Ikea kitchen - good choice?

pixelchick10

Having trawled round all the kitchen shops (aaghh) I'm tempted to go with Ikea for the white gloss kitchen that I want. They helped me draw up a really good plan -- with cunning uses of space. And their quote (with loads of extras like stainless steel splashbacks) comes in a good £400 cheaper than the equivalent Wickes one (which I also liked). Is this a good choice? Are their kitchens good quality? And straightforward to fit? And if you've had one, have you been happy with it? Incidentally, we also asked for a quote from Magnet trade -- they said they'd get it back to us on Tuesday. By the end of the week we still haven't received it!

vix2000

I have had my Ikea kitchen years and it has been restyled and moved 3 times. Its brilliant. I have added to it along the way as the style I have has been available for years and I haven't seen one I like better.

As to fitting, I'm afraid its a bit different. Most fitters hate them, especially if its a replacement kitchen as opposed to a whole new room. In most units there's a gap between the back of the unit and the wall, to enable the pipes to fit for the plumbing. In Ikea kitchens the back is flush to the wall so all plumbing has to run either at skirting level or inside the units. As I said, if its a newly plumbed room, as mine was, in an extension, and we knew this, the plumbing was run like this from the start, so not a problem.

Have you looked at Howdens? The prices are excellent and they're supposed to be very good. My friend has had a magnet kitchen fitted and paid a fortune, and it doesn't look any better than my ikea one or the similar Howdens one at a fraction of the cost.

amandada

I'm flying the flag for Ikea kitchens just now! I've just had one fitted and think it's the dog's bs with chocolate on top!
We had it fitted by Ikea's fitters too and I've never seen anyone work at the rate these guys did. I couldn't recommend them enough

mumofjusttwo

if you don't mind me asking how much did it cost to get Ikea to fit the kitchen for you?

Fluffi

At work we have an Ikea kitchen and although the doors have started to fall off after over a year the kitchen is used by so many people (2 mealtimes x five days/week) that its like its had equivalent of 25 years of wear from a family (I'm assuming 4 people to a household here too) so personally I'd feel comfortable buying an Ikea kitchen knowing it can stand up to a lot of abuse!

I'm also thinking of buying an ikea kitchen too so I'd be curious as to how much their fitting costs too please! (I'm still saving up for it though so I don't really want to get a full quote from them and then tell them I won't be doing the work for 2 years )

MrsE_2

I've had two Ikea kitchens (we moved after the first one, it didn't fall apart).

I love the wall units, get the extra tall ones, no dirt traps on the top & an extra shelf of storage space all around the kitchen. Plus they are super deep.

Their off the peg work tops only come in limited lengths (not long enough for my new one, so I had to get worktop in B&Q), but the custom ones are nice & cheap enough too, but allow plenty of time for the order (I didn't, so B&Q)

For splashback tiling B&Q are now doing coloured glass, its expensive, but looks great, if they had it when I done mine, I think I would have used it.
I'm thinking of replacing exsisting tiling (don't tell DH!). I think its about £70 a section - 60cm, so £70 per single unit or appliance. Looks great, you must look at it.

amandada

mumofjusttwo wrote: »

if you don't mind me asking how much did it cost to get Ikea to fit the kitchen for you?

We had a lot of extra work done on top (knocking kitchen and dining room together) but the basic fit for the kitchen, which included stripping out the old units, installing new, all plumbing, electrics and joinery work directly related to the ikea cabinets was £1440.
They came and worked here for 4 days solid, none of this nipping off to see other jobs etc, plus if there's anything you're not happy with, not that there has been for us, you know you have ikea to fall back on, rather than having potentially awkward situation with the fitters

vansboy

IKEA kitchen fan here!

Just ordered our 3rd Ikea kitchen - like you gloss white, this time - had black in last house & red in the flat, here!

You mention the planning, don't forget you can download the planning tool, free, from their website & create some really good designs of your own. We changed our layout a million times, before we got what we think is right!!

& if you haven't got one, the Ikea store card gets you 5% (or more) of your first order. So apply in store & get one before you place the order - all done straight away, for you.

We've had to get purpose made worktops this time, too, as no other store could offer what we liked, it'll be stone effect black finish.

Here's our current one - in an awkward space, too!

VB

IMG]http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii4/vansboyuk/IMG_1703.jpg[/IMG]

prettypennies

I bought an adel yellow/white kitchen with beech worktops about 2 years ago. I went for the taller wall units which I absolutely love.

Our kitchen cost about £2000 for the following:
Integrated fridge freezer and housing
extractor and housing
Tall oven housing with 2 drawers
2 corner base cabinets
1 wide drawer base cabinet
1 double sink housing with double ceramic sink.
1 small base cabinet
1 corner wall unit.
5 glass fronted wall cabinets.

We also about the Ikeas cabinet lights.
The oven and hob we bought elsewhere.

The only downside was that we had to wait a few months for the door for the corner wall unit to come back into stock. Everything else we just went to the warehouse and collected on the day.

We tiled two sides of the kitchen, but the wall where the hob is we had clad in stainless steel (right up to the extractor and the wall units on either side) A friend who is a steel fabricator cut it for us (cost about £90 in total) It is super easy to keep clean.

pixelchick10

Thanks everyone for your replies -- so helpful. We're going to go for the Ikea white gloss kitchen -- we might get them to install too -- depends if the builder who is knocking through the wall to our kitchen will go for it or not. He was making loud soundings about Magnet!!! So he'll be disappointed. But we're going to go for the kitchen that works for us -- and I have to say, was very impressed with the cunning uses of space that the Ikea kitchen designer (Mark D in Croydon) suggested, even down to a thin drawer in the plinth below the oven. When I asked them, they quoted about £1800 for fitting it ... which is obviously more than a local fitter who should be around a grand (for a £1,000 kitchen -- it's only small). Amandada I think I will ring up their number for the kitchen fitting and get an exact quote. Vansboy - I do love your red gloss kitchen in the pic -- looks really stylish.

Joannaclaire

Am following this thread with interest as we're deliberating between Ikea and Wickes at the moment.

FWIW Pixelchick all the people we know with Ikea kitchens - 4 of them - could well afford bespoke designer ones but opted for Ikea for various reasons. They are all really happy with them and they look fab.

We went to Ikea at Brent Park last week and they said they don't help with design anymore and pointed us to their self serve computers which have the software you can download and use at home, only instore they have annoying trackballs and uncomfy chairs, so not really where you want to sit and plan kitchens for long. I could have sworn in the past they did do design with clients, as their kitchen dept was differently laid out a few months back.

Maybe we'll have to trek to Croydon (our old stomping ground) to get their help...