Ikea Kitchen Cabinets & Appliances

We redid our kitchen in 2015. We are very pleased with the Ikea cabs we got- SEKTION (METHOD in ex-US).  They'd just been introduced that year.  We used an assembler we found on Yelp who did a great job.  Ikea uses good hardware- I forget what it's called Hom (??). it's what many premium brands use.  We compared these to some Home Depot cabs and these were really cost competitive, esp. when you factor in all the hardware and inside organizing stuff. My sister did a remodel using some custom cabs and for a comparably sized kitchen (in the DC area) she spent almost 3x.  Plywood, but she needed to spend extra for organizing tools (like extra drawers, lighting, etc.).  Any cabinet when exposed to water is subject to warping and damage (for the cab under the sink I applied some Graco deck sealer/primer as a way to capture water if it ever drips- it's like paint that turns into a rubber layer- water proof).  Ikea's particleboard, and it's compliant with some CARB (Ca Air Resources Board) guideline re: formaldehyde emissions.  

If you want something that's very good value, I would highly recommend Ikea. We decided that what was most important for us were the visible surfaces. So where we saved on cabs, we spent on a marble countertops and backsplash.  We also looked into Semihandmade (https://www.semihandmadedoors.com) which makes cool custom veneers for Ikea boxes.  We chose not to since the stock styles that Ikea has fit our overall design.

We chose another source for appliances- but they're OEM'd by Whirlpool and others, I think.

Enjoy! DM me with any questions--

I’ve heard that IKEA took feedback to heart and made improvements in their kitchen cabinet materials and their hardware/hinges etc. We put an IKEA kitchen in (cabinets only) over ten years ago, we put in a LOT of cabinets, they take a LOT of use, and everything still looks good and works great! Our only issue is that they discontinued the cabinet style shortly after we built our kitchen, so should we ever need to replace a cabinet door we’d have to use something else entirely and go for a “patch work” look (ugh). No experience with their appliances, which we bought locally, and we put in a Corian counter through Lowes when they were having a sale on counters. Still looking good, love the integrated sink (though it does stain easily, fortunately it also buffs out pretty easily).

I did a new ikea kitchen for a rental house ten years ago. It stills looks fairly good. On the plus side, it is inexpensive and easy to design your layout on their website. I bought a refrigerator, hood for the range, and farm style sink from Ikea, all of which have been excellent in terms of quality and design. The downside to Ikea is that the cabinets show more wear and tear over time. I'm not sure that the warranty is that great, especially after a year. My sink faucet leaked and water collected under the sink. The particle board bottom is now warped. I'm not sure how to replace just that area. 

i would look into other shops that sell solid wood pre-fab cabinets (which will be much cheaper than custom.) I have heard that EcoHome in Berkeley does nice pre-fab cabinets. They will be more expensive than ikea, but better quality. It's worth looking into. Good luck!

MY friend just redid her kitchen using Ikea cabinets. There are not too of the line, but it has good prices. Labor is not easy because someone has to assemble them and customized if necessary....but, we look everywhere and it was the better deal, it looks great!

Appliances check online before, you don’t need to get Ikea ones. If you want to talk, email me! Good luck!

We did an ikea kitchen about ten years ago in Oakland and it was incredibly durable even with three little kids and a busy kitchen. It looked virtually new when we sold. Traveling Europe you come to realize how common they are there and again, how hardy in flats getting lots of use. We just put new ikea cabinets here in our new house. I know people get snooty about ikea and particle board. I get it. But I also know what I’ve seen: well made and long lasting pieces that fit our house and budget. Not everyone will agree.

I can only speak to IKEA cabinets which I wouldn’t recommend unless you only want them temporarily. We got ours about nine years ago when we bought our house and had to replace the kitchen due to water damage. We chose IKEA because we were very concerned about keeping costs low having just spent all our savings on a down payment.  I wish we had figured out a way to spend more and get quality cabinets. The ones from IKEA are thin, have plastic or pressboard inside drawers, doors don’t hang right, hardware is crappy, and overall they look low quality. 

Also, the customer service was nightmarish. They overcharged us and shipped too many of some pieces and not enough of others.  They wouldn’t ship correct pieces for some reason so we had to go back to the nearest store which was 45 minutes from home. They were very unapologetic about the whole mess too. 

I recommend looking at the long term picture and spend more on something that will last a long time. 

We have put in a new kitchen (in-law unit) and redid our kitchen in the past year. We purchased Ikea cabinets and are very happy with them. We did the installation ourselves. We had done a kitchen years ago and purchased higher end cabinets at that time. We found that the Ikea cabinets are actually better made and much easier to assemble and install. We're much happier with them. We didn't like the choices with the appliances at Ikea so purchased ours elsewhere. We did get the Ikea countertop for the in-law unit. We went to Home Depot for our kitchen countertop and that was a disaster. We're much happier with the Ikea countertop.

Submitting a late response to this. I redid my kitchen in IKEA almost everything about 5 years ago and it looks brand new to this day, despite much heavy family use. I think all the talk about poor quality is BS from companies who want you to buy more expensive stuff, or folks who need to believe their $50,000 kitchen was worth it. I 100% gutted the space from floor to ceiling, and put in new EVERYTHING including some higher end trinkets like a $1000 faucet and dozens of polished nickel pulls from RH, a $3000 oven and $3000 fridge - and the whole thing cost $23k all in. The counters I bought from IKEA too - during their annual 20% off kitchen sale, usually in about April - they're Caesarstone and dont stain at all. I even put in a $200 IKEA farmhouse sink that was maybe $1000 less than 90% of other options. People told me I was nuts. It looks gorgeous, I get compliments all the time, and it has held up perfectly. My project turned out so fab that my uber successful realtor, who can afford anything she likes, ended up going IKEA when she remodeled her own kitchen. The one thing I will add is - I used a contractor to do it (Hearney Construction, who I recommend) and I also consulted an architect friend. Their design services are poor, IMO. 

When I remodeled my kitchen I looked at cabs from IKEA, Home Depot, three local "semi-custom" stores, and a fully custom shop.  I went with the fully custom shop because I wanted to use every single inch of my kitchen and not have gaps.  Try as I might with the IKEA, Home Depot and the "semi-custom" options, they just didn't give me exactly what I wanted.  Otherwise I'd totally go with the IKEA cabs, with two exceptions, the cabs for the sink and dishwasher.  Get plywood for those because they will get wet and plywood will handle the water much better than MDF. 

We remodeled our kitchen 3 years ago and used IKEA. It's held up amazingly well and we get lots of compliments on it. I used their design tool online and designed it myself but it was a pain. The system froze a lot, saved stuff wrong, etc. I'd probably go w their design services next time to save time, since you get the amount refunded when you purchase your kitchen. 

We only got the dishwasher from IKEA in terms of appliances so that it could have the integrated door. 

We also got the Caesarstone countertop from IKEA and have been very pleased with that as well. 

As long as you have a good eye for design, and find a cabinet front style that you like from IKEA, I'd definitely recommend it. They do have very limited cabinet front styles and colors. Other than the gray Bodbyn, which is what we went with, I didn't like any of them.