I am leery of all the claims like "custom doesn't cost much more. I'm in the middle of a kitchen remodel, using IKEA cabs. Preliminary design The better (but not top) line of cabinets from Home Depot quote was around $12,000. Went back with exact dimensions, and got a quote for a lower grade (but not bottom) was around $9000. That quote didn't include glass doors on the uppers, and other features we like. The pull-out for trash/recycling felt cheap. To add glass doors would have sent us well over $10K again.

At IKEA, what I'm looking at for all glass doors on the wall cabinets, all drawers on the lowers save one, and very smooth / solid feeling, soft close drawers and doors, et cetera, is around $4000.

My contractor, who wanted me to go back to Home Depot for that second quote, said "no brainer."

I did an IKEA kitchen myself some years back (before I became disabled, in the AKURUM days) and thought it was terrific.

You ain't crazy, not at all.

I purchased fully custom, all plywood cabinets with all the bells and whistles for my very large kitchen and it cost my just under 20k for them. They were over 50k at the Home Depot. These are RTA and they’re not hard to put together if you read and watch the directions provided. I think the IKEA cabinets are great and I would’ve done those, but this is a $2 mil. home and people know the difference and expect the upgrade (custom reveals on uppers to accommodate 6” crown molding, flush toe kicks with baseboard wraps, full overlay doors, all furniture grade plywood, etc.). If you can make IKEA cabinets work for your kitchen, then go for it! If you realize like I did that you need a higher end product, check out www.thecabinetjoint.com These are RTA higher end cabinets. My husband and I are assembling these ourselves, but he’s an electrician and has considerable construction skills. I’m hiring a finish carpenter to do the trim and other things that he can’t do as well. Good luck.

We had an ikea kitchen installed by our GC just this past winter. It’s beautiful and functional and has awesome storage. We bought during the sale to get the discount and saved so much money. I planned it myself so that I could have exactly what I wanted. We were able to customize a few of the cabs to fit the space. Ours was a full remodel- down to the studs, raising a ceiling, with new framing, plumbing and electrical, flooring and tile -$25,000 in its entirety.

After having framed cabs for 8 years, the frameless, spacious, perfectly square cabs are a welcome change. The maximera drawers are awesome. I love how it’s come together. I also like that at some point, if we want, we can change out the doors and drawer fronts and try something else. Our old home’s newly flipped kitchen of 2009 was totally obsolete by the time we moved in 2017. Styles change rapidly now. Perhaps IKEA will eventually phase out Sektion cabs- but the previous ones had a 20 yr run. Odds are good they’ll stick around for a while.

Our GC loves this kitchen, which surprised him. He had worked with older IKEA cabs and did not like them, but really thought the quality of the Sektion series was very good. He wants pictures of our kitchen for his website. He says it’s one of his favorites- and he’s done many remodels.

I think it does come down to installation precision and attention to detail- our GC was really thorough and professional.

And it is really good advice to match your project costs to your housing market/ home value. The 5-15% rule of thumb is very wise.

That’s because furniture board is the better choice. It’s only uneducated wood snobs that demand “solid wood”. And who is anyone to deny someone the right to be fleeced out of their money themselves. Paying for an upgrade that isn’t is just silly.

That makes sense according to everything I read. The reason I think it's relevant here is that people often use it as a reason to knock Ikea cabinets, and I think it's a poor reason.

I am a semi-retired disabled architect who likes to be hands-on and specializes in low budget projects. I just did two VERY similar kitchens (straight llne wall with adjacent cooking/eating island. One has plywood, face framed plywood boxes with inset Shaker style doors. and bluestone tops installed by a pricey contractor. The second one is Ikea Haggeby with the fronts replaced with 3/4"grain matched Bamboo plywood and Phenolic resin black tops all assembled and installed by an unskilled homeowner under my direction. We upgraded all drawers and added soft-close hinges. On the other job, we waited months for the custom cabinets only to have the pantry arrive damaged TWICE pullout shelves and drawer are narrow, very expensive and far inferior to Ikea. The fit and finish is much better with Ikea due to the great adjustments and solid mounting system. Ordering took 15 minutes over the phone and they were shipped to our door and unloaded undamaged by the Ikea trucking contractor for $59. I assembled the drawers while my friend put the boxes together. The cheap faces were used as patterns. We set the cabinets on recessed 2x4 bases with black facing to match th countertops. rather than the clunky legs and ugly base trim from Ikea. There were some mistakes which the wonderful truckers resolved. (I have never been able to reach anyone at Ikea since the original order. The Ikea cabinets cost just over $2,000 and the Bamboo and countertops another $1,600 including $400 for shipping. Assembly took less than a day and the complex installation with countertops and sink, a week more. No charge for labor. The plywood cabinets were $$6500 after a$40% discount and the tops were another $4,000. All told, with labor the "custom" cabinets cost 10 x as much. Bonus, we have lots of scrap from the countertops and fronts for other uses. Ikea wins by a mile.

