Kitchen cabinets archived

Has anyone had any experience with IKEA's kitchen cabinets? I love their design but worry about their durability. Any kitchen cabinet makers that you would recommend?

I recommend our makers, though they are not convenient.

Muriqi Cabinets
1053 Allerton Ave
Bronx, NY 10469
718-405-5684

They did a fantastic job making our custom cabinets. That's all they do. The price was rather amazing.

I, too, would be worried about Ikea's durability. I find pressed wood to be a poor choice for everything, and that's what Ikea uses.

You are welcome to visit our kitchen. The cabinets are about 15 months old and are holding up well, though 15 months is not a long test.

We recently redid out kitchen and used IKEA cabinets. Since we did everything ourselves (demolition and remodel) it was important that it be durable, and fairly easy to work with. Consumer report ranks IKEA cabinets up above many other cabinet makers, even most brands found at HD. A typical 30 high by 24 wide can hold something like 279 pounds. Since they hang on a rail system, the cabinets are easy to install but still requires 2 people. Door styles are varied, so you can get creative. 10 year guarantee on the cabinets (assuming they are hung correctly).

Cost was also a major factor in our decision. We were able to do all the cabinets for $3000, and an engineered stone counter-top for $1800. DO NOT BUY THE COUNTERTOP FROM IKEA. Sorry bout the caps. Shop around for that.

New Kitchen for $5,000.

Tom,

Did they help with the design or strictly the building?

Did they install? Deliver?

Thanks

My wife did the design, with some help from our contractor and architect. Muriqi might be available for design, but I don't know. Maybe that's why we got a good price. They didn't deliver or install, either.

robert23 paid a lot less than we did, though. Maybe he didn't get as many cabinets, as we got a heck of a lot of cabinets. I think we paid $8,000.

Good Times.

another satisfied ikea kitchen customer over here. we decided to mix in some high end elements with our cabinets (faucet, sink, counters) and the outcome is gorgeous. our contractor was very impressed with the cabinets from start to finish. our architect also told us that most anytime you find an architect working on a tight budget the job is usually done through ikea. good luck in whatever you decide to do.

I just posted this on another thread...
but I've heard of people using Ikea boxes and getting custom doors from - http://www.scherrs.com

Robert, Petal - what doors did you use?

Yeah, I'd love to see some pics. I have chosen to do the base cabinets in our butler's pantry using the Ikea stainless steel cabinets, and with what I have spec'd it should run me about $1500. (It's about a 5 foot long, 4 foot wide "U" shape, 12 inches on one side and full depth on the other.)

We (read, wife wanted) went with white. The cabinets were a dark ugly wood, made the small space feel cramped, like a cave. The white opens it up nicely and brightens it up as well. We got a farm sink shown in this picture.

Our IKEA kitchen is at least 7 years old -- Notehead can confirm how old it is, it's BP (Before Pippi)--
and it has worn very well. I'd say we're really happy. My only issue is the IKEA countertop that Notehead chose. We hate it and will replace it when we can.

robert23, the kitchen looks great. thanks for all your thoughts.

robert, I'm getting old and those pics are reallllllly small.

Pippi, do you find the drawers work well? I am mostly getting drawer bases and I have read good things about Ikea's but it's good to hear from someone who's cabs. are older.

We have had no problem at all with the drawers, although we don't have big deep pot drawers, just smaller utensil drawers. You are welcome to check out my drawers :wink:

Posted By: shhrobert, I'm getting old and those pics are reallllllly small.

Pippi, do you find the drawers work well? I am mostly getting drawer bases and I have read good things about Ikea's but it's good to hear from someone who's cabs. are older.

yeah, I pulled them off my picassa site.

Our drawers work great, get the dampers so they close softly.

grahamb: we used ikea doors.

i will try and post some pics if i can figure it out. we bought soft close door hinges and drawer glides and they are awesome, no more slamming, it does the work for you. we got 17 cabinets for $3500. you save a bundle in tax if you pick them up yourself.

The last customers kitchen we remodeled used cabinets from Brookwood in Union. They were about 40 percent cheaper than others and quite local and easy to deal with.

I also have Ikea kitchen cabinets...2 Guys From Newstead did them for me a year ago. I think the cabinets costs about $2000.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y34/esiders/Home/DSCF2226.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y34/esiders/Home/DSCF2233.jpg

Tom, Esiders, Do you recall what you paid for the installation of the cabinets you purchased?

Are Ikea cabinets still built to metric specifications? I recall this was the case the last time I looked at a brochure. This can cause some issues with installation I would imagine.

Just a thought.

