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

I don't really know- I couldn't be bothered to book an appointment with a designer, so designed it myself using their on-line planner (which unfortunately doesn't tell you that they only do a certain worktop length, and has some other limitations!) I thought I'd done an ok job- after all I know how I work in my kitchen, and put a lot of thought into how it would work in practice, for me. Another kitchen designer who did come to the house to give us a quote for the insurance had other ideas, but they didn't appeal, tbh. I made a mistake, because I assumed that because we had wall cabinets in a certain space, the IKEA ones would fit- I didn't realise they are deeper. I thought the first guy was a bit sneery.

But happy outcome!! Went back yesterday, got lovely lady assistant who was really helpful. She pointed out a couple of little things I hadn't considered but in a very non-patronising way and helped me get my total to a round thousand number, so I could maximise my gift card

I would say it is a bit of a strange way to buy a kitchen, though! We put it all through and wanted to get it delivered (it's supposedly coming Tuesday!!) Then the lady says she needs to give us the handles to take away, so we have to take a huge bag of handles and a sales note to the checkout, and have to trudge through the rest of the store (and get slightly lost!) first- not sure why the handles can't be delivered too!! THEN when we finally get through the checkout, we have to pay separately for a bag for the handles, because of the giftcard offer or something. We finally get our two giftcards (because the amount is too much to go on one, fair enough) THEN we have to go to the home delivery bit to arrange the delivery. I swear the guy who (evetually) served us had a name-badge saying Gunslinger, but he didn't seem all that on the ball, tbh, and he even gave me back the copy of the order that he needed in order to pick the stuff, so I'm not entirely convinced it will all arrive on Tuesday!

It is a wee bit of a palaver, but I do love my kitchen and can't wait!!!! Although we won't be able to start fitting it immediately as the builders still have stuff to do I dream of just being able to go and make a cup of coffee. Or do a load of washing without having to traipse to dad's. Or make a snack. Or wash glasses in an actul sink, or even a dishwasher!!

Sorry, have just realised how I have droned on DH has already pulled me up for talking kitchen- "Can you hear yourself? You have been talking about a breadbin for 5 minutes!!"

we have just started the process of planning a new kitchen. We have never had to do this before and have been putting it off for years

I have fallen in love with an Ikea kitchen but we cannot get the online planner to work! It keeps crashing before you have a chance to save it. On the few occasions we have made it in store the staff are always occupied and have people waiting. Do you have to speak with the in-store designers before you can get someone to come out?

fingers crossed its all going well op :)

we have just started the process of planning a new kitchen. We have never had to do this before and have been putting it off for years

I have fallen in love with an Ikea kitchen but we cannot get the online planner to work! It keeps crashing before you have a chance to save it. On the few occasions we have made it in store the staff are always occupied and have people waiting. Do you have to speak with the in-store designers before you can get someone to come out?

fingers crossed its all going well op :)

oops don't know why it just posted that again!

That sounds like a plan smaltown but I wouldn't be able to get the morning off work. The only option would be to allocate the toddler to someone for the morning and send dh in unsupervised might draw up some plans and send him in with strict instructions.

smalltown- I would totally agree with you that there is a knack to it! Our kitchen couldn't be delivered today, due to the horrendous gales here today, but I wasn't too bothered as we aren't really ready to fit it. DH will be here to take the delivery tomorrow, and I will definitely pass on your suggestion re checking boxes as I don't trust him to be as pedantic as me!!

Having said that, the guy from ikea phoned me early this morning re the delay in delivery, and was very apologetic and pleasant.

Money (or even gift cards ) seems to burn a hole in my pocket, thouh, so with it being the last day of my holiday I dragged poor DH back to IKEA to spend my £500 gift vouchers- great fun, felt like free money, as I was planning to buy that kitchen before they announced the offer . So, as a bonus to getting my new kitchen, the children's rooms have also been transformed!!

CutItOut- I did have a few problems with the online planner, but not too bad. We went early evening, and the planning stations were fairly empty at our local store (I work until 6). If your DH is anything like mine, I would accompany him if at all possible- no matter how many times I tried to get DH to listen/ give some input, he just kept glazing over. I'm prepared to bet he has no clue what our kitchen is going to look like, despite seeing the plans (several times!) and having me drone on! (maybe that's why he was glazing over...)

