I had custom cabinets built, and they did the install (in 2 days). I'm trying to talk my friends/neighbors into doing a new kitchen in Ikea, so I can build cabinets for them! My three favorite words are "some assembly required".

The total cost for my cabinets and quartz counters was $23,300.

benjesbride, how high above your counters did you mount the Sektion uppers? Seems like the 15" deep uppers would need a little more breathing room than the standard 18" clearance height.

Not sure. We installed them higher than 18" because we installed under cabinet lighting that hangs down. I wanted a deco strip to make sure the UCL was hidden. I also wanted room for the mixer to lift. I hang out here a lot and my ears perk up when I see reference to Ikea cabinets. I've never read anyone complain about the 15" depth nor the need to install them higher.

I like how you think. You're considering every possible aspect of these things just like I would :-)

I'm on their website, and looks like their standard 3-drawer base 5-10-15 does not have drawer within drawer. I don't have to do anything special to omit that hidden drawer, right? The reason I asked about the distance above the counters is that it would affect what height uppers I can have with our somewhat low ceilings. And looking at their website, I'm not sure that I like any of their cabinet fronts :( Their non-white cabinet door options are strange in my opinion.

You're right. No interior drawers with those.

I wasn't thrilled about the door options either. We have Veddinge White and it's fine. I'm totally a function first person, so the doors weren't a big deal to me. I felt that Veddinge was cheap enough that I wouldn't feel guilty painting them a fun color later or totally replacing them someday.

This is another benefit with Ikea. Considering their history, they'll probably have Sektion for another 20-30 years so if you decide to swap out fronts or interiors some day it should be easy.

Our ceiling is angled and only 7'8" or so on one side, so we chose to do 30" wall cab to make sure we have clearance below. We don't have a bacsksplash yet, so I've thought about adding shallow shelves like this.

As you're creating your kitchen in the planner, I'd recommend trying to increase the space between the sink and range as much as you can. Even if it means the sink isn't centered with the window.

benjesbride, why?

Buehl explains this stuff so much better than me, but basically most cooking happens between sink and range, so make sure you have ample space in that primary prep area.

The kitchen I grew up with has about 24" in a corner between sink and range. It wasn't until I started learning about kitchens here that I realized why my parents kitchen feels so awkward to actually cook in. Two more feet or so in either direction would make all the difference, but then again my mom doesn't really "cook." :-)

Not sure if you're going to be comfortable posting your plan, so I'll also throw out here that you want to try to keep the dishwasher out of the primary prep space. So the DW should (ideally) go on the side of the sink opposite the range.

I see. Well our gas range and kitchen sink (plumbing) are not moving. That is not part of the budget! Besides our current distance is not a problem.

I wasn't suggesting moving the plumbing for either, just scooting the fixtures. Usually there's a bit of play there. My kitchen isn't configured like yours, but when I draw up suggestions I try to fit a 30" base and an 18" recycle/waste pullout between a range and sink. I don't have an undermount sink, so it's really nice to wipe the counter straight into a waste bin in a base cabinet.

@wysel,

We installed a Sektion kitchen ourselves last Spring, so I can answer some of your questions with another perspective. There are no backordered parts anymore, as far as I know. We used Scherr's for the doors/drawer fronts. We spent $12K total on the cabinets and fronts. (1/3 Ikea, 2/3 Scherr's.) We had Scherr's paint the fronts which was $4K of the price. Some people get them unfinished and paint themselves to save $. We wanted to save time instead.

It wasn't as cheap as a complete Ikea kitchen, but it was cheaper than doing a big box store set of mid-range cabinets and I think the quality is probably better with the great drawers, soft close, etc. We wanted White shaker and I didn't like the Ikea options.

