All your suggestions to use IKEA makes me jealous. I live 700 to 800 miles from the nearest store. I thought about trying to order them online as we are probably going to be ordering RTA's (no local custom shops around here!). It doesn't look like you can do online ordering and delivering for kitchen cabinets from what I read on their website. Does anyone know if this is true? Do you have to order them locally, or at least pick them up at a store location?

They deliver, but I ordered in person.

Dawn,
Thanks so much for the information. Guess I had better go look at them again if ordering online is an option!

Writersblock, good points.

As for the post about being able to have a 5-drawer stack using IKEA drawerfronts, I am wondering how that would work out. The 6" drawers are actually 6 3/16" high. The base cabinet is 30 1/8" high. On the 4-drawer stack, that bottom drawer is actually the 11 1/4" deep drawer, not the 12 1/2" deep drawer.

I think, at this point, I can recite IKEA door and drawer front measurements and configurations in my sleep. LOL.

On the other hand, if you were to do custom drawer fronts, you could easily have a 5-drawer stack, but the drawers would be a bit more shallow.

mtpam2, I forgot to mention that I'm located in Canada - not sure if it's different for anywhere else?

When I called the toll-free number to indicate that I wanted to order (kitchen) cabinets, I was assigned a Kitchen Rep. The Rep and I talked/emailed back and forth, over the course of a week or so, re: my proposed kitchen design via the online planner. When I was comfortable with everything, I went ahead and ordered. I think shipping was just under $600. I could not have rented a trailer and drove there and back for that!
HTH
Dawn

Being European, I'm a big IKEA fan. Just walking through the store reminds me of Holland (even though IKEA is Swedish...close enough!!) Anyway, I'm encouraged reading about forum members putting the cabinets together with ease. I was concerned about that. (Dretutz, I'm 61 also, and I figure that if YOU can do it I can do it!!!) I would LOVE to see some images of finished IKEA kitchens here. But even without those pictures, I feel encouraged. Thanks!!

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=drawer+rationell

In my first post, I missed a step. I'll rewrite it now.

Example.
1/. buy the ikea bases

AND
the raw drawers that will need a drawer front

and
2a/. buy ikea-compatible drawer fronts and base cabinet doors from Scherr's and many others, or
2b/. make your own, or
2c/. hire a cabinet maker to make custom cabinet doors and drawer faces

--

I'll explain it now.

Each "raw" drawer will take whatever height drawer front that you choose to give it. This is HOW you get to have 4 drawers or 5, of any size (height) you want.

A couple posts up, someone mentions that the weird heights of the Ikea drawer fronts. (... 6 3/16" high ... 11 1/4" ... 12 1/2" ....) Don't buy them if they don't fit your plan !! Instead, make other drawer fronts (or have them made). Make drawer fronts that are the right height for you. Screw them to the Ikea drawers. That is all you have to do. (Buy from Ikea only those parts that you want.)

To see another site that has exactly the same drawers as Ikea drawers, web search this: "Blum M height". Then you will see more clearly that these drawers can receive a drawer front of the height that you wish to have.

Inside the blum.com site, look for Tandembox. For all the Blum glides, you make a drawer of any size you wish. An ikea store is like a hardware store where you can get the Blum Tandembox drawers you want, onto which you shall screw the fronts of the size you want.

Hth

Here is a link that might be useful: examples of the RAW drawers that will need fronts

dianalo, that's precisely the internet business model -- it's all about the eyeballs, as they say. People find what they think is valuable content that people will search out, appropriate it for their own, then make money off it. We thought we were helping each other on *this* site, but we unknowingly attracted attention and provided a massive amount of unpaid seed content for that site's genesis. Sure,they never had *any* plans to do any of that commercial aspect originally--um, uh--they were forced into it against their will because performing the public service is so expensive--they're just good people who used other people's work to make money, the American way, right!

The information could have been collected and preserved just as well, and all the folks could have used it and added to it *without* the money grab. I have no problem with real community use and such -- it's the commercialization, the disregard for the initial spirit of the creation of the information, that makes me sad.

Check out the "advertise on Ikeafans" section. "We deliver a targeted audience of primarily US residents who are actively engaged in the consideration phase of kitchen renovations, furniture purchases and remodeling projects." Those people are acutely aware of the audience they have to market to advertisers. Not just one big happy helpful nonprofit family by any means, despite the gemutlichkeit on display. In fact, if you click on the underlined word 'home' on their 'about us' page "We work from *home*", you get taken to the home mortgage page of bankrate.com. Sheesh. There's not a moneymaking stone left unturned.

