Ikea Kitchens

[WTD]

Gents looking for the opinions of the PH masses here.

I'm currently in the planning stages of a very unusual home rebuild, and my thoughts have been drawn to the kitchen at the moment. Whats the general consensus on an Ikea kitchen? I'm pretty sure I've read good things about them and the 25 year guarantee sounds like they are confident in their product, but I'm always a little wary of furniture form the great Swedish design chain!

Does anyone have any nice installation photo's, inspiration for me that use ikea products, or similar..?? I'd be really interested if you have some photo's or thoughts on this matter!!! Style wise anything goes, its a weekend house renovation so doesn't need to be boring!

Many thanks in advance,
Steve

[Rollin]

We use them as units in our dental surgeries. They take more abuse than a kitchen would and still look/work great.

[mr_fibuli]

They're pretty good quality - 18mm particle board rather than 12mm you get with some kitchens, same Blum hinges and drawer runners that you'll find on high end kitchens. Their soft door closers are poop though, only last about a week at best - get them somewhere else.

One quirk is that they have no service gap behind the cupboards - which means more cupboard space, but it can be more hassle if you have existing pipework.

Prices are good too - about the same as the B&Q, Homebase etc, once you take into account their 50% off double discount "sale" crap. The advantage is though that you can more easily buy extra units or add-ons if you want to change or you break something while building it. With Homebase for example you'd end up paying 3x as much as you don't qualify for the "sale" discounts on small orders.

[Bill]

mr_fibuli said:

One quirk is that they have no service gap behind the cupboards - which means more cupboard space, but it can be more hassle if you have existing pipework.

It can make them a bugger to fit.

[Gingerbread Man]

I fitted an Ikea bathroom vanity unit once on a job. The basin and unit were fine, but the tap came with 8mm (or was it 10mm) tails going to it. This'll be fine if you have mains hot at the tap, but from a tank it might suffer badly.

[An Oasis]

We have a very strange shaped kitchen and after talking to a number of kitchen places were not convinced that they offered much more than the cheap B&Q style so went for the VÄRDE range - holding up very well (very sturdy) and after 5 years and we still like the look.

[Solitude]

Speaking as a tradie sparks who recently was asked to fit the undercounter lights(supplied with the kitchen).........they were a mare, however i myself have scoped them out in store recently and i like what i see. As with all kitchens, make sure all the parts show up !!!

[Astacus]

All good, but I think they are "non standard" sizes, which means if you want swap out doors at some stage, you can only use Ikea ones. Also, of course, they are flat-packed and so less strong. I recently had to pull out the ones in my utility room and the joints had gone loose. I rebuilt them but glued the joints. Oh, and the undersink unit had suffered from a couple of minor leaks and the bottom board had stared to de-laminate. I would recomend, if you can do it, clamping and glueing them and running a bead of sealant along the join of any under sink units. Not sure whether they do that aluminium sheet you often see, but I would use that too in the future. I also noticed that the top hinge had started to rust on the undersink unit. I think this is from bleaches etc. Chlorine gets in the air and attacks the metal.

The units are about 2 years old!

HTH

[andy43]

Bill said:

mr_fibuli said:

One quirk is that they have no service gap behind the cupboards - which means more cupboard space, but it can be more hassle if you have existing pipework.

It can make them a bugger to fit.

It's not a quirk, it's a complete PITA.
All down to the fitting as well - if you don't protect the swedish compressed-newspaper-board it will swell up like a sponge in weeks.

[dave_s13]

The fact you have to make up all the base units before you even get started on fitting the buggers puts me off doing another.

I put an Ikea kitchen in our old place and after 7 years it looked pretty fooked tbh. Ok from a distance though.

In our new place we are looking at a Howden and also heard good things (from a chippy) about Wickes stuff?

[WTD]

thanks for all the advice guys, I'm kind of bound to Ikea as they are probably the only reasonable place in Tokyo where to buy a fitted kitchen, I'm not going to be building it myself will get chippies in to do that.

Does any one have some inspirational photo's of nice kitchens you've put in so I can show the wife..

[mattman]

Fitted 2 of them now and highly recommend!

Fitted red gloss and Black/Brown now - find the fittings are very good

[mattdaniels]

dave_s13 said:

The fact you have to make up all the base units before you even get started on fitting the buggers puts me off doing another.

Isn't that how most kitchens come? (ie. flat packed)

[dave_s13]

mattdaniels said:

dave_s13 said:

The fact you have to make up all the base units before you even get started on fitting the buggers puts me off doing another.

