How can I make an Ikea kitchen look more expensive?

[Glitterfish]

We're fitting a new kitchen. Ikea design is best we've seen and we're happy with most aspects of it. However I would like advice on how I can improve to make it appear more expensive/ attractive/ appealing?

I really wanted solid wood countertops but everyone is advising me against due to maintenance etc. Ikea wooden laminate looks good but will I regret going with solid wood? What about quartz? It's an old house so I don't really think quartz is in keeping but can't think of other alternatives?

We've picked cup style handles which are lovely and suit but I'm not sure if I should go with brass and brass tap or brushed steel. (We're not integrating fridge which is brushed steel).

Any advice welcome 🙏

I have laminate wood worktops and they’re really easy to care for, look great and are durable. Real wood looks great but aftercare can be a pain.

I’d match handles and tap to your stainless steel fridge, I think consistent metal finishes look really sleek. The main thing though is that the kitchen itself is well fitted and finished. The most expensive units will look cheap if they aren’t fitted properly.

I’ve had wooden before and I wouldn’t do it again. I don’t personally like quartz but on a similar price point to quartz is granite which we’ve just gone with. There’s always compact laminate?

I can answer this one! When I was looking at kitchens 20 years ago I noticed that IKEA used EXTREMELY expensive tiles in their display kitchens. Specifically I recognised a shimmery metallic mosaic tile from Fired Earth.

Extending my investigations into kitchen design I found that using everything from one supplier really pigeonholes the design. You will have an out of the box 2026 IKEA kitchen rather than a timeless design. It's like dressing head to toe in one designer, fashionable but not necessarily stylish forever.

I picked high gloss IKEA cabinets, got handles from B&Q, ceramic tiles that I liked and settled for a solid surface worktop. The solid surface worktop market has expanded exponentially but back then it was Corian or pretenders. I went for Avonite because with Corian the white speckle I wanted was three times the price over the plain white, and Avonite rep called just when I found that out! You will not regret a solid surface counter and splashback. It was expensive but it has lasted so well and still looks good.

We have an ikea kitchen we had bespoke baseboards fitted by a carpenter and lovely tiles. We also couldn’t decide on a worktop so got the wood look laminate as it’s so cheap and thought we would swap over when we found something we really liked - we wanted solid oak, we had this in our old house and with a bit of TLC it looked great after 10 years. However the laminate actually looks fine and I love that it’s completely bomb proof! We stayed in a house with posh stone worktops and I couldn’t cope with how noisy everything was

Don’t worry about it, keep it clean and uncluttered, that’s how a kitchen looks stylish

I would recommend either laminate or quartz ..I would choose quartz if in budget as definitely looks more expensive..
We ran out of money so went for laminate which has been fine but def looks cheaper and starting to look scruffy 8yrs on .so looking at quartz ..
I think upstands look good too but thats a personal choice and would depend on height

Think about your tiling.. /splashback and colours .. tiles don't need to be expensive but choose classic styling... B&Q had some good looking tiles..

I didn't tile at all and used a clear glass splashback behind the cooker and sink and just painted it all white as wanted a cleaner look

I think things like non plastic sockets and switches help. A good flooring - decent tiles and a sensible grout colour - not white which looks dirty easily.
A good quality table and chairs and considered accessories but not excessive clutter.

Thank you all for the advice. Really useful. But this is so hard!! I went to ikea this afternoon to look at options again and the porcelain looks good and is apparently very hard wearing. However In my heart I still want solid wood .. despite all the warnings. The house is about 200 yr old farmhouse so really wood would suit much better. But, I work full time and find it hard to keep on top of housework so I'm afraid I wouldn't keep up with woods oiling etc

Ive had full stave iroko in the past and now have full stave oak - its beautiful. Maintenance is once a year - light sanding, wipe over then 2 coats of osmo oil.

We had granite at our old house and it was porous and stained really easily, particularly with coffee and red wine marks.

I wouldn't have wooden worktops again.
If I were you (and I have an ikea kitchen) I'd have wooden laminate worktop (we have walnut), brass cup handles, brass tap and brass light socket covers

We bought an Ikea kitchen 14 years ago. We only had the cabinets and doors from Ikea and the built in extractor fan that sits inside the cupboard. Everything else, worktops, upstands, tiles, handles, sink, tap and all the appliances were from elsewhere. It makes it more personal as opposed to it literally looking like you have an Ikea kitchen.

Wooden worktops do take a lot of maintenance. My sister had them and they were a pain to look after. Laminate is great, we have had ours for 14 years and it still looks like it was installed yesterday. I have resealed the joins in the upstands twice to freshen them up.

Nice tiles & worktops plus handles/taps will lift a kitchen.

No to white sockets & switches but that should be all over the house too.

We don't have an ikea kitchen, but couldn't stretch to the Handmade Kitchens of Christchurch one we fitted at our last house. Instead, we have a preloved, painted oak in-frame kitchen sourced on eBay which I wanted to elevate to a deVOL look 😉

We've used iroko for worktops in three previous kitchens without any issues so were perfectly happy to choose those again (a family member has oak and that hasn't stood up well at all!). In the past we've also had granite (wasn't keen) and microcement (too industrial for our current Georgian cottage!)

We've opted for expensive solid brass handles/knobs - a mix of deVOL and Corston - and will be having a marble splash back behind the range (a reconditioned Lacanche, which we splurged on as our cabinets cost less than £1000). We also have a very lovely pot-filler style tap that we bought twelve years ago but didn't use till 2018, then removed before marketing our last house as they're no longer made.

DH - who used to work in interior design -always says you should go for the best quality you can afford in the pieces you handle regularly - so taps, knobs etc.

We had an Ikea kitchen with Franke sink and expensive mixer tap, bushboard worktops.12 years after installing it we sold the house and someone asked if we cooked as it looked brand new.

On You tube, a couple of Gents have a video channel called ‘my tiny estate’ in which about 10 months ago, they fitted an Ikea kitchen, which they made bespoke with additional woodwork and handles etc.

That might help you see what you could do with yours.
Good luck!

Iroko is a much more close grained and durable timber than oak, it makes a great worktop, that's why it was traditionally used in school labs.
Edit to add, plus Osmo oil is the best waterproof coating as PP said.

I had oak worktops in my previous kitchen and they were a pain. This time round in my new kitchen I have wood but we used this to treat them and it’s a game changer.

https://www.innes.co.uk/products/skagerak-wood-treatment-indoor-soap-white-oil-soap?variant=47417942343962

Our new Beech worktops were treated with the white tinted version of this oil and 3 years later we haven’t had to re-do them yet and they still look gorgeous. Still have to be careful with not putting wet bottomed things down on the surfaces but otherwise they are great. Even bolognaise wipes straight off without staining.

I think cup style handles are traditionally for drawers. They look wrong on doors, there should be a matching knob or D handle for those. If you are going for huge pullout drawers I think they look a bit odd in traditional style kitchens, at least maybe put two handles on them.

We have one huge pan drawer in our current - traditional style 🤪 - kitchen and have put two knobs on each drawer. On the smaller pan drawer there's one knob per drawer and on the smaller ones we've got cup handles, then different knobs on the two wall cupboards.

Here's some progress pics (before the integrated dishwasher door was fitted and the marble splash back done)....

We had oak tops fitted around 11 years ago and they’re still ok. A bit lived in, but otherwise fine. The key is Osmo oil. Makes them bombproof.