I assembled all the cabinets myself. My SO installed them with my help. Assembling the cabinets (and drawers) is not hard once you get the hang of it. There are a few videos on YouTube that helped me figure out the silly drawing instructions, which were sometimes confusing. The only part I struggled with was assuming every cabinet was assembled the same way, and not looking at differences in the instructions. Bigger cabinets have different steps, for example. And the way the drawers are assembled depends on where they sit in the drawer stack (top, bottom or middle.) But really it is not hard. I'm just saying, don't zone out too much. I did and then I had to redo a few things. :-)

I am still jealous of the people who say they installed their Ikea kitchen in a week or less. It took us a month. I don't think that is normal, and most people could do it faster, depending on the layout of the kitchen. My SO is an extreme perfectionist and he re-did things a few times. Also we have a peninsula and he built a base for those cabinets that is super sturdy and probably overkill.

I have a different opinion than benjesbride on the drawers in drawers. But her opinion is probably the more popular one! We did 95% of our drawers as 10", so 10-10-10 with the inner drawers on the top. I love the 10" drawers, and I like the look of having them all the same size. I organized the drawers so lesser used things are mostly in the inner drawers. I have 2 corner cabinets for taller things, so felt like 15" drawers would be a waste and too tall, and I was correct about that. I do have one 15" drawer under our oven where I store my pans on their sides which is nice.

You do not need to install 15" deep cabinets any higher. We did not replace all of our wall cabinets and decided to keep some of the wall open, but we do have 3 small runs of wall cabinets. The bottom of our light rail is 17.25" from the countertop and it is fine.

I love the cabinets and the functionality of the new kitchen. We're really happy we went with Ikea. We feel the quality of what we got for the price was great.

We did a ready to assemble cabinet replacement in a previous kitchen about 20 years ago. My son was 4 or 5 and helped assemble cabinets. It might have taken a little longer with his help but he liked helping and it was better than him getting in the way!

we did our DIY remodel in stages (by wall) and were only without a kitchen a few days at a time.

(oh--that son is now really handy--he just started young)

ive assembled lots of IKEA furniture--25 cabinets is really doable, but most of us wouldn't have a place to put 25 assembled cabinets!

You guys have convinced me to buy all new cabinets. I've played around with Ikea a lot the past few days. Using Ikea I will have a lot of fillers near my corner Lazy Susan because of their odd cabinet widths and lack of narrow base cabinet sizes. If I choose Ikea I will probably have to buy the cabinet doors elsewhere because I don't like their fake plastic doors, and we want a wood kitchen and not a painted or white one. So right now I'm looking at Ikea with Sherr's doors, Barker RTA cabinets, or Cliq Studios. A few questions about Ikea:

1. Do you think Ikea is easier for the DIYer to install than traditional cabinets?

2. Those top 5" drawers on the Ikea base cabinets- can you fit anything into them, like boxes of baggies and Saran wrap, and soup ladles, and measuring cups? They look awfully shallow. My current face-framed cabinets have about 4" usable depth in my top drawers of my base cabinets.

3. We will have an island, and I'm wary of those little plastic legs on the Ikea cabinets. I see some people build a wood platform for their island rather than use the plastic legs. But building a platform sounds like a lot more work than building it out of traditional (non-Ikea) cabinets.

1. I only have installed Ikea cabinets, but I think they may be a bit easier than other types. But you will still have to install them carefully to ensure they are level. Supposedly if you get the rail level it is supposed to be easy. We did have to shim our rails a bit because of uneven walls, and that made it take more time.

2. I think the 5" drawers only have about 3.5" in them or a little less. I fit all of those things you mentioned in those drawers. Some of them just fit, but I don't have anything catching when I open the drawers. (I'll post a few pictures below.)

3. The legs are not really the main support for the cabinets. It is the rails that are most important. We did build a base for our peninsula, but used the rails every where else. I would not build a base everywhere, but you need one for a peninsula or island.

Building the platform does not need to be too much work. You can build a frame with 2x4s and we covered it with plywood. My SO came up with a more elaborate system to shim it to level, but I am pretty sure there are simpler ways to do it.

One other consideration is if you will have a granite countertop overhang for seating on your island. If you do, you will need to figure out a way to support the countertop overhang. I discussed how we handled that here.

