Ikea kitchens ..

[mrssmooth]

Has anyone had an Ikea kitchen installed recently? Thinking of going for one when we move (if we ever get to that stage - its dragging on a bit now!). All experiences, good or bad, will be read with interest!

We did enquire about ikea but have decided to go for howdens.

ours is 4 years old
LOVE IT
got a private chippy to install it though

mine is 6 years old, still great. Just bought another ikea kitchen for our new place.

they came and designed it in the house for free too.

we installed ours ourselves and will do the same again. It was a learning curve but we did get it perfect in the end and have learned lessons for the next time.
they don't have rooom for service pipes at the nback but a good soulution to that is to have your pipes lower then the units and that works fine.

We have an ikea kitchen. The great thing was we were able to buy or return any extra bits. Previous kitchen was non returnable, took 12 weeks to arrive and we had loads of bits (extra end panels) left over that they wouldn't take back.

We didn't use their installers, so can't comment.

Has anyone had issues with their customer services at all? I ask because we won't be living on the mainland and they don't deliver there so we'd have to sort collection out ourselves. We've ordered other furniture from them and their customer service was awful which is making us doubt the "sensibility" of us ordering from them if we have problems ...

I'm in the process of ordering a kitchen from them. It arrives on Friday (hopefully) for installation from Monday. I'll let you know but it has been a pain in the royal backside getting this far. You plan the kitchen online but when you want to buy you have to go in store and book a same day appointment. The bastards lost my details when I registered for the home planner visit hence going in store (they took nearly 3 weeks to finally get back to me once I chased them).

The thing in problem we found with our Ikea kitchen is that their drawers are not standard.

We used our "old" appliances, and we couldn't always find the perfect door or drawer to fit around them.

If you use someone like Howdens, they will design your kitchen, but Ikea don't. You have to design it, and go in and they order it, so you might not find out about design problems until you are installing it.

I do love my new kitchen, but I don't think I would've chosen Ikea, if I'd known.

We have one. Been in for about 4 years and it is like new.
Very good quality, cleans brilliantly, and has worn very well. As good as the day it went in. DH fitted it.

Only issue i have is with the no slam drawer thingies, they whoosh gently to close....no good when angry and needing to slam things....very calming in fact

We had one fitted last week. We are so happy with it.

The fitter (who was private, not IKEA's own), was initially not thrilled when we asked him to fit an Ikea kitchen, but at the end I think he was secretly impressed.

The delivery was fine, everything we had ordered was present. We had to send some worktops back (as our old walls are too wonky and we needed wider ones) but that cost £10 to return when they delivered some wardrobes to us.

For refunds etc we've had to go back into the store which is a pain as it's over an hour's drive away, and some of the kitchen staff were not that knowledgeable about customer service type stuff but overall it's been fine and we'd do it again.

Planning - we did it ourselves using their software online. I took weeks to do this to get it perfect and it allowed me to really think where I was going to put things even down to the best place for tea and coffee. Everything flows really well for us and everything has a place, with lots of extra storage. I'm glad I did it this way.

The internal fittings are brill and really useful for storage.

We shopped around and feel that I've got more value for money with our Ikea kitchen compared to other stockists.

If I were you, I'd do a plan online and then chat to a private fitter to get a quote and see what they think- they can see if your walls are straight, whether you'd need to move any pipework, measure up and make sure it'll fit ok etc.

Good Luck - I love ours, it's totally transformed our house. x

Interesting. We are currently mulling over a new kitchen. Ikea kitchens scare me a bit because you seem to have to do it all on your own.

Pricewise are they similar to say Wickes or more affordable? If you have to plan it yourself and do more legwork does that cut the cost significantly?

We found that they were similar in price to howdens but howdens will come and design it for you for free whereas ikea charge for it. Also the 25 year guarantee is only valid if you use an ikea kitchen fitter (not that I could imagine wanting the same kitchen for 25 years)

Ah I see thanks I'll have a play about 'designing' my own and see what I get.

Ah that's interesting AKiss, I didn't know the 25 year guarantee was only valid if it's fitted using an Ikea fitter, but I guess that makes sense. I thought Howdens was a trade-only company?

Iggly - that's rather worrying. I want to get the kitchen sorted as soon as possible as we're going to be cooking on camping stoves until it's done!!!

HMT - the whole kitchen is being done, appliances and everything so hopefully that wouldn't be an issue for us if we go ahead with it.

I did find the staff at the kitchen dept good when it came to checking over our kitchen plan. They did check that we had all the panels etc and that things would go together.

I did cheat a bit and I went to B&Q initally who planned our kitchen - they advised me on oven placement and I got a few good tips. Unfortunately they started to bug me and push us on ordering quickly, so we went to IKEA, where we got more for the money.

