From Planning to Delivery. Maybe.

You can read Ikea kitchen nightmare stories elsewhere. Me, I am a fan, and an experienced one. While there can be some suffering during the process by which you design, order, receive and troubleshoot, an Ikea kitchen purchase, and whereas I have compassion for the worn-down buyer because I too have spent many long days waiting at the After Sales counter, the price, beauty and quality of IKEA cabinets is hard to beat. One way to look at the “bottom line” is that since the product, for the price, is excellent, you will have to patiently learn how to get through the ropes.

The first step is to measure the kitchen. Lots of homeowners fall off the DIY line right at this starting point, when they realize they have to base their cabinet purchase on their own measurements. I understand the problem but the solution is to measure carefully more than once. If you never were and never will be a do-it-yourself-er, professional installation can start with the taking of measurements.

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t do the measuring or planning myself. I made the aesthetic choices. I chose the handles, the knobs, the styles, the glass door option when it added sizzle. I chose the cabinets that would look the best and my husband, a licensed contractor, did all the measuring and planning.

In case you are wondering which cabinet style I chose, mostly I went with Adel Birch. We have done other styles, (even the cool, shiny red type for a basement kitchenette, see http://www.robertjalo.com) but Adel Birch remains a favorite. I am sure that for years to come prospective tenants will view the apartments we did and will be very surprised to see the quality, natural wood kitchens in these units. Only the cheapest styles at Ikea seemed undesirable to me. Almost every Ikea style we’ve installed has come out looking wonderful and being functional and pleasant to live with.

Once you have the plans, by which I mean the drawing that shows which cabinets and how many and where they go in your kitchen, the Ikea software (which is online also) prints out a list of parts, which becomes your order. The kitchen team helps ensure you have it right and they take your money. A delivery date is set. Don’t count on it.

Ikea Kitchens: Why We Got Started

By fate and fortune, I found myself needing a solution for replacing 51 kitchens in a Pasadena apartment building undergoing renovation. I’d never been involved with construction or even much home remodeling. I’ve been in marketing most of my life.

But as the manager and leasing agent for the property, whose pay depended on having the work finished fast so there would be apartments to lease, it was in my court to get these kitchens done. On a fairly restricted budget, I wanted to end up with some “sizzle” to help me lease these small, pricey studios in a downtown neighborhood where there are lots of rentals. The building, before it was rehabbed, had been half empty.

The first few kitchens the building owners had rehabbed were custom built by a cabinet maker the previous manager had found in the Yellow Pages. When I came on the scene I found the following problems with the cabinets and the maker:

1) The $6,500 price for one straight wall of plain-looking “Victorian” cabinets with absolutely no sizzle.

2) The cheap wood that had to be painted but the price didn’t include painting.

3) The white ceramic tile countertops, the same tile we used in shower stalls, about the worst mistake you can make in countertops, at least in rentals (what you want is a smooth, impenetrable surface, NO GROUT, please). His price didn’t even include sealing the grout (revealed only after he was fired) and he needed six weeks advance, from the point of ordering, to build the cabinets in his shop. Then he’d deliver them and install them, when he had time.

I was in Ikea buying a butcher block table around this time and, in spite of the crowds, took a good long look at the kitchen displays. The average 10 x 10 kitchen price noted on the displays was about $2400. And these were great-looking kitchens, loaded with cool features like wire rack baskets, slide out pantry shelves, and lots more. I am talking sizzle. There were 15 styles and more color choices. I found five I really liked.

In the following weeks I looked at other kitchen options--cabinet builders, kitchen designers, kitchen stores, online resources and even Home Depot. But, when my research time was up, it was obvious that Ikea offered the best product for the price.

So, next time he came to town, I brought my boss, the owner, to Ikea. He swears he has no aesthetic sense, is color-blind, and style unconscious. But he liked the price tags at Ikea and he trusted me. So I had the go ahead to fire the cabinet maker and proceed with our first 5 Ikea kitchens.

Ikea Kitchens: Why We Know Something

There is a lot of pro and con around regarding Ikea kitchens as an affordable option for kitchen remodeling. I've supervised the installation of over 100 Ikea kitchens so far and I figure my experience might help someone else decide if an Ikea kitchen is a good choice or not. My husband Robert who was the installer can also give some hints to do-it-yourselfers on the installation aspect of things. We don't know a lot of things but we know about Ikea kitchens so if you are considering one or have bought one, read on.