Basically, this experience taught me what Sara says in her/your last paragraph the hard way.

And not to be too much of a wet blanket, but it's important to know the facts about anything we buy these days. We have Ikea all over our house, but if it came to it today, I'm not sure how I'd feel about buying more...

"In the past, IKEA has relied on paternalism -- including better than average employee benefits -- to discourage unionization at its U.S. operations. The events in Danville suggest a troubling turn toward heavy-handed union busting."

Here is a link that might be useful: et tu Ingvar...and there are others more recent; search Ikea labor Danville

flyleft and I have died on this particular hill before.

I think that part of what caused the fracture was the siimple observation that an IKEA kitchen isn't always or necessarily the most practical or even most cost-efficient (by which I mean more than just the cost of the pieces and parts). That fairly innocuous observation seemed to have ruffled some feathers and caused some to pack up their toys and head out. Oh well.

Without wanting to retread the muck, I'll just say that flyleft pretty much put her finger on it. Ya'll can make up your own minds about this but I'll just ask if you see any credit given at the site in question to GW or the genesis of the initial source material or the GW community from which the material hailed ... . One of plllog's way-back-machine links pretty much independently affirms to the viewing public that the GW "IKEA vol. A-to-Z" compendium provided the initial source content for the site - so no he-said/she-said about that, surely.

Now, I won't claim that the website doesn't credit its GW sourcing - just that I've never been able to find it. I do find the website fairly dizzying and hard to navigate, truth be told, so perhaps it is there. But its hardly easy to find given the ease with which all other credit is doled out.

Regardless of the past history, I think Davidro's idea with this thread is a good way to get some technical material back on this site.

Cheers.

I have a feeling that if they credited GW on the Ikea fans site they may open themselves up to trouble. Just like doctors are not told to apologize when they make a mistake so that it is not documented that they messed up when the inevitable lawsuit comes.

It would be nice if they gave credit, but since they started a different website than GW, not a clone, and the people contributing here are contributing to a for profit site (notice the ads), I don't think we need to be purists about money being made due to people reading our words that were posted for free. If it helps the average Joe and the money making does not cost the consumer, such as by charging to get the info, then I see no real harm. Maybe it is because it was not during my tenure here, but I tend not to worry what happens after I donate my words. If someone gave something away on freecycle and the recipient fixed it up and sold it, I'd applaud their ingenuity and spunk. As long as it does not cost me anything, all is fine by me.

Davidrol. Sounds like you know your IKEA forward and backwards. I wanted to have a 21" 3 drawer configuration but it didn't appear that IKEA had this option. Even going to your IKEA link, I couldn't figure it out. I realize that you spoke of 4 & 5 drawer but I took the leap of faith that I could also do this with a 3 drawer. IKEA is opening in another month here so I don't have the option to utilize them. This was the last snag (I hope) in making this kitchen work using IKEA.

in my most recent post, i restated it.

i tried to beat it to death.

here goes round 3:

yes, you buy the "raw" un-fronted drawer mechanism thingie, and
yes you place the height you wish to have onto this thingie.

What is allowed?
Any height.
The height of the drawer front that you will get somewhere else.
The height you want to have.
The height of the drawer front = the depth of the drawer, if you think of depth as height.

((there is another use of the term depth, btw, to mean another measurement)).

Anyone can have any number (e.g. 3) of drawers in a cabinet, and
they can have these drawers be of A, B,C, X, Y, and Z depth.
You can have it as you like it.
Let me know if the penny dropped.

Hth

(OT: hey, mindstorm -- nice to see you, completely apart from any mishegas here!...DD's astrophysics dreams are still very much alive, in fact this weekend she's been recovering from a rather invasive orthodontic experience by catching up on what's going on Out There for hours on end : ) Hope you're doing well and learning something exciting every day as you make those exciting things happen : ) my e-mail changed and my old computer died, without my having saved addresses etc...if you're ever so inclined, we'd love to hear from you. I'm at the same name, just @frontier.com now)

Davidrol. I was going to have all the rest of my cabinet fronts from IKEA so I need IKEA for the 21" cabinet too. I don't want to go with another manufacturer because of 2 cabinets that I haven't been able to make work. I understand what you mean by the infrastructure of the inside of the cabinet, but I don't see that IKEA makes a 21" wide cabinet front that the 3 drawer fronts would fit?

aloha - Ikea makes a 21" drawer front that normally goes above a door on the 21" cabinet. You would have to work with its dimensions to see how many you can fit in the height of the cabinets (30" on a base cabinet). Here's the pertinent info:

Product dimensions

Width: 20 3/4 "
Height: 6 1/4 "
Thickness: 3/4 "

Width: 52.8 cm
Height: 15.8 cm
Thickness: 2 cm

I don't see any way you can do a 3-drawer base, as the only height available in this width is 6.25". You couldn't quite fit 5 of these without trimming some of the height off one of them, or maybe use 4 and leave an open slot for trays or something. Hope this helps!

thanks for helping, kmcg.