I paid £3K for ours, including a dishwasher, microwave and extractor fan. I have two larders- one with a pull out system, 2 corner units with pull out parts, a double sink unit, 2 X 40cm drawers, 1 5 drawer unit, 1 Microwave cupboard, 2 long wall units with glass, 2 normal 40cm wall units and a fan cabinet. I've also got doors for my interated laundry WM and TD.

I think different Ikea stores offer slightly different services re kitchen designs. We live between the Warrington and Ashton stores and so have been in to both.

At Warrington, we could book a 2 hour slot in which one of their kitchen people would design our kitchen for us. We just had to take measurements and they did it all - much quicker and easier than doing it yourself and they were really good at making suggestions as to alternative options to fit in fiddly spaces (I had already tried at home and given up because I found it too frustrating). I've since been back to get them to tweak a few things. They produce a full list of all items being ordered in the price quote with stock numbers you can check on their website so I've been able to go through and work out if they've got anything wrong - there were a few bits and pieces on there that I will probably not bother with (like an electric draw opening device for £90 for the big bin drawers under the sink - think I can manage that one myself - or swapping in the internal fittings of one cupboard from a drawer to shelves as it will reduce the price from £113 to £49 for that unit) but it's nice knowing exactly what you are paying for and getting.

I went into Howdens and they don't give you any kind of price break down so you can't work out whether swapping any bits over will reduce the price etc.

At the Ashton Ikea store, you couldn't book the 2 hour design slot but said they provided that service if you came in and they had availability - they'll give exclusive attention any time during the week but at weekends they would only attend you and design it if they didn't have any other customers wanting attention. Warrington provided a 9am Saturday slot for this service. The two stores also gave me slightlly different info regarding their services for coming to your home to design and then install the kitchen.

I think I am going to buy the units and possibly appliances from Ikea but get the work surfaces independently - for bespoke cut surfaces Ikea take 4 - 6 weeks and if there are any issues with size/fit, they don't deal with them and you can't take them back, canel or alter them once they've been orderedIf you don't need or want bespoke worksurfaces, though, you may not be bothered about this.

We have an ikea kitchen. No complaints, had it 4 years and still going strong

We designed it online then showed our design to them in store and they made a few suggestions for adjustments. Delivery was fine and my dh and fil fitted it (fil has fitted quite a few kitchens and is a plumber). We got a professional in to cut the worktop just right. Fil was impressed with how easy it was to assemble.

We've had ours just over two years and had no issues with it. We went to Wickes initially but they would have been £5k plus without any interest free loan options. Ikea came in at just over £3k including induction hob (brilliant), extractor fan and oven. As family card holders we got a discount on the oak worktops at the time. We were able to spread cost over two years, interest free. We had it fitted by the builder doing the rest of our renovations. Unfortunately we miscalculated fridge size so wheels needed to be removed and some of the skirting board so it's not going to be able to come out again!

DH is a kitchen fitter and says they are fine until you go to fit them and all the units fit flush to the wall leaving no space for appliances.. For example the pipes going to and from your washing machine.. Dishwasher..so everything is squeezed behind the units leaving it a bit of a mess. He'd say to go to somewhere like howdens or a trade centre would be better.

I think we were unlucky as the staff in the croydon store were shite. I sent a strongly worded email and got back a rubbish reply

But once we did get to speak to someone, they were pretty good. We designed it ourselves (make sure you have a decent PC if you want to use the online planner and read the guide!). We spent a good two months deciding on layout. That meant once we had our appointment, we could order quickly.

So I'd go into your local store and speak to them to work out what you need to do or do what others have done and get howdens to come over and design it (no obligation as they only sell to the fitters) then take the design elsewhere.

The pipes thing is a non-issue, really. They just go under units instead a la the rest of Europe. Flush to the wall means they are more spacious.

most dishwasher and washing machine pipes are not long enough to be feed under without an extension pipe.
you can cut the units but 1 will be visible in the unit and, 2 as soon as you cut/alter or do anything other than build the unit your guarantee is void.

Slightly off topic, I have just fitted an ikea kitchen that I bought around 2002 but didn't use in my old house. We have loads of end panels left but some of the packaging is damaged and in some case just gone. Could I still return these even without a receipt? I seem to remember that they will give you a percentage back?

Iggly DH fitting our kitchen - we had thought of going to Howdens as well as IKEA but take it from your comments that we won't be able to buy from them without employing a professional fitter. True?

Yes fusysy that's what we were told. They only sell to "trade" apparently.

Ikea kitchens are generally good quality (the carcasses are the same thickness as howdens and some of the pricier doors are comparable) - its just putting them together which is an issue. The drawer fittings etc are made by Blum which is a good make.

I only had an issue with the customer service (so far!)