Isn't that how most kitchens come? (ie. flat packed)

No, AFAIK Howdens come pre-built and are reputed to be of a better quality than B&Q/IKEA etc. I think they use thicker panels for the units.

My next door neighbour is a joiner and has a trade account with them. Tells me he can get a healthy discount so I'll be exploring that a bit further down the line in my upcoming project.

[m4ckg]

dave_s13 said:

mattdaniels said:

dave_s13 said:

The fact you have to make up all the base units before you even get started on fitting the buggers puts me off doing another.

Isn't that how most kitchens come? (ie. flat packed)

No, AFAIK Howdens come pre-built and are reputed to be of a better quality than B&Q/IKEA etc. I think they use thicker panels for the units.

My next door neighbour is a joiner and has a trade account with them. Tells me he can get a healthy discount so I'll be exploring that a bit further down the line in my upcoming project.

He can get a healthy discount of an over inflated price. I can't believe people still fall for the 70+% discount ! think of what the kitchen would cost without discount and would anybody buy them ? I doubt it very much

[dave_s13]

m4ckg said:

dave_s13 said:

mattdaniels said:

dave_s13 said:

The fact you have to make up all the base units before you even get started on fitting the buggers puts me off doing another.

Isn't that how most kitchens come? (ie. flat packed)

No, AFAIK Howdens come pre-built and are reputed to be of a better quality than B&Q/IKEA etc. I think they use thicker panels for the units.

My next door neighbour is a joiner and has a trade account with them. Tells me he can get a healthy discount so I'll be exploring that a bit further down the line in my upcoming project.

He can get a healthy discount of an over inflated price. I can't believe people still fall for the 70+% discount ! think of what the kitchen would cost without discount and would anybody buy them ? I doubt it very much

Err....still works out comparable to the likes of Ikea, B&Q et al and the quality is better. Units made of thicker boards, dowelled and glued.

Your point??

I've not even started looking into yet anyway. Don't assume I'm fvckin brain dead.

[Simpo Two]

I had a look at Howdens two years ago when planning my own kitchen. The choice looked exactly the same as everywhere else and the prices weren't any better. But then, I didn't have a mate in the trade.

Ready-built units hold no thrall for me. I like assembling stuff, and have no room to keep ready-built units during the work.

Edited by Simpo Two on Tuesday 8th June 22:13

[jules_s]

I did an Ikea kitchen a few years ago and blogged it as part of a refurb thread to show the EA come sale time.

I seemed to recall it being a PITA due to the flat pack nature of the units (bits missing - ages putting them together) and the full depth units meaning all of the divisions had to be cut to accommodate services behind.

http://www.vx220.org.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic...

That thread brings back nightmares of fitting a kitchen....it may have been easier if the walls were perpendicular.

[m4ckg]

dave_s13 said:

m4ckg said:

dave_s13 said:

mattdaniels said:

dave_s13 said:

The fact you have to make up all the base units before you even get started on fitting the buggers puts me off doing another.

Isn't that how most kitchens come? (ie. flat packed)

No, AFAIK Howdens come pre-built and are reputed to be of a better quality than B&Q/IKEA etc. I think they use thicker panels for the units.

My next door neighbour is a joiner and has a trade account with them. Tells me he can get a healthy discount so I'll be exploring that a bit further down the line in my upcoming project.

He can get a healthy discount of an over inflated price. I can't believe people still fall for the 70+% discount ! think of what the kitchen would cost without discount and would anybody buy them ? I doubt it very much

Err....still works out comparable to the likes of Ikea, B&Q et al and the quality is better. Units made of thicker boards, dowelled and glued.

Your point??

I've not even started looking into yet anyway. Don't assume I'm fvckin brain dead.

If you haven't started to look into it yet how do you know the quality is better? they haven't got thicker panels either, most companies do 18mm mfc boards as standard now, dowelled and glued doesn't make them better than an good quality flat pack either, all units are white and not co-ordinated which means plant on end panels as well.

I'm not saying your brain dead, just that you dont know what your talking about

[mattman]

jules_s said:

I did an Ikea kitchen a few years ago and blogged it as part of a refurb thread to show the EA come sale time.

I seemed to recall it being a PITA due to the flat pack nature of the units (bits missing - ages putting them together) and the full depth units meaning all of the divisions had to be cut to accommodate services behind.

http://www.vx220.org.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic...

That thread brings back nightmares of fitting a kitchen....it may have been easier if the walls were perpendicular.

Both Ikea kitchens fitted and not 1 screw, dowel or any other bit was missing - if anything I ended up with extra screws, nails etc - highly recommend!