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Fitted IKEA in the old house, was impressed and I believe the kitchen is still going strong/looking good 8 years on. We went with them because of price, but also because the carcasses were slightly deeper than others, meaning we could scribe into the back to fit our wonky old house. It was quite a big project, and I'd say the only negative was having to pay for delivery on top, and the to-ing and fro-ing to the store.
In our last place we used IKEA carcasses with custom made doors and a worktop from stone mason. Going strong after 6 years, saved a ton of money and looked the business.
We have an Ikea Faktum one - probably now 8 years old and still perfect.
Had no problems fitting standard worktops bought elsewhere.
Taps cheap and very good quality.
They do many heights of wall cabinet - so fit tall ones and use the space right up to ceiling (rather than just gathering dust and clutter on top). Just leave a 25mm gap at the ceiling and use a narrow infill (otherwise doors might scrape ceiling if it isn't flat).
Our doors were mostly solid birch at same price as MDF elsewhere (only veneer in centre panel). They screwed up the warehouse pick, so we gained a couple of extra doors which cut down nicely to make end infill panels 🙂
The multi-drilled shelf pegs are also a bonus - once installed you can shuffle shelf heights to make the very best use of space.
Thanks all, much appreciated.
Had an ikea kitchen fitted about 5 months ago. Pretty happy with the quality, and we had a good fitter - couldn't have been more helpful.
The only pain we had was with the order - for no reason i could fathom, a load of the bits just didn't turn up, and the splashbacks were delivered about 1/3 of the height we ordered. Everything was sorted in about 2 days, and didn't affect handing kitchen back to us, other than the splashbacks which took aaaaaaaaages to come as they had to be reordered from Germany.
+1 on the dishwasher - we had to replace ours with an ikea one as it wouldn't have opened properly. We did have a problem with the anti flood mechanism kicking in - Ikea took 3 days to get out to us, but fixed it within an hour or so of actually getting here.
Ive built my last two kitchens from Ikea. Easy to DIY and that together with the good VFM means you can have a tidy, functional kitchen, for not a lot of dough.
Dont use their hardwoood worktop treatment though - apply 4-6 coats of danish oil instead.
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*freestanding appliances not IKEA
So - what recommendation for a cheap as chips kitchen for a utility room? Emphasis is on cheap but still have decent build quality.
Would a basic Ikea one fit the bill?
Without a doubt for similar money to a Wickes "Takeaway" and far better quality with a 20yr guarantee.
Something no one has mentioned yet is that guarantee - 20 YEARS - there isn't anyone else who will do that.
Ikea guarantee is 25 years on kitchens and 5 years on appliances. Pretty decent.
They've upped it then!
The ones we fitted in the old houses were 20yrs.
Not had to claim yet and they are 10 and 7yrs old now.
Sounds like my next project then - might have to start measuring up.
Looks good Stoner. I see you went for a non-built in dishwasher, looks to fitnjust right height wise?
Be cautious if using Danish oil, as it may not be 'food safe' until it completely dries. Which could take weeks! Plus it often contains dies which will colour the wood (you may want that effect). IKEA's wood oil is food safe and quick-drying, and virtually colourless.
Also, bear in mind that oak worktops don't like iron oxide at all, and will develop nasty black stains if anything a bit rusty is left on it.
If using Ikea's square fronted laminate worktop be careful not to let any water drip over the front and get to the underside edge as it blows really easily. I noticed this happening on our month old Ikea kitchen. Have since fitted helicopter tape on the front edge. Invisible and protects it from accidental splashes
Apart from that we are very happy with it.
Bosch DW fits in fine. No problems with dimensions.
Non-built in ones just so much easier to whip in or out to fettle/fix/replace etc.
Johndoh; that's a blurb from a company selling a product, so possibly not [i]quite[/i] objective. And I have no experience of their particular product, but my own experience with various brands has shown that Danish oil isn't properly 'dry' in 4-6 hours. I normally give it at least 24 hours after the first coat, before applying more. Applying oil before the existing coat has had a chance to dry properly, leads to build up of the oil, which becomes sticky, and then you get dust on the surface which needs to be removed and makes the whole process that much more tiresome. I generally give increasing amounts of time between 'coats', say 24 hours for the first, then 48 hours, then 4 days and so-on. For 4-6 coats, I would allow at least a couple of weeks if not longer. And for a kitchen/food preparation use, I'd allow a few weeks at a warm time of year, to thoroughly 'cure'.
Osmo top oil for wooden worktops.
Osmo top oil for wooden worktops.
This.
Been excellent on our worktops for the past 6mths. No marks or stains yet.
Well we had a wee trip to IKEA today and reached a consensus on most things - she wants a glass hob with seperate built in ovens (yes, two), both want the same sort of sink, easy agreement on cupboard doors etc. The only think I'm not 100% sure about is these islands, and not the concept in general, just a couple of practicalities.
1) If the hob is on it how easy are the roof mounted extractors to fit and route - is it just a flexible tumble dryer like duct between the ceiling and floor above, or what?
2) How much space do you think is needed between worktop/cupboards and the island? 60cm appears to be an absolute minimum to allow cupboard doors etc. to open, but I think that's a bit tight for walking through. Any thoughts?
She's pretty set on one and when she drew what she's thinking I can see why, have no objection and if we can make it fit would definitely do that as she seems so keen. So the third question is...
3) Are the IKEA island units set sizes, or is there a variety of size options? Are they just made up of pick and mix units with a worktop on the top? It'll be solid wood worktops, that was another easy consensus.
Cheers.
No idea about the catalogue islands, I built mine from four cupboard carcasses and biscuit jointed two tops together.
In that case there should be some flexibility in dimensions.
Most of the IKEA Extractor hoods can be switched between recirculated and vented if your going with vented yes it's just ducting but be warned you can only go to 2 meters without a secondary fan. Charcoal filters are optional and only needed if your recirculating.
The IKEA appliances are made by Whirlpool and Electrolux and have been designed for a common design theme so you can buy handles for the doors and drawers that match those on the appliances.
How does a recirculated one work? Does something need pulling out and cleaning periodically?
[quote=thegreatape ]How does a recirculated one work? It doesn't.
Right 🙂
What Rockhopper said. 9 years on my IKEA kitchen stuff is great.
Bit of a thread hijack...
Does anyone have the new metod units?
I'm wondering whether the back panel is improved from the nailed on hardboard panels which were on the factum carcasses?
That is one of the areas where I think other manufacturers were marginally better. Magnet/wren/howdens have a thicker panel slid into a groove.
I've had a factum unit where the back panel split away. Only minor issue in a kitchen that has seen 3 years of serious use though.
Just wondering if it was improved on the metod stuff?
Fitted 2 Metod kitchens the backs are slot in with panel pins securing it all in place. Fitted ours last year and its still like new. Sister liked it so much she got me to fit one for her aswell.