes to what you can pack in there.

We have one sliding door cupboard - a wall unit depth one installed as a tall base unit and I am so pleased with it. Expensive but very easy to use.

We got worktops, sink/tap and appliances elsewhere as I wasn't impressed with Ikea's options.

I have had four fitted kitchens from Ikea in the last four years (moved quite a bit). The one I have at the moment is high gloss white and i love it. Everyone comments on it. Not sure if this has been mentioned, but I think compared to B&Q, the top wall cabinets are higher than other similar in price. Great for me as I store all my crap up high. Oh I think you can get standard upper wall ones or higher upper wall ones, I have always went for the higher upper wall ones.

The price of them are great, and also the fact you don't have to wait 6/8 weeks for delivery.

Think with my present kitchen, I got the work top in ikea, but appliances elsewhere. IN other houses have got work tops and appliances elsewhere.

Sorry that should be four fitted kitchens in last 10 years.

Another one saying they are pretty good for the price - our rented-out flat has one in. Do order all the bits in advance and double-check for lack of damaged bits before the day of fitting though!
And the quality of fitting makes a huge difference - ensure you plan where the pipes go etc.

After 5 years and the tenant from hell's best efforts to destroy it, the Ikea kitchen is in great nick except for one kickboard needing replacing.

We have an ikea kitchen and we love it! It is the gloss white abstrakt one - I was really surprised by how sturdy it is, especially as they are very good value for money. Ours is a month old :-) The doors are really quite heavy and I think it is very good quality, although I am sure a lot of the sturdiness is down to a good quality fitter (DH!). I LOVE the deep pan drawers, you can get so much stuff in them and also we went for a run of high cupboards (2.3m tall) and they are great too.

I am very impressed so far, although as the kitchen is so new, I can't comment on longevity - but the posters above can! Go for it!

Had an Ikea kitchen in our house in the UK - combined Adel with Lindalholm (?) as it was v.country kitchen-ish.

We bought oak handles from ebay, got all the appliances separately except microwave and had it fitted by a joiner. He was massively impressed at the quality of the stuff. Lovely soft close drawers and doors, gorgeous pull out drawers and larders.

Oooh- you are all making me excited! I need a bit of ammo like this, as I am sure my builder will be keen to try to get me to take a kitchen that he can get trade and sell on to me, so I need to stand firm!

Another vote for the Ikea kitchen. Have had ours in for a year and love it to bits - ours is combined nexus black/brown with applad white.

Don't get one of the corner cupboards with the pull out shelves. As soon as you put anything on the shelves they start to sag as there's not a lot of support acroos them. All the other pull out stuff is fab though

We made the cupboards up ourselves (v. easy) and got a joiner to fit them.

We did get ikea worktops and had to get custom made due to the length that we needed. Not very impressed as worktop scratched when putting a chopping board onto it (it's brown/black and ended up with a white scratch across it). Kitchen wasn't being used as we still didn't have the appliances fitted and DD had just been born. Got them out to look at it and they told us it was from general wear and tear!!! We think it was a faulty batch but at the time didn't have the energy to take it any further.

I got the abstrakt white gloss 17 months ago. total dream. I have the roundel corner cabinet with spinning shelves. excellent. I had the worktops made a bit deeper from wall to wait to accommodate the pipework we needed, which is a total blessing as you increase work area. Cabinets very sturdy, excellent hinge quality. Also looked at magnet, who's profit margin favours them, not the consumer as much as IKEAs i found. Also the kitchens there just looked too bulky and cumbersome. Mine looks efficient, suitable and smart. Didn't bother with any lighting option bar the extrcator fan because the lights from the ceiling reflect wonderfully off the gloss. Bought one of the IKEA overns and induction hobs, with some misgivings about unknowness of their quality, but so far, so brilliant:)

i had heard the ikea sinks were low quality and pitted easily, but mine hasn't, ey. I bought a great, simple tap from elsewhere. I had the ikea guys build and fit it, they were so experienced in everything they did it in a day. also had an ikea tiler in, who did a truly great job.

ps I got teh walnut looking laminate top because I'm buggered if I'm looking after wood/marble all that malarkey. people just don't notice it's plastic...and i get wipe clean indestructible family cooking surface.

we got the lidingo kitchen with varde handles, and I love it so much. We got it fitted by an Essex wide-boy, but he did an ok job - the actual fitting was good, but not the wall panels, which he did an atrocious job with. that said, I love the wall panels, we got the floral ones, and painted our walls a green to match them. We got an oak worktop, but not an IKEA one, as they seemed a little on the extortionate side for the custom cut ones - and our builder found some for us for less than half the IKEA price. they may be off the back of a lorry somewhere, but they look and feel lovely.

