You can do Ikea for about half of what any of the budget lines at the box stores cost with twice the quality. Unless you are looking at the stock crap that they have in store. As long as you are willing to do the assembly and install (EASY with Ikea, not so much with conventional cabinets, you will be saving a lot of money.

You should download their kitchen planner and play with it for your space so you can get an idea of what's possible.

Every few years I flip a house because I get the itch and have run out of projects on my own house! Cost is always a primary factor there but yet I want to leave the person with a functional kitchen.

I use a builder grade cabinet in a stained wood color popular in the time I am renovating (Merillat Essential). I had these same cabinets in the family colonial that I raised my kids in for 12 years and they held up just fine.

I always put in granite, usually Uba Tuba which is very reasonable here and often you can get it with a free undermount stainless sink. No 4" back splash.

I tile the back splash with a reasonable fairly plain tile from the big box stores.

I use 12x12 ceramic tile for the floor from the end caps at the big box stores, always under $1 per sq foot.

I upgrade the lighting as inexpensively as I can but I try to put a "today" edge to it (pendant over the sink when they first came out, etc).

I paint a neutral but rich, medium deep color.

I put in a budget grade faucet (but good looking) and budget grade disposal.

If I have to get appliances I get lower grade stainless, always with a microwave over the range. I don't buy a refrigerator.

If there is any new building going on in your area, pop into some model homes. I try to make my kitchens resemble those and my houses sell fast and well with updated kitchens and baths. I am working in the $120K- just over $200K range of houses.

I use the same KD from the local kitchen/bath shop for my cabinets and counters that I just used for my own kitchen. He understand completely the difference between what I want for my own house and what I want to maximize appeal and profit. I am a DIYer so do my own install (except counters of course!).

IKEA is best choice, I think. May not be the absolute lowest price (compared to the RTA junk from lowest cost supplier), but certainly not far off. And the quality and built-in amenities are comparable many regular or even upgraded cabinet lines. So IKEA is a much, much better deal. And you could replace the fronts on the cabs at a later date if you wanted a door style or material they don't offer. The trade off is somewhat in the rigidity of what they offer, though many people have successfully hacked IKEA stuff to make some changes. That's harder (but still possible in some ways) if you need to stick to using using IKEA door fronts, rather than custom from a third-party supplier.

Is this kitchen for you in the new house, or for the resale of your existing house? Payback for resale may not be there, beyond maybe replacing a counter (And IKEA is good for that, too.)

HTH

L.

I was a realtor in NY before we moved to NJ. I think you should talk to a realtor first and find out what their opinion is with how much you should do. If there is a steel beam then it is a load bearing wall probably which means it needs to be supported correctly. That may cost some money, may require a structural engineer to tell you how and where to support it.

You are talking about a complete redo of your kitchen but perhaps just updating fronts and replacing counters would refresh it, help it sell and you won't have invested too much into it.

I would sometimes get sellers who would over spend on making their house sellable to the point where the market could not support the price they wanted or needed. You have to be careful if you are renovating just to sell.

We've also flipped a few houses, we'd live in them and work on them for a couple years then sell. It is a balance of knowing the market for your location, updating and cost. I did similiar to Hags00 above, that is great advice.

The Ikea planner will spit out a price when you're done which will help with comparisons.

I would prefer to buy a house with Ikea cabinets than low end big box, and I'm pretty snobby!

Are you sure you need to take out a wall? Taking out a wall for resale seems extreme. :)

I just helped a friend of mine with her budget kitchen and for around $5,000 total she has a brand new kitchen.

Schrock cabinets from Menards. They have a 5 week lead time. The granite from a local granite yard in a basic color with a free undermount sink promotion. She still has some things to do to finish the kitchen.

She opted to not keep a dishwasher and removed the sink window because it only looked into the garage. These are 30" wall cabinets with added features of painted maple, soft close drawers and full overlay. If you stay with 30 inch wall cabinets and no extra bells and whistles you can keep the cost down.

The flooring is a vinyl wood look floor that looks really nice.

BEFORE

I would definitely talk to a couple of real estate agents before doing anything.

I would choose IKEA cabinets over big box. As a buyer, I was always glad to see IKEA.

Sounds like IKEA is a pretty safe bet, Thanks! I tried the home depot web site and just got confused, whereas IKEA has a lot of "helper" websites, so that helps.