I agree. Although I ordered RTA high end cabinets from the factory. I paid a fraction of what stores are charging. I needed custom sizes, but if you don’t - IKEA is a bargain.

I should emphasise that both clients got what they wanted and needed. The other client as remodeling a 170 year old house and wanted face framed cabinets with inset shaker doors. The custom cabinet service was A+ Ikea C-. Also, we had a small simple kitchen with dead level concrete floors and plumb straight walls. Finally, Bamboo is not technically a wood; It is much more stable and the plywood edges are elegant. If not Bamboo, I'd go with the higher end fronts or aftermarket ones. As to the countertops, there are two straight runs of seven feet. If you have a large complex kitchen in an old house, I'd go to professional custom cabinets. PS All of the wonderful plywood came from Amderson Plywood.

It will not be obvious. Thousands of people have done this, and creating custom fronts for IKEA cabinets is a whole industry. No one will know you used IKEA boxes, not that there's anything wrong with that.

If you search this site, it will be full of beautiful examples of what people did using such a scenario.

Things to keep in mind when designing an IKEA kitchen is that their sizes are limited, and if it works with your layout, great, if not, consider something else. Their cabinets are also greatly hackable. Installation quality matters too.

Here's my kitchen done with IKEA boxes, custom fronts, quartz counters and fancy tile. I haven't heard the end of the compliments, and mine is far from the best and most beautiful you'll see here.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5405111/four-years-and-two-babies-laterthe-kitchen-is-finally-almost-ready

Here is my nearly finished DIY IKEA kitchen, awaiting countertops. Not including appliances, we are at $4980. Add in the induction cooktop and wall oven, sourced from CL, and we're at $5180.

We did not include costs of flooring, as it was replaced throughout the house; dishwasher or fridge as we re-used them; lighting or wiring for the cooktop, as it was part of a larger project to repair and upgrade the service and install safe lighting.

I designed it and assembled all the cabinets (and installed the drawers, fronts and pulls myself). Hubs helped with placing cabs, leveling and screwing them together and plumbed the sink and dishwasher.

Oh love that kitchen! Nice job. My kitchen is huge and open (as in vaulted ceilings) so I ran into a lot of issues renovating. im now ready for countertops and so far, I have 1 bid for $8500 for the labor and the other was $28k for the labor. Both were given my kitchen plans with measurements. See, it’s really hard to hire contractors in my area. We had to DIY since the cheapest bid was $225k without appliance. So far, I’m looking at 70k with appliances. The kitchen is double an average family sized kitchen and it includes a pantry the size of a bedroom - It’s ridiculously big. In any case, time is what we sacrificed to DIY. We’re 9 months in - an extra 6 months longer than a contractor would’ve taken. Food for thought.

Home Reborn Would you share the tile names/tile companies for the backsplashes used in your photos #3 and #6. Loved all the kitchens. Thank you.

@hazelcraddock: In both cases those are herringbone marble tiles which are available at any tile store. I no longer have any specific details about brands and retailers.

IKEA cabs are built based on the 32mm Euro system. This was developed for cheap quick cabinet making. Cabinets sides are all basically the same speeding up cabinet making. You just simply plug and play the drawers or doors you want.

Nothing will outlast face frame furniture built cabinets. Its the face frames that make the difference but they are also what doubles the cost. Each cabinet has to be built to spec.

There are plenty of cabinets made of MDF/particle board and again it was used to speed up cabinet assembly as they are dead flat and easy to apply a veneer to.

There is nothing different between an IKEA Euro cabinet and a supposed high end Euro 32mm cabinet besides the finishes and access.

MDF, Plywood and particleboard all fail when wet which would make you think why don't cabinet mfg's use a marine grade wood or plastic to build sink base cabinets? They are the only cabinets that get wet otherwise the whole real wood debate doesn't apply.

Face frame cabients with standard hinges and slides will last forever but everyone wants soft close.

Merillat does make an all plastic sink base. It’s called the Core Guard option. I use it in a lot of Classic jobs. Jobs that generally come in less expensive than Ikea with custom fronts. :)

I can’t touch a pure Ikea foil or laminate cabinet on pricing, but for just a bit more, I can match the foil doors and give several hundreds more options. As can any Kitchen Designer who deals with several cabinet lines. I just can’t beat the Ikea Effect. :)

Hillside House, would you have a picture of that 33" cabinet solution that you'd be willing to share?