We got the IKEa oven and hob - induction hob - too, and they are BRILLIANT. I am not keen on the shelves that came with the oven, but aside from that, I just adore my oven, and haven't had a single 'oh shit, the oven is fucked' cooking disaster yet - although it has only been 6 months! we used to frequently end up with undercooked, burnt stuff in our old oven. and the induction hob is ace, really really fast (it's quicker to boil a pan of water on the hob than in the kettle!), although we did need a new frying pan, as our old one wasn't induction hob friendly!

One thing I would say is that the taps from IKEA are quite shite - they have some aeration system to reduce the amount of water used, and it means that they spray everywhere. Apart from them, we cannot complain at all - for a £3K kitchen, it looks pretty bloody awesome!

Thanks again, everyone- you are filling me with confidence Insurance claim still very up in the air (still getting quotes in, but looking like we might not be able to use the builder we know/ want) The upshot is, we may have to take a settlement, pay the builder what we can and then do some of it ourselves (DH, dad and I are pretty handy at DIY, and have fitted kitchen units before, thankfully) so it's good to know that they are also fairly easy to fit, and have these heads-up re the pipes etc.

Sorry to resurrect old thread, but STILL looking at kitchens!! Went to IKEA tonight with plan, and was shot down in flames (or so it felt!) OK, I am not a kitchen designer, but bloke was very dismissive and I felt extremely stoopid. Got a bit flustered, as I hadn't realised their worktops only came in 246cm max, unless you get custom-made ones, which take 4-6 weeks (I NEEED a kitchen soon- going off my head!) and had sarky comments like "Yes, you could have a cupboard there- as long as you never want to open it" (because apparently I need a mahoosive extractor above my hob that I was obviously dumb enough not to know )

So, I scuttled off home, tail between my legs, to rethink, and forgot to ask questions I had meant to- maybe you guys can help!

1. The fact that some of you say the units are flush against the wall- does this mean we will have to remove skirting boards (that the workmen are currently diligently fitting!) Is there NO "checking out" space whatsoever there for wiring etc??

1. Once the kitchen is ordered, how long did you find it took to be delivered/ available?

Thanks in advance! Looks like we will be buying our worktops elsewhere, and doing without some cupboards (thanks to sarky man!) but despite coming home swearing that I was going to look elsewhere (especially given the sales that are all being advertised just now), I really can't see anything else I really like. Bah. IKEA do have an offer where you get a £100 gift card for every £1000 you spend, so have spent ages trying to fit other things in to get it up £200 to the next £1000!!

All advice appreciated- and tell me again why you love your IKEA kitchen, as I lost the faith a little tonight!!

Yes, get your worktops elsewhere - no big deal.
Everyone makes mistakes on their kitchen plans so just ignore his snootiness and be glad he pointed it out for you?

Watch the IKEA/Jonah Lewie advert to remind you why IKEA kitchens are cool

Oh, cupboards will be higher than skirting boards - just get basic low ones put in behind units.
If you need to space behind you can put batons on wall and fix units to those.

You could look at Benchmarx as I think their kitchens are in stock so you could get one delivered asap.
Look at Worktop Express for worktops, I havent used them (we are also looking for a new kitchen) but they were recommened to me by a developer.

Thanks guys! I am rubbish at this sort of thing (obviously!)

Oh I wouldnt worry, designing kitchens is really tricky, we have been mulling ours over for well over a year now...
If you do go and look elsewhere you might find you get more help with the design than you did at IKEA, even if you send up deciding to stick with IKEA.
WHat sort of kitchen are you after?

Here is Benchmarx, if any use
www.benchmarxjoinery.co.uk/?pageId=16&hierarchy=Kitchens&products=true

Order was delivered in 2 parts within 8 days, exactly as they said. Apart from a couple of doors, we could have taken home the whole kitchen at the time of ordering if we'd had a van.
Worktops were from Howdens. 2, 4000cm lengths.
I paid £20 for someone to come out, measure and come up with a great plan. Much less stress than doing it in store.
Still LOVE my Ikea kitchen.

I agree get someone from Ikea out. That way they are in your house when they are planning your kitchen.

We are having a kitchen extension built at some point and want an Ikea kitchen. It helps that I am within 10 miles of an Ikea, but I don't think you can beat Ikea for the internal storage and the price of the internal storage.

I recently had a look at B&Q kitchens and they wanted £70 for one pull out drawer. it is not clad in gold as you would expect for that price

Right, I have a new plan- have removed offending cupboards, and added another one. Have looked at lots of other kitchens, but seem to have stupidly set my heart on this one. I looked at the benchmarxjoinery kitchens, thanks for that panacotta, but the nearest one is quite a way from me and THE kitchen I wanted is not there!! AArgh!

Might go back and see if there are any nicer assistants available tonight

Interesting.... Went to ikea yesterday and the guy told me not to bother booki a designer as they are builders and not as good at planning as the in house staff........ Ay opinions on that?