Whatever Your Chosen Ikea is, aloha2009, you have to go see how Your Chosen Ikea doors and fronts can be cut down to size. It's too much detail for this discussion. The fact that a little bit of work is involved is not a big deal. Or, you can buy ALL your doors and fronts from one source, non-Ikea. Hint hint. Or, you can turn two 21"w boxes into a 24"w and an 18"w. Or, you can lose three inches and get an 18"w box here and there. You have to look into this more. Btw, it IS possible to reduce the size of the drawer down from 24"w to 21"w, by cutting 3" off the wood floor panel and buying two Blum back clips. For more help with this fine-grained detail, open a new thread of your own.

I think others that are looking for a great look with total IKEA cabinets can see that the options are almost limitless knowing now how versatile their cabinets can be. I had started a thread before about this, but no one explained how the drawer configuration could be done. Sounds like my "problem" is solved.

it all comes down to the Blum hardware.

Anyone, woodworker or not, can buy this hardware and make their own drawers.
You can do this when you want drawers to go all the way back under deep counters.

Blum drawer glides and all the components to make drawers
(sides, backs and front clips that you screw onto ANY drawer front).
Blum hinges if you have doors.
Since anyone can buy Blum, that same anyone can use Ikea for a large part of their kitchen.

flyleft, I looked up my emailer looking for my history of past email from you both at work as well as at home but couldn't locate. Probably filed away every so securely (tends to happen). If you could send me an email from my contact info on GW, that would be excellent. I'll pick it up from there.

I wondered what ever did happen with your daughter's Astro dreams. If "we" can ever properly get moving, there are some really fantastic possibilities potentially afoot. 'swhy I haven't had much time for GW except when I get tired or stymied ... ;-)

O.K. I'll do that, mindstorm. I completely understand filing things away so well you can't find them : )
GLAD to hear that possibilities aren't drying up with this economy. More crucial than ever to use every bit of knowledge we can access, IMO.

And speaking of that, back on topic : ), here's a link to some positive action people can take wrt Ikea and their 3rd world manufacturing practices here in the US (the Ikea factory in Danville VA is the most dangerous factory in the furniture industry *in the entire country*, ). My husband sent it to me, actually, since we are so Ikea'd in this home. At this point, I would want to know that their practices have cleaned up *substantially* before I buy anything more of theirs, and I've got an office just waiting for some Expedit etc...

Here is a link that might be useful: Tell Ikea to Respect its [US] workers!

I bought a display kitchen that had frameless cabinets. The doors are painted maple in a traditional style. Since my kitchen doesn't resememble the original display, I've used some Ikea bases and drawers with my doors/drawers to make this work for us. I'm also on an extremely tight budget, so Ikea is helping with the bottom line. We're still in progress and it's going very slowly, but I'll definitely post when we get some more cabinets installed. Hopefully by next week...

great. another illustration of how to use Ikea components.

Aloha2009, what about a pullout 21" base with a drawer on top and one or two pullout drawers inside the pullout base? I kinked to one thread depicting a pullout witout a top drawer but you can certainly have one with a separate top drawer as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ikea pullout base example with internal drawers

Oops just read the upper half of the thread didn't realize there was controversy about origin of the Ikeafans site that I innocently linked to. I have to say that I have done lots of google searches on Gardenweb for Ikea information and never found the old threads linked above early in this thread. The Ikeafans site is a gold mine of information on small and large technical details that would not do well in a larger forum. Gardenwebbers should be proud of birthing such a resource.

Interesting thread...seems to have gotten a bit off track from the title, though.

At the end of the day, IKEA with it's solid 3/4" melamine boxes (yes, that's the same particleboard core as Poggenpohl and Bulthaup) plus it's Blum hardware is pretty hard to beat; just check their Consumer Reports ratings.

