My Ikea Kitchen Install project

[gregt]

This is my new Ikea kitchen. Hope the pics work. First time picture poster.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...7/Kitchen1.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...07/Kitchen.jpg

If they work i can ramble on a bit more if anyone is interested.
Greg

[Dirty Doogie]

HI Greg - is that Ikea benchtop you used? How much did you spend if you dont mind me asking?

[gregt]

All Ikea stuff. From memory it come to around $5400.00. The better doors and glass added more than I wanted but it looks great. Benchtops are Ikea, the black/grey pattern. I was a bit tight and used the jointing strips on the corners. I had them powder coated to suit as they were aliminium. They also didn't make a top long enough to mitre the corners. I had to cut down a corner base and drawer cabinet to get enough room for the dishwasher. Around 30mm came off the backs. I took the same of the back edge of the top. The drawers are excellent.

[Daren]

Daren,

Generally Ikea kitchens are much cheaper than a local kitchen company becuase you do the assembly and installation yourself. It is possible to achieve a high end modern look for about the price of a melamine finish from a kitchen company.

The very latest glass front drawers and doors have to be seen to be believed - Ikea's price for 600 wide 3 drawer unit with glass fronts (in black or white) - $600 - local high end kitchen outfit price here on sunshine coast - $1400 (but you can have any color you like)

The cabinetry needs to have the cut ends sealed with polyurethane during assembly becuase the whiteboard is not moisture resistant except for top battens on sink units.

The hardware fittings are all top range - BLUM - they work smoothly for years and years in my experience. Hinges, drawer fronts are all adjustable.

Fixing wall cabinets isnt hard. It is best to plan for wall cabinetry if you have a timber frame house - you'll need nogging in the wall running at the height of the top edge of your wall cabinets ie the top edge of the nogging is level with the top edge of the cabinet. The cabinets are held to the wall with special L brackets (supplied) usually fixed in the upper back corners of the cabinet. If you have brick or block walls then you just fix with a dynabolt.

Alternately you can run a batten across the wall top and bottom and fix brackets into the top batten.

A few strange looking screws come with the L brackets - these must be used to fix the L bracket to the cabinetry - no other design of screw will do because the whiteboard has an engineered core which is very strong and the design of the fixing screw is important.

Benchtops - well - in the past benchtop has only been available in set lengths and widths - meaning if you needed a L corner it got a bit dodgy. You would have to butt join the top and use a cover piece to hide the join. The LOgan Ikea near Brisbane (being the biggest in Australia) now offers custom made benchtop in laminate or epoxy stone. I dont know how the prices compare or what the range is like.

I've made about 14 kitchens over the years and have found the Ikea jobs to be excellent value and generally very durable - but the bit I like most is that if you get sick of your choice of doors/drawers you can always change them - both the style and the layout ie turning a drawer unit into a pull out unit or a cupboard.

Hope that makes things a bit clearer.

thanks mate. much appreciated.

I'm planning a trip to Ikea Logan (6 hrs drive) but I want to get my design sorted before I go. Need to see the kitchen colours etc. in person before I buy though and I might see something I havent thought about while Im there too( ie glass door cabinets)

Hope it will all fit in the van for the trip home

[Dirty Doogie]

One other problem with Ikea is that sometimes they are out of stock of one or two items. It could be drawer fronts - or some panel - so they will back order for you. If the trip there is a bit of a drag you should probably check online to make sure the bits are available.

It is interesting to hang around in the kitchen displays - lots of tradies always around sussing out the fittings.

[Daren]

This is my new Ikea kitchen. Hope the pics work. First time picture poster.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...7/Kitchen1.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...07/Kitchen.jpg

If they work i can ramble on a bit more if anyone is interested.
Greg

Greg, looks great mate

now, heres my questions

can you tell me what size your wall cabs are ? theyre not all the way to the ceiling are they?

thats the Lidingo colour/scheme, right? wall cabs the same?

do they provide end cover panels the same as your door colour?

what kickers, did you use?

can you tell me all about that pantry please? - dimensions and why is that bottom handle in the middle there?

thankyou

its a top looking kitchen IMO

[Daren]

One other problem with Ikea is that sometimes they are out of stock of one or two items. It could be drawer fronts - or some panel - so they will back order for you. If the trip there is a bit of a drag you should probably check online to make sure the bits are available.

yeah will do. tis a bit tedious tho, checking each and every item. I wish they had a button on their planner that could check all your selected items in one hit, rather than one at a time.