Will let you know how it goes with our delivery tomorrow

The on-line planner crashes on my laptop but seems to work on the desk computer, and you have to use Internet Explorer rather than Firefox or Safari? (can't remember the other one it runs on)

Don't forget that Ikea usually opens early for "browsing time" before the tills open, so ours opens at 9.30am on a weekday and you can get as far as the glass/plates/cups section meaning you can get into the cafe at ours. The rest of the store and the tills open at 10am on a weekday here.

That way on a Sunday you could get there and be one of the first for the kitchen section. Try to get someone to look after your toddler or get DH to do it whilst you make all the executive decisions

JollyJinglyJoo congratulations on the kitchen! If you are feeling brave, post some photos when it is all taking place. My hideous kitchen is on my profile. We are extending hopefully 2013 and putting in a white gloss kitchen from ikea, double oven, induction hob and will get some serious storage. My last kitchen was 4.5m long so going from that to this was a shocker!

Well, our kitchen did arrive (in its entirety, minus 2 wire baskets that they had informed me were out of stock beforehand). They phoned at 7.30 to say delivery would be between 8 and 9 am, and they arrived at 8.10. Haven't opened the boxes yet, but impressed that all delivered at stated time.

I've got a plain white idea kitchen. Applad, not high gloss, as I have seen high gloss everywhere!

Can I make a plea NOT to do corner cupboards, actually they don't store that much. I think a galley kitchen or island kitchen with one wall of counter, and no corners, is by far the the best use of space. Corners waste a lot of space - and a curvy corner thing over 2 units only holds as much as 1 unit would along a straight wall.

The best thing I have in my kitchen is 4 thin, tall, shallow shelf cupboards, floor to nearly ceiling. They hold ALL my crockery, glasses, foods like olive oils, cereals, breAd, baking stuff, vases, etc etc.

The Worktops are along one wall, and have oven, sink, dishwasher. I don't have any cupboards, just deep drawers for cooking utensils, pots, pans etc. I find 60cm depth cupboards a bit useless and hard to store and find things in, you have to get right in your hands and knees to dig out something from the back of a deep cupboard, with drawers you just pull.

Those are my ikea kitchen tips! It looks great and works really well.

Cristiane- I'm glad to say I have NO corner units, just 2 straight lines, and I have mostly deep drawers, so happy days

Do you like your IKEA kitchen? I'm really looking forward to mine (let's face it after 2 months without a kitchen, any kitchen is going to seem fantastic!)

I still want to hug my pull-out larder every time I use it, and it's been 2 years.

Fab news jooly drawers are fab!! I love it so far - are you having yours professionally installed (/sorry don't know if mentioned up thread)?

What units and Worktops did you go for?

joan sorry if I annoyed you!

Sorry I haven't read the whole thread, but beware that with IKEA kitchens, they do not allow space for pipes at the back (whereas all UK makes do as standard).

This means you need to either go for freestanding units, or cut holes in your new cupboards, or move your pipes (possibly lower down).

Now the last two options are going to cost you money (assuming you're paying someone to do it), and also time and hassle.

I was dead set on an IKEA kitchen until we came up against this, as it wiped out any savings completely and made it an expensive option.

Do you know how you are going to deal with this problem and how much it'll cost you? (Will you end up with ugly holes in your nice new cupboards?)

We got a Wicks kitchen from their "take-away" (i.e. budget) range instead, and they were brilliant. I love the kitchen and the customer service was great - they even changed a bit we got that was wrong with no fuss whatsoever despite the fact it was totally our fault and we'd lost the receipt (as they'd delivered they had us in the system and they were happy with that).

Trade people buy from Wickes, that speaks volumes to me!

Plus IKEA Tottenham has the rudest saleswoman I have ever had the displeasure to meet! (But that's a whole new thread!)

Oops sorry I see you've got your kitchen

Please ignore everything I said!

Just a quick note about corner cupboards, in our last house the kitchen had 3 corner cupboards.

Not the straight ones (like I have now, hate them) but the ones that have 2 doors. Normally the kitchen would come with a little carousel that I would find useless.

Ours however had a shelf instead so it held a great deal of stuff. The carcass itself had a proper back panel not a flimsy thin thing but a proper back to it meaning a couple of shelf supports had been put across the back of the cupboard.

It is just a thought for anyone struggling with an awkward corner.

migrating . Thanks to this thread I was made aware of the lack-of-gap at the back of IKEA units, so was able to take that into account (although dad is still moaning about it ). Because of the fire, we were pretty much starting with an empty shell, and most of our pipes go under the floor, so it should be ok.

dad and DH will be fitting the kitchen- they aren't exactly professional joiners, but they have fitted kitchens before. plus they are cheap and work nights and weekends