Posted By: bobkAre Ikea cabinets still built to metric specifications? I recall this was the case the last time I looked at a brochure. This can cause some issues with installation I would imagine.

Just a thought.

Inches, they made it easy for us. If you use the online design tool, it's real easy.

IKEA cabinets generally get rave reviews in the Kitchen Forum on the Gardenweb site.

Kitchen Forum

esiders: Those look great! ARe they solid wood? If not, are at least the doors solid wood? Thanks.

This question comes up quite a bit on MOL, and when it does I always post this. Got it from Consumer Reports when I started thinking about redoing my kitchen. It's a couple years old by now, but I can only imagine the info hasn't changed much.

1 Omega: Premium 1,055
2 Fieldstone 1/2-inch: Premium 1,020
3 Diamond Platinum: Premium 630
4 Ikea: Basic 290
5 Thomasville: Midlevel 500
6 Shenandoah: Midlevel 435
7 KraftMaid: Midlevel 510
8 Wellborn Premier: Midlevel 880
9 Mills Pride: Basic 260
10 American Woodmark Designer Series: Basic 350
11 Kitchen Classics Select: Basic 265
12 Premier: Basic 320
13 Merillat Deluxe: Midlevel 475
14 Kitchen Classic: Basic 350

We tested 14 kitchen-cabinet sets from six major manufacturers. MasterBrand and Masco make more than half of all cabinets, from basic brands like Kitchen Classics and Mills Pride to premium brands like Diamond and Omega. For each, we chose 21-inch-wide base cabinets--a common stock size--with one drawer and one pullout shelf, and 21-inch-wide, 30-inch-tall wall cabinets with fixed shelves.

Our major findings:

Price doesn't guarantee performance.

Salespeople will tell you that you get what you pay for, and to a degree, that panned out. Premium cabinets withstood heat, water, moisture, and other abuse best overall. Indeed, readers we surveyed who bought the least-expensive cabinets were likelier to have problems. We found strong lower-priced performers, however.

The ready-to-assemble Ikea (4) outperformed much more expensive units, despite its low price. High-quality drawer hardware and doors and a robust mounting strip helped. You'll also find reasonably priced, preassembled cabinets such as the Diamond (3), Thomasville (5), and Shenandoah (6), that offer more options. But any judged at least very good should weather most wear and tear.

Most offer upgrades. Like cars, cabinets often offer upgrades

ME2 - I believe it costs about $4000 for installation: $500 to demolish; $250 to haul away old kitchen; $3000 to assemble and install cabinets + do the countertops.

Shoshannah: The doors look like they are solid wood, but I'm not sure. The cabinets definitely are not (particleboard with a strip along the edges to look like solid wood).

The best part was using the online tool to design the kitchen. My old kitchen was your basic galley/aisle kitchen. By using the tool, I didn't have to use the footprint of my old kitchen. Instead I made one side of the kitchen into L (via a lazy susan) and now I have so much more counterspace.

Question, we have found a fabulous refacing product and might purchase a franchise. This includes new doors, drawer fronts and every possible addition like a new kitchen would have without the cost of ripping out the old. Naturally, this could only be used if the footprint of the kitchen stayed the same. General consensus....would this fly here?

IMHO, I have seen plenty houses in my time and generally they are in need of more than refacing. My feeling is, if you use your kitchen and you're going to go through the expense of updating or changing anything, use that as an opportunity to improve the layout and do it all.
That said, if it's a huge kitchen that simply has dated cabinets but the layout works, I could see it being a feasible option. Maybe more of a new construction area need.

shoshannah, Mr George put them in, but he did the whole interior part of our kitchen renovation, so I couldn't say what the cabinet installation portion took. I think it took about a day's labor, if that helps. Maybe two days. One man. Well, I helped him a little, but that shouldn't count much.

We looked at refacing when we wanted to redo the kitchen. The bulk of the cost of a cabinet is the door and that, along with stripping the face (or painting the edges since our doors were partial overlays), would have cost far more than actually getting rid of the existing cabinets and starting from scratch. However, a friend of ours in CT did reface his cabinets and is very happy with the result. His layout was exactly how he wanted it, his cabinet doors were full overlays, so all he needed was new doors. No clue what he ended up paying.

I really depends on whether the cabinets simply need to be updated. In my experience, most people want to start all over with brand new stuff.

Just my 2 cents.

People have posted here in the past that the cost of refacing cabinets runs about as much as replacing the cabinets with new stock cabinets and that there are a lot of scam artists involved in that business.

The previous owners of our house replaced the cabinet doors and drawer fronts and refaced the visible portions of the cabinets. It looks ok, but inside you still have the original 1950s cabinets. The previous owners brother is a carpenter and they did the work themselves.