From there, whether you go the route of custom IKEA doors from a company like ours - sequenced veneers, laminates or reclaimed lumber - or a more traditional style from a really well-regarded place like Scherr's, you will definitely save quite a bit on what really is a custom kitchen. And for those of you with a few odd sized-boxes, just get a local cabinet shop to make them, add the corresponding doors to your order, and you're all set!

Here is a link that might be useful: Semihandmade

I saw the video and most of your site. You sound like male valley girls. That is great!

I wonder how you could display on your site how people could optimize drawer volume (in ikea cabinets) because the ikea drawer spacing creates a fair amount of wasted space. Anyone who took a picture of the underside of the three drawers in an Ikea cabinet would have a strong case to make. If someone is getting custom drawer fronts made, NOW is the perfect time to change the heights of the drawers. Then they get more space inside their drawers.

I like the continuous veining in the veneer that crosses several panels.

When you redo the sound on the video, transcribe all your text into print and you'll see in print how many times you say fillers and crutch words. If you remove "sorta", "y'know", really", you'll say the same thing with fewer irritants.

You have some nice doors there, semi.

semihandmadeLA, you specialize in custom doors for IKEA cabs? Wow, that would really make the process really simple for someone looking to go that route. Your website must be newer because I did not come across your company in my hours upon hours of research for custom doors.

How 'bout that. I learn something new every day. :^)

Today's "Pacific Northwest", an insert in the Sunday Seattle Times, features an unusual home: a "1905 bungalow joined at the hip with a 2010 contemporary." The newlyweds who renovated the home wanted a 14-foot kitchen table. Wow.

This is an older area of Seattle that has experienced a decline, but the arrival of light-rail has brought about renewed interest in the neighborhood. The 38-foot-long kitchen in the home uses Ikea cabinet boxes with Scherr's walnut veneer doors.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ikea boxes, Scherr's doors

Ikea-Blum drawers are sold in a kit. Several Blum parts in a kit.

Then you add any drawer front (any height).
The front doesn't need to cover more than 1/16th to 1/8th inch below the drawer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blum drawers (in a kit), and any drawer front

bump

A question about sizing of custom doors with Ikea frames and drawers...

Say I don't want to fool around with major size changes, I just want to get the Ikea standard configuration but in a different door style. I vaguely remember seeing some discussion on the web (and have been unable to locate this info again) about Ikea doors/drawer fronts being a touch smaller than truly necessary, thus leaving slightly larger gaps between doors, etc. I'm about 5 hours away from the nearest Ikea, so I can't easily go see for myself.

Those of you in the know, is this true? Would you recommend getting the same exact sizes as the Ikea doors, or is it advisable to get the custom doors 1/16 or so wider and/or taller?

I just went to IKEA and measured doors in a Lidi display kitchen, as the measurements they list on their website are not entirely accurate. I decided not to add to the width, as we have two extremes here--dry winters and humid summers, and we have wood doors. I did not want to have to worry about the doors rubbing together in the humidity, as one GWer ordered her doors a tad wider and found that they were really tight in certain places. I have not noticed that my gaps are too large, and the doors are adjustable so that can always be tweaked anyway. We also installed the doors in the summer, when there was more humidity.

The measurements I ended up with are basically 3/16" less than the cabinet width. For example, the bottom deep drawer front for a 30" cabinet is 29 13/16" W X 12 1/2"H. The 30" tall cabinet is actually 30 1/8"; The 39" cabinet IS 39". I ordered the doors in the same height as the cabinets, and they fit perfectly.

This is what we did, but YMMV. If you order doors through a company such as Scherr's, they eliminate all that guesswork for you, as they have all IKEA measurements on file and even do the drilling for you. GWers have been very satisfied with Scherr's.

shelayne, thank you - that's exactly the sort of information I was hoping for!

You're welcome, dee. Glad I could help! :^)

Does anyone besides me have trouble finding all the cabinets available on the website? Also, Davidrol, you speak of being able to purchase 'just the boxes' etc. I don't see this option online? Is this something that has to be done at a store? I hope not as the nearest store to me is 300 miles away. Is it possible to purchase what you need online without a trip to the store?

Also, can anyone tell me if Ikea sells filler strips for the base cabs.

Thanks

You cannot just buy boxes online. You need to go to the store and pick and choose.

Or.

Set up your kitchen with the IKEA kitchen planner and save it. You can remove doors and whatever you want from the kitchen. Then you can call it up when you go to IKEA to save time. You can also print out the entire parts list with prices.

