any advice on planning/fitting ikea kitchens??

[Hanban2]

Hi,

I'm looking to fit a new kitchen but am completely new to this (first time we have got our own place ).

After researching, we like the thought of getting our kitchen from ikea- they seem more likely to fit our budget and I've read reviews that say of the cheaper kitchens they're actually not bad quality. But I've had two problems:

• I have had a bit of a nightmare using their online planner; our kitchen is not perfectly rectangle (it would be if it weren't for a 10x 29cm wall jutting out of one corner, I think it must be housing some pipes) and the planner can't seem to accept that! I know ikea offer a designer to come to your house but I've heard that it's notoriously difficult to book and not always that great.

Anyone know of any other companies that help design ikea kitchens, would that even be a possibility?

• I've heard that kitchen fitters don't like fitting ikea kitchens because the units don't leave space for the pipes etc. Anyone have any recommendations for good kitchen fitters who would work in North London, N16?

Sorry for the long post.... Any advice would be much appreciated!

I've been planning one! Have a bloody staircase taking up a good corner with a sloping ceiling. In the planner, look up the obstacles you can insert. You can put a floor obstacles (just a cube of whatever size you want) or a column (again, a cuboid that reaches the ceiling, any width or depth you want), and shove it in your awkward corner to represent it.

If it's housing pipes, perhaps look for fitters that aren't IKEA. They could rip out the housing and redo it smaller or move it to suit the kitchen better. We have two of these annoying 'fake' corner things housing pipes.

We've got a fitter happy to do IKEA kitchens, he came round first and helped point out what could and couldn't change structure wise (or, what could change but would cost a lot, or a little).

Then I planned on IKEA
Then I visited IKEA (as my plan was a bit rubbish but I tried!), and asked them about a home visit. IKEA Bristol do a free home visit, to measure and properly plan with you in your home. Having done a lot of the planner tool myself, I feel much more ready for the visit, to say what I'd like. He/she should give me a big list of what to buy, but I won't buy it until...
I'll get the fitters back in to finalise and set dates, and check the plan too.
Then I guess I'll order the IKEA stuff and get the appliances delivered, ready and waiting for the fitters to start.

That's the idea anyway. Going to use AO.com for the appliances, need a cheap tile website, and to find a decent counter/worktop company locally.

Hope it helps!

Use graph paper and a scale ruler, it is far less fiddly than the Ikea planner.

I'm a big fan of Ikea kitchens - they are extremely robust for the price and, imo, very easy to fit.

kitty www.tonsoftiles.co.uk/ and www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/

I had an Ikea kitchen fitted 2 years ago and we love it.

Re fitters not liking them - in other kitchens you lose valuable space inside the cupboard because of the "services gap" at the back of the cupboard.

At the end of the day you will have your current kitchen ripped out leaving all walls bare and all pipes/cables can be dropped to skirting board level which will be below the plinth/bottom of the kitchen carcass.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever read about planning a kitchen when you have any obstacles or not square walls was to make them square. For example could you afford to lose 10cm/29cm off the entire kitchen wall to even that up?

If you can't then Kitty is right, on the planner you can put in obstacles. Run your units up to the pillar on both sides and the worktop will just be cut to fit round the boxed in pipes.

I did what lala did and worked it all out on paper first, then put it into the planner. I actually use A4 paper for the walls then tracing paper for the units so I don't have to keep drawing out the kitchen walls when I tried out different things.

Meant to say, don't forget to add in sockets behind where you plan appliances.

So for me, I have an induction hob which plugs in, the oven is hard wired, American fridge/freezer & built in combi microwave are plugged too. I have a double socket above the microwave (tall larder unit) as fridge is next to that.

Think about where you will have your kettle/toaster etc. We also have undercab lighting so there is a switch on the wall but the wiring is behind the cabinets and the wire runs across the tops of the cabinets to the socket up there.

I had a visit from IKEA planner.

Really wasn't very helpful. He had zero ideas and was very slow, so it took ages, and nothing innovative or creative suggested whatsoever. Literally nothing. He just did lines of cupboards.

V.disapointing.

Ikea also sell shallow base units. The most simple and cheapest solution to your bit of jutting out wall would be to plan for a shallow base unit in front of it, pulled forward so that it lines up with all the other standard depth units. Cutting the worktop to fit around the rectangle will be a simple job for your fitters. You won't be able to hang that one base unit from the wall rail but I should think your fitters would screw it to the units each side to make it stable.

We had a visit from an IKEA planner and he was flipping brilliant. He was here for 2 hours, made loads of really useful suggestions that I hadn't thought of and solved a couple of tricky layout questions. We're v close to you too so maybe you'll get the same guy

Thanks for the advice! I didn't even think of trying to draw it out first, but I think that'll help me work out what I actually want and where, I was also a little overwhelmed by all the choices on the planner. Drawing will also help me to remember to plan in sockets, I'd completely forgot about that Narcheska!

It would be so much simpler to make the wall square but we'd have to make the room 29cm smaller which is too much for the room, unfortunately the 10cm side has a window in it. I think it's a case of getting the worktop cut.

I'm going to give it another go, we've also booked a design appointment at Magnet, to cheekily see what ideas they have and then try and replicate them with ikea! I'll let you know how it goes

Kitty I also recommend www.tonsoftiles.co.uk I've seen them recommended on a lot of posts so I think quite a few people have had good experiences with them. Also how did you find your fitter? Or if anyone has a good recommendation.

Ah thanks for the tile recommendations!
We just invited one day over, spoke to neighbours who had builders, texted a carpenter who has done work for us before, word of mouth really. Went with the one we got on with best in a professional and patient way.