This is for the house I am selling.
My development is a fair size, so I reviewed sales for my exact model house for the last three years, and found pictures of what people did and what prices they got. I think it was five out of six took out most of the wall between the kitchen and dining room, to make it "open." It does allow better light through, and it presents the house as more updated, with a modern flow.

The part of the wall I want to remove won't need a header because of the steel beam. I would be very surprised if there is anything weight-bearing inside there, but it is possible. I guess I would then drywall it back up and start over.

So now I am thinking
ikea Adel cabs in a med brown,
then a formica 180fx red montana laminate countertop,
with a scrubbable wallpaper backsplash, maybe wallusa.com 15573,
and a mannington adura vinyl tile floor called Athena grecian Grey.(hope the green tones are really in there!)
My white appliances will pop against all that zenny woodtone and subtle green, but if I add a few other white accents, it will look intentional.

Well, that's a first shot at materials, anyway. Please feel free to chime in, if you know of something better or cheaper.

Hope I will have time to post links tomorrow. I am being TKO when I should work ... ;)

Hmmm... Isn't IKEA also a chain? So, why is it considered not a big box store?

All our kitchen cabinets are from Thomasville through HD and just as many cabinets in other rooms are from Ikea (Adel Medium Brown). I think the decision point for us include: the sizes you will want to best utilize the space you have (note: Ikea cabs have very limited sizes), the style you want (we want wooden drawer boxes for our kitchen), the box construction (I'm glad that we did all-ply or ply side for many boxes in the kitchen, which is not an option with Ikea), promotions available (depends on timing, you can get very good discount at HD, although at Ikea you can also get the cabs on sale). As for service, HD and Thomasville have been very good to us.

To start, sit down and think about your kitchen layout (get help on GW if you need it). You want to have a design that's flexible enough to accommodate sizes available in different cabinet lines. Then take your design to Ikea and HD and get a quote. It will not cost you anything to get a quote anyway.

However, I think if budget is the highest driving factor, you can probably save your time and just work with what Ikea offers. When you work with other cabinet lines (e.g. offered at HD), it's hard not to make some upgrades (e.g. ply construction here and there), which will essentially drive the cost up.

I like IKEA also for a economical kitchen. But with the smaller range of sizes and options they have, I always had trouble getting my design to work in IKEA. I do think the ADEL brown is a good choice.

Check out your cost difference between granite and laminate. I bet it is little and granite is a selling point. In my area, my KD has about 6 granite options that are really inexpensive.

Mud worm, sorry if my word choice wasn't careful enough. I would choose Ikea over Home Depot and Lowes. Better?

I do not have the luxury of Ikea YET..but one coming to KC area in 2014. When I priced cabinets at big box stores, I was able to get them custom built with so many extras cheaper than any of them.

just my humble opinion but I would not count on the average home buyer being an ikea kitchen fan. Ikea in general has a reputation for junky furniture, and although their kitchen cabinets are quite a few notches above the quality of a lot of their other stuff, I think only people who do exhaustive internet research about such things know that. They also have some troublesome exposed details that would make me as a buyer think twice about a "new" kitchen, such as the cam locks that you find on cheap, budget office furniture if you can see the underside of the cabinet over your fridge. Also, although the drawer hardware is quite nice - I think the average modest home buyer would see wood drawers - even more cheaply constructed - as higher quality than metal drawers. You can find dovetail drawers on so many modest lines nowadays that they are almost expected and "people" see dovetail as quality, even though it isn't necessarily the case. I would not count on the average modest home buyer realizing that there are different qualities of metal drawers and some are much worse than some wood while some are better (and more expensive) than even dovetail boxes with full extension blum slides.

So I guess what I am saying is that the actual quality difference in cabinets is likely nowhere near as important as the perception of the average buyer, and for that I'd talk to a realtor. Maybe I am underestimating the average buyer, but I am guessing I am not (and I am guessing the typical gwebber is not a typical modest home buyer).

Actually - I disagree. I think a beautiful kitchen in good condition with a good layout will win over most buyers.

The Ikea drawers and doors work so well with their soft close - I think most buyers might look at the metal drawer sides and think it's different from what they are used to - but I don't think it would stop anyone from buying a house if it met their needs.

Bonnie

Just my opinion.

I'm guessing metal in the drawers is not going to be a big deal, but then again, I haven't seen it yet. My market is young families, likely a first home. The overall price is pretty set; there are so many excellent match comps I know what the appraisal will be. And these houses go pretty fast at that price because everything else is ridiculously expensive, because it's northern Virginia.