We have self-installed cabinets in two kitchens, once in 2011 and once in 2015/16, both times doing traditional non-Ikea installations. I'm thinking the Ikea rail system is much easier. The only trick would be making sure that the rail was level not just up and down the wall, but in and out from the wall too. I know, that sounds weird, but generally walls are not truly 90º at the corner, nor do they stay absolutely straight and flat from one end of the wall to the other. They may have a bump in the wall somewhere along the run.

Our 2011 kitchen is a good example of this. When the original construction happens, the workers are supposed to place the 2x4 wall studs so that the bows in each piece of lumber (normal) all face the same way. It doesn't matter which way, just so they're all the same. In that kitchen, one stud was backwards and that made that piece of the wall protrude. Think of a teeter-totter. You'd never know if you weren't trying to level cabinets on the wall. The result was that we had to shim behind all the cabinets on either side of the bump:

I don't know what kind of cabinets they use on HGTV shows, but our cabinets couldn't be slung around by one person. All the jiggling and wiggling had to be done while holding these very heavy pieces in place, leveling and re-leveling until they were right. The blue and metal thing in this photo is a lifter we were able to rent for that job. In 2015/16 we couldn't find a lifter anywhere, so it was fortunate that those walls weren't so out of whack as the previous ones.

If I understand the Ikea system correctly, if you take your time with the rail and get it perfectly level up/down and in/out you're home free. After that all you need to do is hang the cabinets, and I assume, connect them to each other. Should be pretty straight forward.

I just had my kitchen refaced (finished last week) and I'm very happy with it. I also went from cabinets to drawers in two locations and turned my never-used-desk into drawers. The first is the original kitchen:

The next two are the newly-redone kitchen. You can see where the desk was and it is now drawers. The new doors and drawers are alder.

Wow Loretta, you have almost the exact same design as my kitchen, even including the separate desk area! Did they put veneers on the cabinet boxes? Do you like the dark cabinets- doesn't feel too dark? Ballpark price for this?

Loretta - I'd also like to know the price point for your project.

I've only heard bad experiences with re-facing projects or they were so expensive the person felt they should've just installed new.

wysel - I have all that stuff in the top, 5" drawers as well.

Regarding the filler pieces, wysel... if you're willing to post the overhead view of your plan, we can see if there's a way to avoid those fillers.

benjesbride I'm guessing Loretta refaced rather than replaced in order to keep her nice countertops. I really like her "after" pics though. In my case we will be replacing countertops. I need to figure out how to post pics and floor plans on this site!

You can email a link to your Ikea plan to yourself (click "file", "email...") and then copy and paste that link into a comment here. The link will not give us access to your account. It just provides temporary, 5 day access to that plan. Those who use Ikea can tinker with it easier that way.

If you have a PC, you can use the snipping tool to save a clip of the plan. I'm new to Macs, but I've been using command-shift-4 to do this.

IKEA plastic leveling legs are very stable and I would not build a base for an island. These same plastic legs are used on European. Abi nets that cost $100,000. They are engineered to support huge amounts of weight. Usually 100lbs per leg if I remember correctly, use don't need to reinvent the wheel with these for islands.

misspoke, they are 400lbs per leg. A sample plastic leg from Rockler

Good luck!

FYI: below is a clip from the Sektion Installation Guide here: http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/pdf/buying_guides_fy15/sektion/SEKTION-Installation-guide-2015.pdf

I've never seen this done, so homepro01 taught me something :-) The Sektion installs I've seen online (blogs) show folks building a base. This is odd since it looks like Ikea suggests using brackets and a kitchen island assembly kit.

"Supporting brackets are used to fasten kitchen islands to the floor.
Legs/toekicks must then be attached around the outside of the island.
The Kitchen island assembly kit is used to connect cabinets back to
back or for attaching a cover panel to the back of cabinets."

@wysel

We are currently in the middle of our install of our Ikea kitchen. We plan on getting scherr's fronts for our kitchen. We have done quite a bit of customizing of cabinet width on a few cabinet uppers. I have such a hard time using ikea design program. I ended up just doing my own thing with detailed plans.

There is no way we would have done installed the kitchen in a weekend or even a few. We only work on the kitchen on weekends and it's been a while.