It’s the two above the fridge in this old photo... not sure what you’re looking for as far as a picture: they just look like the other boxes. HTH!

Here is the almost complete Ikea bamboo faced kitchen total cost with donated labor about 7500 including all appliances floor countertop and sliding doors

I'm using IKEA boxes and Scherr's custom doors — and all told cabinets are coming in at a little over half the $40k I was quoted for semi custom from Kraftmaid. Where the other lines really get you is on the doors, large panels, AND the organizational pull-outs.

I caught the IKEA kitchen sale and the $750 gift card I got back I'll use for the organizational tools.

I got connestoga cabinets RTA fully custom cabinets for under 20k and I was quoted nearly 60 elsewhere.

Conestoga are face frame, is that right? About how big is your kitchen?

Yes, mine are face frame. But most of my cabinets are drawers, so that didn’t matter. I only have 2 upper cabinets if you don’t include the fridges and double oven cabinets. My kitchen is huge - I have 2 10ft islands and 2 walls. Conestoga does have the frameless euro style cabinets, but that style didn’t really fit my home.

i'm with Sophie - so much incredible ignorance here in the US around engineered versus 'real' wood. The US is a LONG way behind Europe in terms of kitchen design and aesthetics. Most US kitchens seem to be stuck in the 1970's with their traditional styles and plywood construction and utilitarian looking over-sized appliances. Plywood is a great material for a sub-floor but it warps and bends in a way that MDF or Particle board does not. Basically, if you want something flat and stable then use engineered wood. Same argument goes for the looks of horror when you say you've put down an engineered wood floor - people can't get their head around the fact that it's much more forgiving than solid wood blocks and the fact that you can't refinish it 12 times with a sander is not a disadvantage because NOBODY DOES THAT. I just pulled out a 'bespoke' plywood kitchen in my place - about as shoddy as they come. I'm putting in my 3rd IKEA kitchen with custom doors - There are very few kitchen companies, aside from IKEA that will warranty their kitchens for 25 years.

And those ultra high-end European kitchen companies (Bulthaup, Alno, Poggenpohl ... - these make $100K kitchens - out of particle board and MDF.

It seems that only people who've not actually put in an IKEA kitchen have something negative to say about it.

The Spruce review on ikea kitchens displayed such a lack of basic knowledge of engineered materials that it can be safely ignored.

ps. i don't work for IKEA.

This is an example of a kitchen I did with custom doors . You can beat IKEA for value . They use Blum hardware , offer lots of cool features and have 25 year guarantee ( and I’m sure they will still be around ). I only do Inez kitchens but with high end twists . Great for laundry rooms too .

A lot of the newer particleboard/ furniture board available from Europe now has a recycled material core with 12 hour water resistant specs. As far as IKEA I work with it on a daily basis. I make custom doors for their cabinet and can turn them into almost any look you'll find. Not a fan of most of their doors but using them as a base to built off is a great option. Here'a just one example.

I’m amused. I belong to a DIY remodeling group that literally has millions of people, worldwide. I’ve seen 100’s of kitchens in Europe and the U.K. to say they are ahead of the US is quite amusing. Most people, worldwide, don’t have much money to spend on remodeling their kitchens. External pipes on walls, radiators, boilers hanging on walls, wiring running down the wall, plastic peeling off the mdf cabinets. You do realize that IKEA kitchens are upscale to the average European, right? I have some European appliances and some US appliances. I’m not seeing where the European appliances are better, and you can get most European appliances here in the US anyway. And when you say American kitchens are from the 70’s, it’s probably because they were installed in the 70’s. Most people don’t replace their kitchens (both in Europe and the US) that often either. Most repair and paint what they have, change hardware, etc. and that’s it.

Not sure whose kitchens you've seen in Europe - the big high end kitchen players are all European - mostly Italian and German and the best kitchen hardware comes from the likes of BLUM (austria) and Gola (Italy) I've rarely seen a modern kitchen (ie. high lacquer, push to open draws/doors) in the suburbs here. but, hey, to each their own. In general, having lived in most places - European design aesthetic tends to be ahead of the US, which tends to adopt a more utilitarian approach. I guess that's why the can always get away for charging and positioning European products as "premium"

"External pipes on walls, radiators, boilers hanging on walls, wiring running down the wall, plastic peeling off the mdf cabinets." Uhh Heather, where have you been staying in Europe, youth hostels? I'm with Mike Bone. In my experience, most moderately affluent European families have much nicer, more upscale and modern kitchens in their homes than Americans/Canadians in a comparable income bracket. But because European taste tends more toward minimalism/clean lines without superfluous decorative ornamentation, the average North American might mistake this for "cheap."