So I am concentrating on first impressions and child safety. If I take out the wall, I can squeeze an island in there. The kitchen was actually designed for an eat-in table, so it works.

But now I am anxious to see those drawers. I can't imagine metal sides.

In my experience, very few people even open the drawers when looking at a house.

In any case, the ikea drawers are Blum Tandembox, which are darned expensive drawers if you buy them any place else.

these houses go pretty fast at that price

Wait, why are you doing this again? I thought it was because you needed to have an updated look in order to sell. If the market is brisk, why not just discount the home price by $10k?

This is what they look like (scroll down page for best look).

Bonnie

Here is a link that might be useful: Ikea metal drawers

I always appreciate threads like this. We haven't ruled out IKEA despite being in Alaska. Our closest store is Seattle. I'm slowly exploring local options, but nothing is grabbing me that will be in my price range...

rtwilliams - Can you tell me more about your friend's floor? Do you know the brand and color? Is it plank? Having seen it, do you think it would look okay in a living room and den as well as kitchen/DR? I really want a wood look and I really want(ed) one continuous floor throughout my small space. However, I've begun to secondguess that as we are on a cement slab in a place with a lot of rain and snow. I've been encouraged by most to avoid laminate and engineered wood and go with vinyl plank. I just haven't found one that I can imagine using throughout and loving it. I really want to love my floor!

You know, Angie_DIY has a very valid point.

When we priced the Ikea cabinets for her kitchen they where considerably more expensive than the Schrock ones and we did not have an Ikea close enough to go to see them in person. She wanted painted cabinets not thermofoil and schrock cabinets have wood drawers, dove tail construction. So for the $ they really are nice cabinets. Another line that is fairly inexpensive is Mid continent cabinets. The dealer in our area for the mid-continent is difficult to work with so we passed on them.

Steph- the flooring is from lowes the allen + roth brand, pretty inexpensive and it is individual planks. It looks nice the planks had a foam backing attached to them. I have a vinyl plank flooring in my basement and I love it. I do daycare and it is very nice looking and cleans up easily. I would not hesitate to put the vinyl floor on cement.

Ditto Angie_DIY and writersblock. Please consult a few real estate agents before you do any work. In my area you pretty much never recoup the entire cost of the reno when you sell, so they usually advise cleaning/decluttering instead and then setting the price a little lower than fully reno'd homes.

You need to get a realtor in and have them work the comparables and show you where they think you should be priced and what/if any work or renovs they think you should do.

The market has changed, in some areas it is rebounding and using a property from 3 yrs ago may not be what a realtor in your area would do, especially if the properties move quickly in your area.

A realtor also has more easy access to information (there is sometimes considerable more info than what you see on Realtor or Zillow. Having a realtor come and run comparables and show you their market plan is free, there is no obligation normally and it will give you more insight on what needs to be done.

Twice a year IKEA has a 20% off sale on their kitchens. The next one should be around March/April.

Thanks so much, rtwilliams! I seem to really be bugging you for details lately. Looking for a job? ;)

I really, really need to see pics of all of your kitchens!

I'm on my second kitchen renovation with Home Depot cabinets (KraftMaid, Thornton shaker style, white - yes, I am installing the exact same cabinets two times because I like them so much). I think they're pretty high quality. The reason I haven't bought Ikea is because I like white kitchens, and don't like their white cabinets. When my new kitchen is done, I'll post pics. For now, here's a pic of my last kitchen, which was renovated in 2009. (And my husband and I sold that apartment no problem.) Fwiw, I've found countertops to be overpriced at Home Depot, and usually buy from local rockyards.

I came across this thread while doing a site search for inexpensive cabinets. I would be interested in using Ikea cabinets but agree with lkpnyc - Ikea's white cabinets look particularly cheesy to me. (And my standards are not high.) Ikea offers one wood front cabinet in white. I took a sample home and I guess it is meant to be a pickled white because it had a definite pink cast to it.

I am sure different people have different experiences, but we sold a $750,000 home in 2009 with a year old IKEA kitchen--stat white. (Did not remodel for resale, job location changed unexpectedly). We got a lot of positive feedback specifically on the kitchen, no negative feedback on it. The wife of the couple who bought it said she wanted the kitchen. We sold in about a week on the market.

So IME an IKEA kitchen doesn't look cheesy or turn off potential buyers, even in a house a bit above starter in price level.

But I really think consulting a real estate agent or two or three before dropping any money on a kitchen remodel is the way to go.