We hung our 15" cabinets 20" above our base cabinets which in the end will give us 17-18.5" from the uppers. I would not hang them any higher. My reach without step stool is the first shelf and the fronts part of the second shelf.

As for the 15" depth, we didn't like it around our corner windows. We didn't like the 12" depth in our prior kitchen, either. We cut down those two cabinets to about 7-8" deep. I love it for the spice cabinets. I'm planning on a door rack and then small shelves to hold 2 deep of spices/oils/vinegars.

I know that hanging these cabinets are much easier than traditional ones. Once the rail is level and plumb, hanging is easy. It also allowed us (ok me) to change my mind and have something removed easily. The other way around my husband would have killed me!

I built all the cabinets and drawers and my husband is doing most of the installing.

I personally do not care for the 15" tall drawer. I don't need that many like this. I prefer the even look, because I want my drawer faces to look similar. I'm not sure I really like the 5" drawer as a slab look, either. Something I need to work out with scherr's.

While waiting to order the scherr's doors, I went out this weekend to Ikea. I noticed they were discontinuing the gray ringhult doors for $5 each. I bought as many that could for my combo to get me through the next few months. This allows me to slowly get my kitchen back to use-able condition while waiting, painting, tiling and sanding. I spent about the cost of 1 1/2 ikea doors at original price. It was worth it to me and then I can donate these after I'm done. These maybe not my style, but I have to say it's a fun look for a little while.

My MIL refaced her cabinet from a dark color to a off white. It looked fantastic, however after several years the glue it turning yellow and it shows on the seams and the faces o the cabinets. It wasn't cheap, so i think Ikea with scherr's will be a better decision as long as you or your husband are handy.

Atiman, thank you! I'm currently waiting to hear back from Scherr's with a price quote for my Sektion design. We live 2.5 hours away from Ikea, so its not easy for me to pop in and look at their cabinets. If we go the Ikea route, I will probably order online and have them delivered that way. I'm nervous that I will like the 15" depth of the upper cabinets too. With our 8' ceilings, I think we will use 40" uppers and hang them 18" above the counters, and not have a bottom trim or any crown on the cabinets.

Also, my husband is wary of Ikea. He thinks its junk and that we would be devaluing our house, and I tell him that I think he is wrong. We live in a VERY expensive resort town, where crappy small houses start at 700k. I remind my husband that the new million dollar house + next door used Ikea cabinets. Our house is a dated "fixer".

http://kitchenplanner.ikea.com/US/UI/Pages/VPUI.htm?LoadDesign=1793eaec4899464781bd3910d3154a16&UIContext=SE_Menu&IsSharedDesign=1

@wysel You may flip the trim under the upper cabinets to 3/4". This will help cover thin led lighting strips and any hardware that would show. This what we are doing as well as having all the side panels depth be the depth of the doors and drawer fronts.

I only live about 35 minutes from ikea. We ordered online. It's a lot of pieces. If you make a kitchen decision like this, take the time to drive and see it in person.

I had the same feeling as your husband. I'm sure some of friends/neighbors are thinking the same thing. So you better believe we are making it perfect!

I was driving by Ikea one day and thought I'd pop in and see what the big deal was about ikea kitchens. Having heard about them for over a year. Well, I loved the whole drawer combinations and accessories. And I was one that wouldn't look because I didn't want metal drawer boxes. I was sold instantly, however, I cant say I love everything about the cabinet system. Things that others will never know. Seriously, once up these are sturdy and worth the savings. I get what I want which is mostly drawer bases which I think would have cost more than I was willing to pay.

Think about it, thousands and thousands of people are running through the ikea stores on a daily basis, opening and tugging, banging the kitchen cabinets and these are holding up so well to all the traffic which you'd never receive at your home.

We are not planning to install under-cabinet lighting. So could we just leave the naked underside of the box showing?

Also, my husband is wary of Ikea. He thinks its junk and that we would be devaluing our house, and I tell him that I think he is wrong. We live in a VERY expensive resort town, where crappy small houses start at 700k. I remind my husband that the new million dollar house + next door used Ikea cabinets. Our house is a dated "fixer".