Are you doing long distance ordering? I don't remember if they allow shipping of kitchens.

deedles, yes, the Ikea website does not always list every cabinet in every doorstyle and configuration on the main "cabinets" page, but I have always found been able to find the parts I need separately. Also, what's shown online is not necessarily reflective of what's available in store. I've been told that at least in my nearest stores (also hundreds of miles away from my house, so I feel your pain on that), the kitchen inventory is not up to date on the website. So it might pay to call your store if you're not seeing something you want on the website. Last time I was at the store, they told me that I am out of range for delivery from the stores, but I can order through the website. You might be in delivery range for a store, though, so you may want to call them and check. They told me that delivery fees may differ depending on whether you order direct or go through a store, so it could pay to look into that.

You can find cabinet frames and components on the website in the kitchen cabinets section. Under the "products" tab near the top of the page, there's a drop-down menu that starts you out at base cabinets. Click on that and go to "frames, legs, and plinths." Drawer parts, shelves, and lazy susans are listed in "interior organizers," link in the menu on the left side of the site.

I haven't done an Ikea kitchen (still planning), but my understanding is that people often use the cover panels and toe-kicks (plinths) for filler, cut to size.

Thanks for pointing that out, dee.

Here is a link that might be useful: Frames Legs Plinths

clg7067 gave a link to let you begin your "hardware store" style purchases. Piece by little piece you get the thingies you need. Here is an example.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/94382010/
cabinet sans anything. "Base cabinet frame". The cost is small.

Here is a list of other important parts. Use Google to start, if the Ikea search fnctions poorly.

701-070-69 RATIONELL = shallow drawer 24"
101-070-72 RATIONELL = 30"

901-099-77 RATIONELL = 24" wide drawer of the "deep" kind
001-070-82 RATIONELL = 30"
801-070-83 RATIONELL = 36"

Web searching works without the hyphens too.
90109977 RATIONELL
00107082 RATIONELL
80107083 RATIONELL

For $25 - $35 you get ALL this: Blum glides, Blum Tandembox drawers sides, Blum metal panel for the drawer back (unique to Ikea in North America) and a chipboard drawer floor, all ready to slip together. Snap and clip. No glue required. Yes, the drawer is fully extendable.

Then, you add the front you wish to add, onto the un-fronted drawer. The Blum clips to screw to the Blum drawer side can be ordered anywhere for less than $1 each. These clips hold your chosen drawer front onto the drawer. Any front will do. Buy from anywhere, or make your own.

OH, is it that the drawers without the fronts are listed under the Rationell heading? Just the box with hardware is Rationell which is their 'parts' catagory?

The penny is dropping slowly for me on this Ikea language deal. I'm an old dog, apparently...

clg, I CANNOT get the Ikea kitchen planner to download on my computer for some reason. I have the icon on my desktop and when I click it, the little thing spins for a moment, stops and nothing happens. I've removed and redownloaded several times and tried the troubleshooter, too. Pretty much given up on that now. Bummer, too.

deedles, the Ikea kitchen planner is not a program that you use from your own computer, it's on their website and you just need a plug-in for your browser. It is a bit buggy in my experience, and does not work at all on older Mac OSs. But normally, you download the plug-in from their website, install it (on a Mac, that just means moving in the proper "plug-ins" folder, I don't know about Windows), and then you re-start your browser. Then when you go to the planner website again, it will give you a log-in or "create account" screen to access the planner.

Ikea uses the "Rationell" label for the drawer parts, but that includes some fronts and also drawer dividers.

You can order just the boxes online. On the cabinets page in the drop down menu they are under frames. If you go into a store and say I need an 18-inch 3-drawer base, they will actually enter into the computer a separate entry for each drawer, frame, legs, etc. they build it from pieces. You can do the same thing online.

dee850, I don't download it, I use it online.

I click on Open Planner 3D Tool

Then you get an Install Screen.

Then the software opens in my browser. I just need to remember to use Microsofts browser and not Chrome.

I have 6 different kitchen layouts saved online at Ikea.

Here is a link that might be useful: planner

This is my favorite Ikea kitchen, and it's a GWer. The cabinets are Tidaholm.

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: finished kitchen post...ikea

Here is a sneak peak at my idea cabinets with custom doors:

I want to utilize all the vertical space in my base cabinet of drawers. I have read several of davidro1's excellent postings on putting custom height drawer fronts on Ikea/Blum M drawers and believe I understand how to do this.
But following davidro1's guidance,
I wonder if I can have a 30" High base cabinet (15" or 24" wide) that has a stack of SIX drawers -- 4" x 3 and 6" x 3?
Any feedback on this idea will be much appreciated