Ikea kitchens

[Bewarethequietboy]

Hi does anyone have any top tips for the Ikea kitchen planning service? I'm going on Friday to one of the free appointment ones to start planning the kitchen for our self build house. Our architect has done a basic layout and I've got dimensions and positions for doors and windows etc, but how much other information do I need to bring or would be useful to have?

Also how good are the appliances from Ikea? Anyone got any recent experience of Ikea kitchens?

Thanks very much

The dimensions are the key thing really. Don't forget ceiling height and any odd cutouts for soil pipe etc. You will need to express opinions, eg range cooker or eye level oven, integrated or stand alone appliances, american vs UK fridge, what sort of sink material.

I'd advise getting there early and having a good scout round the showroom. Choose your doors and worktop, and look at the various drawer options. They'll show you during the appt but you have longer to browse if you do it beforehand.

As most kitchen fitters will tell you, Ikea kitchens are good quality if you compare them with other makes of a similar price. The downside is that most kitchen fitters will tell you they hate fitting them.

The main problem is, unlike UK and most other European manufacturers, Ikea do not incorporate a service area behind the units for plumbing, electrics etc. This means that all of your services must either be accurately built into the wall first, or you will need to leave them visible at the back of the cabinets. The other disadvantage of this method of construction is that your walls need to be pretty straight. Many kitchen fitters take out any major discrepancies in the wall by trimming the service area as this is entirely unnoticeable when fitted. This is obviously not an option with a flat back kitchen carcass. My only other advice for fitting an Ikea kitchen is to take the kitchen waste, throw the whole lot in the bin and start again with a locally bought system. It will be £40 well spent. Ikea use their own system and it is rare to see someone manage a neat and serviceable union with our waste, the plumbing forums are full of people scratching their heads eg. www.diynot.com/diy/threads/odd-waste-pipe-size-ikea-sink.301852/page-2 On the plus side Ikea sinks are amazing quality for the price and all the holes are standard openings so using other makes of waste plumbing is a breeze.

In summary they are a good quality kitchen for the price if your kitchen lends itself to the design.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Brilliant thanks both. Good point about the ceiling height I hadn't thought of that! And interesting to hear about the fitting and waste issues. I hope that because it's a new house all the walls will be straight.

We when on the weekend, the carcasses themselves seemed solid. It was the bin housing/ pull out carousels/ drawers that seemed flimsy. Really disappointed. We won't be ordering from IKEA. I was shocked at how rickety the bin drawer was. I couldn't work out if they actually are just crap or if someone had put it together badly. They all seemed that flimsy on each display mind...

We paid for the ikea fitting service so absolutely zero problems on fitting.

Definitely have a look round and choose items before the appt.

After the appt they will come round and do a survey anyway to check everything. The chap who did our survey knew the ikea range well and made some very insightful suggestions that we did end up going for.

Appliances we got all from Ikea except fridge, 2 yrs in and so far so good!

I’d suggest going a few times if you can getting it planned out by different people each time.
It took us a few different people to get the layout we were happy with.
For example it was only on the last appointment that the lady put the base units together in size rather than mixed throughout. Huge difference.
we’ve got all drawers, cannot recommended this highly enough.

I'm having issues finding a fitter (London). KitchenGuy any tips on where to look? *Remain would you give a really rough cost estimation on the Ikea fitting service? Obviously different for different sizes etc.

Thanks for all your comments, I went on Friday and it was useful in terms of getting to look at all the appliances and see the different components.

I didn't feel like I got any amazing designs ideas that I hadn't already thought of, but it's quite a simple shape so pretty obvious where things will go.

I had already had a go with their online planner tool which is just what the Ikea guy used, although he did everything super quick and just knew what would fit where and what extra bits we would need, so it took me something like 4 evenings to get something I felt looked a bit like what we'd like, and he did it in an hour and a half and we kept going to look at the different appliances, worktops, components etc.

It will be useful once he sends me the plan with all the parts list because then I can also have a play around with it all.

So good, but not anything amazing. I felt it was worth going to just see it all but not much in the way of design

Thanks everyone who replied

I'm sat next to DP who fitted my Ikea kitchen last year not smug sorry

I love LOVE my kitchen. He HATED fitting it and he's a kitchen fitter, like other have said there is no void for the pipes (he made them himself)

I do wish I'd paid for the designer to come out and measure up and plan properly... (my kitchen odd size we DP
had to cut units down to make them fit ) think it's about £50 but think you get that back if you buy from them?