My first house many years ago had Ikea cabinets. This was back in the day when those flush thermafoil doors were all the rage. Even back then, I liked shaker style but the flush doors from Ikea were all we could afford as they were the least expensive door style from Ikea.

We lived in a beach town where housing prices went from starter homes on up to the equivalent of what are now million dollar showplaces. When we went to sell our home a few years after installing the Ikea kitchen, we had an empty nester couple looking to downsize from one of those expensive on the water homes to something smaller. They walked in and assumed our Ikea cabinets were one of the expensive European brands. (They bought the house and we never let them know the kitchen was an Ikea kitchen.)

Point being, no one is looking at kitchen labels. If they like the look of the kitchen and it is in good shape, it won't make a hill of beans what brand the kitchen is.

In fact I'm now in a resort town in FL and have gone into million dollar plus homes here and have been astounded by the crappy cabinets they put in. They would have done better if they had put in Ikea!

We are not planning to install under-cabinet lighting. So could we just leave the naked underside of the box showing?

I would consider putting it in. It really makes a huge difference when working at night and it's not expensive to do.

Thanks for compliments. I don't feel it is too dark because the kitchen is pretty open and bright. It was $6,650 to redo these cabinets as well as one cabinet in a power-room/half bath. And yes, he put veneers on the cabinet boxes. That price included turning two separate sets of double doors and drawers into three drawers each plus adding the three drawers under the desk. He changed out the molding on top of the cabinets and actually moved the upper cabinets to the left of the sink over and inch since it had originally been hung incorrectly when the house was built. He also added pop outs to the false door fronts at the sink to store scrub brushes, etc. I thought the price was fair, especially considering Home Depot gave me a SALE price of $16,800 and that didn't include the desk redo or the bathroom. My countertops are corian and I was planning to replace them but now that I have the darker cabinets I actually like them. If they are able to add an undermount sink, I think I'll keep them. They are so easy to maintain and look great with Christmas, fall and spring decorations. If I keep them, I'm going to have the edges reshaped to a more updated edge.

Loretta, your kitchen looks amazing! And I like your Corian countertops, I wouldn't change those. I also think the price you paid is a steal! And you probably didn't have to live through a major kitchen remodel!

Wysel, thank you. I'm really happy with it. The doors/drawers look like nice cabinetry. They were made by a company here in Phoenix called Artistic Cabinetry and then the guy I hired prepped them and stained them. Corian gets a bad rap but I have always loved it, but I also want an undermount sink. They are going to see about doing that and reshaping the corian edges to an updated edge.

Ikea is now selling this for islands: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/assembly_instructions/sektion-assembly-kit-for-kitchen-island__AA-1295177-5_pub.pdf

It was not available when we did our kitchen last year, and everything I read in my research said you needed to build a base. It looks like this base kit will work with a few 2x4s on the floor. I do feel more comfortable having a solid base under out peninsula than I would with just the legs.

I only skimmed this video but it looks like they did something similar to what we did to support our countertop overhang.

If you don't put a light rail on the cabinets, the cam and bolt screw heads are more visible. I think the light rail also works well as trim and makes it look more finished.

If you do an Ikea kitchen with custom fronts, no one would be able to tell unless they open the drawers. And opening the drawers and seeing how great they work and all the nice organizational inserts they have is why we went with Ikea. (Plus the drawer lights which are great.)

Even though you don't live close, it would be worth the drive to go to an Ikea and look at the kitchens and test drive them. Your husband might change his mind.

Wysel: Nice work in the planner! How far is your gas line hook up from the wall to the left of the range? Is this your existing layout or are you removing some walls maybe?

benjesbride. we are leaving appliances and sink where they are, including the gas stove and OTR microwave. The only appliance we are moving is the refrigerator. There is currently a full-height non-bearing wall that we will cut down to be the back side of the island, and it move "up" on the page 2' or so as shown in the Ikea plan. We want to move the wall "up" so that the bar stools aren't in our main walkway. The refrigerator is currently in the corner of the two full-height walls facing the sink.

