Ikea Cabinets

Twice now I've walked into a recent kitchen remodel and really liked the look of the cabinets only to be told they're Ikea and I found out they cost about 30% of what I'm paying normally.

I gotta admit I'm considering useing them in my two next new homes.

I don't like the metal drawers but other than that I don't see a problem with them. I build mid-mid/high end homes.

What do you guys think of them. I want the pros and the cons.

Wack

They look OK, but when you look at them further, you'll find that the construction isn't all that great. I wouldn't even consider putting them in anything beyond "affordable housing" or true low-end entry level homes.

All I know is Ikea light fixtures are the worst. Most do not come with mounting hardware and they use screws and nuts that are neither standard nor metric. And they always have weird, made up Scandinavian names like Faart and kweef.

add some time for assembly and getting to know them.

I have mixed feelings regarding Ikea cabs. While the cabs doors do look nice ( I like the birch and the charcoal laminate w/birch edgestrips) I think the carcass construction is sub-par. The price reflects the quality. That being said, I have installed them in houses that sold for $700,000-800,000. Go figure. -Chris

I have to admit this gave me a pretty good

LMAO

Did one Ikea kitchen about a year ago. Good for the money, but on a U shaped kitchen your gonna need some fillers. After completion and what I charged to assemble the boxes the customer could have gotten a decent value line box cabinet for not much more. Nice looking kitchen (Ikea) though.

I would reluctantly install Ikea cabinets if the customer already had them and insisted on using them, but I would NEVER offer or sell them to a customer.

i sell them and gonna install for ikea but they dont pay for travel.... too wide of a area.... i think they take a beating and go together easily after the first job... mine are 7 years old and have not had a problem.... lots of big drawrs for cheaper than i can even come close to at the shop

I can't see them taking too much of a beating. I have only installed one Ikea kitchen, but that was enough for me to not want to do it again.
Cam-Lock fasteners.
Plastic feet.
Uppers hanging from L brackets.
Snap-on toe kick.

No thanks.

...Like I said, if the customer supplies it and insists...whatever.

I talked to my custom cabinet guy and also my two standard suppliers and neither could really say a lot bad about them. They did say they can't get anywhere close to that for something similar, even going super cheap as well.

1. I know they are not to the quality of my normal ones overall but even my normal ones aren't "expensive" cabinets. Better than HD or bLowes but not great and I've never had a complaint on them at all. In fact I've seen them in 1.2 mil homes. Same with inexpensive windows.

2. I haven't seen a kitchen done with them that is older, so I haven't seen how they stand up to the test of time.

3. I have to warrant these houses so I don't want something that's just gonna give me trouble later on and the money saved now is spend on that.

4. These two houses are asking 450k and 490k. 2400 and 2800 sqft, granite slab, walk in pantry, butlers pantry, jacuzzi tub, earth advantage/ energy star. Fairly nice homes in this area, for the price.

I just can't help wondering if they would actually hurt the sale? I'm starting to think not and between the two houses I would save 16k. That's money I could lower the sales price by if needed and keep my margins the same.

Right now lot's of buyers seem to be looking for bargains and not quite as concerned with quality. Plus anything over 417k now is a jumbo loan and is much harder to get with higher interest rates. So the price of these puts them just into that category. If my buyers don't come in with some cash this could hurt the deal. Dropping the price some might be their angle and I need to prepare for that.

Do things like plastic feet, L brackets for uppers, iron on edging and fillers really matter to the buyer? Will they even notice? I know they'll notice price.

I could always have an upgraded cabinet package for those who do, since they'll be for sale before that point.

Kinda like the difference between using 16 OC or 24OC for non load bearing walls. Do you think the buyer will notice? I don't.

On the other hand I don't want a savvy buyer to take one look inside the drawers and assume the whole house is low quality (doubtful). Or after they buy have their friends give them crap for it and be unhappy.

Wack

It's been 20 years since I've been in an Ikea,

Are there cabinets knocked down and you have to assemble them? If that's the case no way in hell would I get involved.

They are.

A little while back we did the demo and structural work for an ad execs kitchen. Just the demo and structual work was about 20k and that didn't include adding any sqft, so they had no problem spending money on this project.

They chose to go with Ikea cabinets because they actually liked them. These people had to hand pick their actual slabs of granite (just picking a type wasn't good enough for them) and they CHOSE to go with Ikea cabinets.

I just couldn't believe it at the time and it's what got me considering these.

I'm going to need to do some serious research on this before I'll ever do it but I'm not going to close my mind to this option.


Yet.

Ikea's cabinets are Euro style, but Euro style does not equal knock down. If all of Ikea's cabs are knock down that puts them in the same category as knock down furniture. Like you can buy at Home Depot, Target, Kmart...

Euro style is one thing, knock down is quite another in my opinion anyways. Isn't there trouble enough and decisions centering around cab lines in regard to traditional American style cabs and the box construction? Knock down is below even that, right?

Well, I guess I'm not really sure. I haven't done any yet but it sounds like they go together with turn cams. They sure don't look or feel like cheap crap cabinets to me. Like I said I was dazzled by them and I just got done going through the 3 mil street of dreams homes.

The finish looks good, they have full extension glides, fully adjustable hinges, soft stop drawers. Both times they were in homes worth at least 600k.

So are they like the old glue together cheap stuff, I don't think so, but you do put them together yourself.

I have a feeling more and more people will use them and they'll get a lot better rep. The bang for the buck is just too good.

No f***ing way. Turn cam construction? No Way. I can just see somebody putting $12,000 worth of granite ontop of $1000 worth of turn cam cabinets. I'd take your phone off the hook for awhile after that installation.

i actually use thomasville alot and get rave reviews. with IKEA in an expensive house? my problem is this: most buyers would never notice but a few may and you would never want word getting out that you use cheap stuff. nothing sounds cheaper than the word "IKEA". also,it only takes one jerk off to go to someones christmas party at someones home and make a remark about how the builder ripped you off by installing IKEA cabinets.
i like Bulthaup the best. very exspensive but they are just beautiful. of course poggenpol and sniedero are nice as well.

being a swede, and visiting Ikea 34 yrs ago for the 1st time (in Sweden, they weren't here yet) i gotta stand up for them...

we put their cabinets in my parents apartment kitchen...outside of being a PITA to put together (at least they included all the parts needed)...they are really good low to mid grade cabinets...They don't use L-brackets for the uppers (there is a hanger that gets installed the length of the cabinet run to the studs and a corresponding pieced along the back of each of the cabinets (similar to a french cleat system)

my 18 month old son is by them a lot...and he's put the lower drawers and cabinets through a strenuous test for the past year, and they are holding up quite well...

would I put them in a $1mil home? probably not...but in a $400,000 home in a heartbeat...