I disagree completely. Yes, those high end Euro products are nice, and I do see a fair amount of them going into homes here in the US. There’s a 7 million spec home for sale down the street from me that languishes on the market. Why? Because it has clean lines and European cabinets. The house is described as sterile. I think you’re mistaking design preferences for being more ‘cutting edge’. And no, largely the housing is older and more expensive in Europe and smaller. 7x9 bedrooms with no closets, washers (no dryers) in the kitchen, and electric radiators (no forced air). One of my colleagues moved from a London suburb to Connecticut (both considered fairly expensive housing markets). For the equivalent money, his house in Connecticut included a laundry room, larger bedrooms with closets and a 2 car garage to park the cars in. Is he moving back to London? No. Slab cabinets are made by both high-end and lower-end companies and the quality varies greatly. I purchased high-end frame cabinets from an American company who also does high-end frameless cabinets with slab doors. My husband said he didn’t want the kitchen to feel like a corporate break room. Maybe Americans don’t want to be reminded of work when they get home? And I didn’t say I stayed in any of those properties - they’re on a design board. They love the new waterproof linoleum on that board. Most people own thermafoil cabinets. You see it in the US and Europe - after a few years the plastic lifts off the mdf.

@moico, where do you order your doors from for the Ikea cabinets? We plan to use them in our upcoming addition/remodel but would like to look into custom doors. Thanks!

Who knew this is such a hot-button topic?

Who knew this is such a hot-button topic?

You must be new here, ;-)

Hillside house, what kind of refrigerator is in your photograph?

@Heather - of course, you're correct - it is absolutely about what people like at the end of the day. That goes for every single design decision that you make in life - some will hate it and some will love it. Personally, i don't like fuss or complexity or some olde world look so i gravitate towards the clean lines of a modern kitchen because - a) they are easier to clean (no nooks and crannies for food to get stuck in) and once you move away from cupboards to fully opening drawers, you will never go back...

I see more and more interest in these types of kitchens in California and usually that's a precursor to trends that will eventually catch on elsewhere.

It's also possible that the $7M house is languishing because it's 7M$ :-)

Ikea - with custom cabinet doors/drawers - this is NOT thermofoil. (it's not quite finished yet, either)

@shead - i can recommend Modern Kitchen Pros - I got my kitchen fronts from them - they will even do made to order sizes in case you need to create custom widths etc....

MIkebone, beautiful kitchen!

Thank-you! It's polarizing, like all interior design, some find it too clinical and modern, others love the simple straight lines etc.. I have to say i like that you have one surface to wipe down and those flat surfaces without detailing are very easy to wipe clean - and drawers instead of doors - once you go drawers you can never go back to those difficult to access cupboard spaces....

@Alexander Wade are you still creating kitchen cabinet doors for IKEA boxes? I saw you mention Anderson Plywood and I will be looking for someone for a kitchenette. Let me know.

Anderson plywood (Culver city, ca) sells plywood not doors for Ikea cabinets. You can read my post above for more info.

Yes I understand I was reaching out to Alexander Wade since he is local to see if he provided this service.

There are several choices out there. I am very familiar with them all. I know what they do. I know what we do. Regarding local. If you mean local to Anderson plywood yes we are.

Ok I will soon be seeking someone to make plywood Ikea kitchen cabinet fronts for a kitchenette. Alexander Wade had shared some photos of similar so wanted to follow up.

Semihandmade makes great custom fronts for IKEA cabinets and drawers

I got my Cabinets at National RTA Cabinets. They have the selection

The better educated and most knowledgeable kitchen designers don't recomend or use Ikea. This is because there are now better made and similarly priced cabinet brands that come assembled in more durable framed cabinetry. The popularity of Ikea is explained by the psychological delusion apply named by eminent psychologists "The IKEA Effect."

https://www.mainlinekitchendesign.com/general/ikea-effect-physiological-phenomenon-drives-kitchen-designers-crazy/

Well, having installed several and i totally disagree. 25 year guarantee and price / performance ratio that's pretty unbeatable - be specific - what exactly do you not like about the ikea line?

- Not sturdy enough ? Nope - if properly secured to the wall then they DO NOT BUDGE

- Doors not sturdy enough or high quality? Nope - they have Acrylic offerings similar to very high end Stylelite etc.

- Use of Particle board? - There's the crazy outdated notion in the usa that plywood is better than particle board - try leaning both against a wall for a month and see which one is still straight and true.

So - specifically - what would you not recommend about Ikea kitchens?

Have you ever owned one?

Have you ever lived with one for an extended period of time?

Which brand would you rate as better and does it allow for planner look modern handle-less designs or is it still the sad and very much outdated shaker look that just won't go away in most US states?