Other than the handles, the Ikea cabinets were far and away the easiest part of our remodel.

Our lowers are not even attached to the wall- there's no need to. The counters are heavy enough to hold them in place and using all four Ikea legs makes them far, far easier to level since they all adjust. The upper rail system helps too- you level one rail for all of the cabinets on that wall, and then just pop the cabinets onto the bolts.

Are you replacing walls? Do you have lath & plaster? Might want to check for plumb & level on your wall and floors. If you are way out, installing any cabs can be trying.

Thanks guys, one wall of the kitchen is being pushed out, the contractor would do that. The house is old old old, I am sure we are not plumb and level... that scares me.

Carrie

I went with IKEA cabs in my kitchen and love the quality and value. I have an old house with leaning walls and uneven floor and found that I could not hang the wall cabs myself--even with a carpenter friend helping the 2nd time round. So I hired a contractor for that part (shared all the IKEA literature and directions, they even had a free DVD about installation) and got a very professional install. The adjustable legs for the base are very useful.

You can assemble a cab in 30 minutes to an hour. The regular boxes are very quick, the corner cab and pantry took longer. By the end, my 13 year old assembled the over the fridge cab all by himself! Just get make sure when you attach the back panel that you square up the corners with a corner square tool--that allows the wall cabs to hang side-by-side nicely.

I had the cabs all ready, and the contractor hung the rails, attached hinges, squared the doors and attached the trim. They also cut and attached the wood countertop and replaced my window. It was worth the extra $2000. So the cabs ($2500) PLUS installation was $4500, the price of other cabs alone.

You do need a contractor who is open to installing European style cabinets. They will question the rail system and want to screw through the backs to hold the cabinets to the wall. I found it useful to share that IKEA has engineered the heck out of this attachment system, and that my 25-year warranty might be voided if the cabs were installed differently.

Depending where you live, you might be able to find an IKEA certified installer who would do your install very quickly, since they understand the system. Hopefully the installer could also do your fancy trim-outs which would look grat with the Lindigo style.

Also, if you are near an IKEA, consider having the store deliver your order. The delivery for my cabinets would have only $250, and I live 320 miles away! Wish I would have done that. They deliver right into your house, or garage--wherever you need the flat packs located.

Here is a link that might be useful: My IKEA kitchen remodel blog

You might also consider asking your CONTRACTOR to please watch the video.

Bcs it's a pretty easy install, just different. Maybe if he saw what it involved, he'd be willing.

And if he learns how to do it on your kitchen, then he'll have another "tool" in his "belt"; he could find himself with an extra service to sell.

And yes, you could also consider getting someone else to install.

I wish that, on my kitchen, I'd hired the GC to get the kitchen "cabinet ready" (do all the structural, electrical, plumbing) and then had the cabinet suppliers do the install. (and the flooring suppliers do the install)

I know there are lots of IKEA DIY fans - but from reading your post, I really think you would be better off having someone install the IKEA cabinets for you if those are the cabinets you want (or spending the extra $ on what you would pay for the install on other cabinets your GC can install). Since you say it is a pretty big project overall, the extra couple thousand really won't be that big of a difference. Believe me, I am one of the biggest bargain hounds around - but in redoing our kitchen, once we decided we were proceding I came to the realization that trying to save a little here or there and come out with less than a perfect result was not worth it. If I am making a big investment, I want it to be perfect.

Cdworkin, I'm glad you asked this question. I'm struggling with the IKEA question myself. My GC is also pushing me to use his semi-custom cabinet guy, but I just don't think I'll get the features of the IKEA cabinets, for a reasonable price with his guy. The semi-custom cabs will LO

I think you should put them together yourselves and then have them professionally installed. And as Talley Sue said - make them do it the IKEA way - they may not want to - but it works. My guy did not use the hanging rail because our walls were too crooked and he had to do a lot of shimming - and I don't think he thought it would work. They turned out fine. We customized a bit too with extra crown molding and toekicks so that our counters would be a bit taller than 'normal'.
My son, 15 at that time, put together our cabs in our drive shed and then we carried them into the house to be installed.
There are some out-dated pics on 'my page'

Go for it - you CAN do it!!

Cdworkin, I'm glad you asked this question. I'm struggling with the IKEA question myself. My GC is also pushing me to use his semi-custom cabinet guy, but I just don't think I'll get the features of the IKEA cabinets, for a reasonable price with his guy. The semi-custom cabs will LOOK nice but have no organizational stuff on the inside (pull-outs, large drawers, dividers).

Anyway, my question for you is, how do you plan to do the extra features like feet, corbels and moulding on the IKEA cabinets and match the color white they use? I'm curious because I'd like to similarly match them, but I'm worried it won't come out (color and finish-wise) and look home-done.

We put IKEA cabinets in our laundry room. I had a handyman assemble and install them. He did a great job but it took him a long time because he had never done IKEA before and the directions are famously wordless.
If I had to do it over I would just hire professional IKEA installers. They'd get it done quickly and correctly.

We are total DIY'ers, yet when it came to our IKEA cabs in the kitchen we had a GC do them. He and his 'buddy' had never done them before - we didn't even have an IKEA in town at the time - but they knocked them all out in 2 days. They did a great job, and I am happy we had them do it. For the laundry room we did them ourselves, and they really were easy.

In the house we just bought we are going to do IKEA again - we've been so happy with them - but we think we will try it ourselves. We'll see how we feel a couple of days into it . . .

I too went with IKEA cabinets and LOVE them (although the remodel will not be complete for another few days). I am NOT a DIY'er, therefore I had our handy man do the install. They were much more complicated for him than expected. I wish he would have watched the video before hand. The biggest issues were matching all the pieces together which took him almost a full day(putting the cabinets together was the easy part). Then once he began the install there were little things missed from the order and or extra pieces that were unecessary. Ikea was great about sending the proper parts and taking back those that we didn't need but it held up the process a good bit. Unfortunately, we don't have an Ikea near us that we could use an Ikea intaller which I would MUCH rather have done.

Overall though, I am VERY happy so far and would use Ikea again in a heart beat EXCEPT have an Ikea installer do the job!

Good luck in your decision and I can't wait to see photos!