I fitted an Ikea kitchen for a client and it was the biggest balls up i've ever seen.
They'de had it planned and designed by Ikea and shipped from the UK, it was a U shape kitchen with only 2 rows of units against walls, 1 row with the sink was in the middle of the room, they didn't supply island style units for this part, just sent 5 600mm wide end panels to be cut down and screwed on to the backs of the units, only you couldn't. Ended up having to buy a 2.5m sheet of 12mm ply to cover the backs of the units in one go.
I adore our Ikea kitchen, it works brilliantly and was 1/4 of the price of essentially the same from Cusinella (which were horribly over elaborate too) or Schmidt. Yes it would have been nice to get something that people didn't recognise as Ikea but at a 10,000 euro plus saving I can live with people knowing where it came from and we were were able to afforrd some really nice tiles which are what visitors look at.
Our builders were quite happy to install Ikea units - one of the men had done a one day course in installing Ikea kitchens (who says French artisans aren't adaptable?) - and they helped us decide what was going where. The bore is acutally buying it, you have to queue for ages, but then again saving 10,000 euros alleviaates the pain...
a friend of mine had an bought an Ikea kitchen and had it fitted by french artisans. She took her brothers advice about which kitchen to buy. He is a designer and said Ikea kitchens are very good quality and are not overpriced. Fitting/good planning is key. This person can afford the best and trust me they have impeccable taste and quality is very important. Hope this is useful advice for you
Our tradesmen didn't want to fit them for two reasons:
1. If IKEA has planned it for you they make mistakes and so the thing simply doesn't fit as planned. Our guys once had to cut up a unit and shrink it by 8cm or something to make it fit in the remaining space because of an error by IKEA.
2. Things are supplied separately so that you, the customer, need to be extremely sharp to order everything you need and get it all right. If it's not right they are left to fix it, which may mean several round trips to the nearest IKEA. At the time where we were they had the choice of Edinburgh or Glasgow, each about 30 minutes away. Again, at this nightmare client, they had about four return trips for things that were missing.
However, like I say we demonstrated that we had it all worked out and that we had got all the bits, and said we would get anything that was missing so they were happy.
Seems the general consensus is that you love 'em or hate 'em. What is worrying is that in the main, professionals will do anything to avoid fitting them, so have to ask yourselves why, especially as it is so easy and, if the answer is important to you.
In order of cost and so on my OH recommends, in order
Schmidt
Lapeyre
Castorama, Conforama etc
Finishing with what we have in our rental house(for 5 years now) - wait for it - Bricoman!!!! But well fitted it looks fantastic, the problem is that it is impossible to make an Ikea kitchen look like anything other than an Ikea kitchen. But, if you like that style, why not?
We built a plaster block framework to size, slid in Ikea carcasses, drawers, cupboards ,under the oven etc bought old cupboard doors all over the place, they fitted perfectly,made waxed concrete work tops and have a fabulous kitchen ( I say "we" loosely being mainly TOH). We wanted something that looked like its been here a while, but with wipe down easy to install cupboards and drawers that just glide in. No sign of wear and tear, would highly recommend the carcasses,it was just that the doors and tops were too modern for our 400 year old house.
Incidentally have few pieces of Ikea furniture we bought when we needed to fill an apartment quickly, years ago, still going strong after 14 years.
Right on in there with Ikea, Microsoft, Tesco , Mc Do etc taking over the world, would dearly love to never go/use to any of these again, sometimes finances must
I kept out of this but now a quickie. My OH believes in Ikea like other people in the almighty. Supermarket shops are done with those big blue plastic bag things they do, one has holes but works still. We have loads of their shelves, and stuff from the china department, cutlery and so on. There is, however, a line I draw. Fitted kitchens or its ilk for any other room.
I had a south facing kitchen where I installed an Ikea kit kitchen. The glue melted so that things cracked and split. The wood cracked and warped anyway. It all but fell down. It was exactly the opposite to friends a few houses away who had exactly the same kitchen to the last screw. When I last saw them about four or five years back, apart from grubby fingerprints, it looked like it had been up for a couple of weeks. Both households bought and installed in March 1990. We went shopping together and agreed on choice by chance. How long did ours last? I ripped it out in October 1991, so roughly 18 months. The joinery who built and installed our replacement said that when customers said they had bought their own, Ikea was one of the companies they apologised and said they would not install.
Wow - what a response. Never thought this post would generate so much interest.
Has anyone contacted Ikea yet to tell them to get an advert on this page - it's a ready made captive market. At least everyone has an opinion on their products and what an opportunity for them to convert the doubting Thomasses such as myself.
We had the Adel solid birch before. This refers only to the doors and drawers, the cabinets are all chipboard or whatever. I know that the planks forming the frames are solid wood, not sure though about the panels that fit in the middle.
I doubt it's solid, more likely small bits of oak glued together to make larger panels, like their worktops. I won't say they're rubbish for RDR's benefit ;) The cabinets and drawers of the last Ikea kitchen I fitted were pretty good, I left the property a few months later so couldn't say how they held up.
I've just been perusing the Ikea kitchen planner website - they seem to do a solid oak style - I wonder how solid is solid oak? Is that a stupid question?
Ah so, Mamma San, when handicappee one becomee smart, non? I tried to post a photograph, but it didn't work. Which also show that when handicappee one become stupid, non?
I even did my bathroom with Ikea KITCHEN elements and same goes for my bedroom. Why? Thoses elements (especially the ones with the big drawers) are ideal when you need an adapted bathroom or bedroom because of being handicapped.
I'm SO happy to finally hear positive remarks about Ikea on SFN.
I lived on a narrow boat in the UK for three years, installed an IKEA kitchen modified to fit and it looked beautiful and sold the boat for me at Ā£3,000 what I had paid for it!
We brought our old ikea free standing kitchen over to France 2 years ago and it was about 12 years old then, it's still going strong and looks good, we certainly have no complaints.
thanks everyone - keep this coming - I'm actually starting to feel positive, like I might be able to afford a kitchen in the new place afterall. I'd already decided on IKEA PAX system wardrobes as we're doing walk in to avoid paying for doors & cabinet work. So now I'm thinking my impression of IKEA kitchens might have been wrong and it could be an option.