Good luck xx

Put in as many pan drawers as you can fit. They're fab.

WhatMakesYouHappy Sorry, I am based in Cardiff. Been a good few years since I worked in London so a bit out of touch. Hope you find someone.

Pan drawers are great! get loads but give yourself a week to assemble all the units and take your time.

@WhatMakesYouHappy

The cost was unbeatable. And had the massive advantage of them knowing exactly how to fit the Ikea system, because that's all their company did. It's outsourced basically.

From memory, £1,500 approx. Included electrical cert, some new sockets. Fitted all appliances, units, worktops, splashbacks. (You can get Ikea to supply matching upstands, total bargain!)

Any snagging issues you ring Ikea and they sort the company to send someone over to fix it, for free.

We stuck it all on the 0% finance. Total bargain.

Wish they did bathrooms!

The survey chap was from the fitting company and made insightful suggestions, he knew the range better than the Ikea staff who did the 3d planner.

If you're still not sure you've hit on the design you want, try a few other places. It's usually free! Only cost is your time and mental capacity

Does anyone know anything about the veddinge range? I had decided on it but just read some iffy reviews today that have me a bit worried.

I have an Ikea kitchen which was fitted in November. I planned it myself- I found the online planner really poor unless we were in store though.
I absolutely LOVE my kitchen. There is no way that we could have for that quality for the price we paid.
We paid an actual kitchen fitter to come in and he did it without too many problems. The waste was no issues within the cabinet but one issue we did come across with the waste was that due to the cupboards being so much lower to the floor than other companies, there is very little room for a drop for run off. It mattered in our house as it is over 100yrs old and already had the hole for the drainage but as yours is a new build, it shouldn’t pose a problem.
Only advice I can offer over this is- go for drawers for the base units! More pricey I think but for the sake of organising your stuff, it’s invaluable.
Also, if you have any kitchen items you will not be without, take them with you to put in the drawers to see how they fit.

Thanks very much Remain! That sounds a very good price and service. I've had Ikea before but put it in myself, slightly more complicated layout this time so looking for a fitter.

Thanks also KitchenGuy, no probs!

We had our IKEA kitchen fitted by their fitters. The fitters are contractors who also fit for John Lewis and a bunch of other companies round our way. They were absolutely excellent and knew the ins and outs of the IKEA stuff. Our kitchen is 3 years old now and still looks immaculate.

RemainOptimistic what part of the country are you in? Can you remember the name of the fitting contractor who fitted your IKEA kitchen?

When we were looking for our new kitchen I figured out that the more expensive the product the better the staff were at design. But they wouldn't let you take the design. So we used an independent designer we found online ( oneplan) . Then we bought cheaper furniture but spent more on handles and worktops and top end appliances.

Sorry to hijack but I have been thinking about getting a new kitchen from Ikea. I have no idea of dimensions and no idea where to start. There is a £40 for a designer to come out to the house I think? I really need to be led through the process, I find it a terrifying prospect.
We aren't intending to stay in this house and I am worried when we sell in a year or two we won't get the money back.

lavenderandthyme basically they now offer a 'measuring service' which I believe costs £35. Someone from a contracted company, who can also do the fitting if you want them to, comes to your property and measures and draws by hand the entire kitchen. An overhead view along with a facing view of each wall showing door and window positions, socket positions, and pipework positions as far as can be seen. These drawings are then sent to IKEA who then liaise with the customer to plan and quote the kitchen. It's a real backward step compared to the home planning appointments which were available up until a few weeks ago, these entailed a member of IKEA staff visiting your property with a laptop and measuring and planning the kitchen there and then on the IKEA software with you. Hope this helps.

Oh thanks for that. I didn’t know they had changed the service. But why is the new way of doing things worse?

The trouble with getting free plans done anywhere other than ikea for an Ikea kitchen is A. The companies with the clever designers won't give out copies of plans often B. Ikea only do a limited selection of sizes, so likelihood is it's not going to work with their sizes.

Hello... I am just about to sort a new kitchen.. I've had someone out from a proper kitchen company to come up with a design.. Had a look yesterday and liked it loads.. Now my question.. How much is a kitchenfitter? I won't have any wall units just standing ones... Gonna go to IKEA though and see what they've got... I'm sure it'll work out cheaper there too..