The reason I'm asking for where the existing gas line hook up is, is because I think it would be beneficial to have a 24" cab on the left of the range, to gain 12" on the right near the sink. You wouldn't have to move any utilities. Unless you have an exhaust duct through the ceiling there?

Do you have a counter depth fridge?

benjesbride, yes we have a counter depth fridge. I see what you mean about moving the gas range over, because that corner is problematic. Right now we have 48" from the corner to the range and to the sink respectively. I will have to pull the range out and see where the gas hook up is and how much play we have. We do not have an exhaust duct. Maybe we just move the range 6" to the left and have a 30" drawer cabinet on the left side of the stove, and then we can fit a 24" drawer base on the right side of the stove, and keep the 48" half moon pull out as shown.

well I'm getting some pricing back on all new cabs:

1. All Ikea Bodbyn (40" uppers): $6k

2. All Ikea Ekestad (40" uppers): $7k

3. Ikea boxes+Scherr's fronts (clear alder with poly): 3k Ikea+ 6.5k Scherrs= $9.5k

4. Cliq Studios (Cherry Cider face-framed cabs with 36" uppers, assembled): $10.5k

5. Barker Cabinets (frameless, RTA, stained alder, 30" uppers): $10k

6. Home Depot American Woodmark: $11k not installed

7. Local cabinet companies: $13.5-15k not installed

How are you feeling about those prices? Did you have a chance to check the gas hook up location?

I don't think the prices are too bad. Actually other than the all-Ikea options I think they're all not that far apart. Just not sure which direction to go! I'm also pouring over kitchen photos on Houzz and Gardenweb, trying to decide what kind of look we want...can't decide if we want light or dark cabinets. We just know that we want a stained look, and not white. I did not look at the gas hookup, but I'm guessing moving the stove over 6" or less wouldn't be a big deal.

Have you been to Ikea and looked the stained wood door options in person? Both Bjorket and Torhamn have solid wood frames and veneered panels. I understand what you mean about the plastic-y doors. Some of the cheaper doors are indeed particle foil and plastic.

I found a blog that installed Bjorket so you could get a real life idea. http://www.berkshireranchredo.com/the-kitchen-part-3-counters/

We browsed the Ikea kitchen section over a year ago, so details are fuzzy. I remember not being thrilled with any of the door front options. The Bjorket seemed too yellow for our house. The new Torhamn seems too light and busy. Honestly, unless we do a cheap plastic door from Ikea, I think I'd rather do Barker RTA over the Scherr's fronts on the Ikea door, because for about the same price we can get fully custom and real wood boxes.

You might proceed with Barkers cautiously. We live about 30 minutes from the Barker factory. I visited in person and talked to them. We were going to buy Barker and support a local business. Just before we pulled the trigger on an order someone here had a total nightmare of a Barker experience. It was bad enough that I remember the Barker guy actually engaged in commenting on the thread and it all went south. I can't find that thread. I wonder if it was deleted. Anyway. That's when we went with Ikea because it was familiar and felt like the safest choice.

eta: Also, it's my understanding that installing ikea is much easier since you're leveling on a rail and not setting direclty on a floor that might be out of level. There's a lot of labor involved if you have to level out a floor before you install cabs on it.

Benjesbride, thanks for the heads up. I've mostly only read positive reviews of Barker online. Cliq reviews seem to be a mixed bag. People seem to love their Ikeas though!

Does Ikea purposely not want people to buy their cabinets? Their door front selection is so bizarre! And I don't think we are overly picky people.

We were there just before the new doors/fronts came out to order our mudroom cabinets. They said the demand in our area (Portland) was for modern/slab doors (Ringhult) and that Ikea was rolling out more modern door options. I suppose Ikea's offering what folks are demanding. Also, since Semihandmade and Scherr's are offering infinite solid wood options they don't really need to compete in that area if it's not profitable for them.

Scherr's told me that they only offered a stained option on their oak doors. They will not stain the other woods (alder, cherry, maple, etc). We don't want to finish our own doors, and since we don't want oak or painted, we probably won't use Scherr's.