[gregt]

Darren,
I did all the planning on their planning tool. Then went to the shop. Man there are millions of people in there. I did have to go back for the bench tops. Only a 4 hour drive but I should have checked first.
Wall cabinets are the bigger ones at 920mm as the ceiling is 2800 ish. They still stop heaps before the ceiling. I thought the smaller ones would look too small with a big gap above. Colour is Lidingo for all doors and cover panels. I think the kick panels were the same. If not you can't tell any difference. The pantry is a 600 x 600 x 2170 (FA511). It has a botton slide out section with slide out drawers and a hinged door up the top with slide out baskets so you can see from below. Only problem is unless your 7ft tall you need a small step ladder to reach. Do you want a pic of it opened?
It's probably too good for a rental house like this is but worked out cheaper than custom made. Maybe get the tops done by a pro if your going to use it yourself.

[Daren]

Darren,
I did all the planning on their planning tool. Then went to the shop. Man there are millions of people in there. I did have to go back for the bench tops. Only a 4 hour drive but I should have checked first.
Wall cabinets are the bigger ones at 920mm as the ceiling is 2800 ish. They still stop heaps before the ceiling. I thought the smaller ones would look too small with a big gap above. Colour is Lidingo for all doors and cover panels. I think the kick panels were the same. If not you can't tell any difference. The pantry is a 600 x 600 x 2170 (FA511). It has a botton slide out section with slide out drawers and a hinged door up the top with slide out baskets so you can see from below. Only problem is unless your 7ft tall you need a small step ladder to reach. Do you want a pic of it opened?
It's probably too good for a rental house like this is but worked out cheaper than custom made. Maybe get the tops done by a pro if your going to use it yourself.

yeah mate, any more pics you got would be great

I was thinking of putting two 195mm high by 400 mm widepantries side by side (FA506).

my ceiling height is 2400. I was thinking of getting the 920mm wall cabs and then put cornice around the top so they are essentially built-in. Can this be done? (ie -is there room for cornice across the front top that wont impede the opening of the doors)

I was contemplating the Lidingo or the Applad white. I want a sort of cream colour.

How many choices of colour for benchtops do they have? i could only see 2 on the site (white and beech)

any other tips or tricks?

oh yeah, how did you hang the wall cabs?

[gregt]

Daren,
If your going to put two side by side I would ask them if you would need an end panel between to give the doors some room. Maybe not required but a thought. With the cornice you would need to set the top of the wall cabinets down 75mm or your cornice size but you will need to screw some MDF on top for it to stick to. Shouldn't be too hard.
We originally started out with Applaud White because of price but went with the dearer one. It does look better. We kept the Applaud in the laundry and you can see the difference. Both are white. Lidingo might be a tad creamier but not much in it. The handles on the cabinets are white but no-one has picked it yet.
They had a few bench tops on display. Around six from memory. Get a copy of their kitchen book sent out. Everything in there.
With the corner cabinets I has some melamine edged on one side and cut to fit inside the high cabinets. Glued and screwed from the sides then into a stud. Not going anywhere now. See pics.
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...ntrybottom.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...ghCabinets.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q.../Pantrytop.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...7/Cnrbrace.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...allbracing.jpg

[encino_]

I forget who mentioned it, but someone suggested Ikea has bought Blum.
Does this mean that Ikea have available the corner drawer units and the flip doors for wall cabinets that Blum make?


Also, is it easy to alter an open wall unit? My space is around 3cm bigger than 3 wide wall cabinets, so I wonder if I could just buy 4 smaller cabinets
and cut one of them down to shorten?

[gregt]

Could just put on two end cover panels. I think they are about 15mm each and there is your 30mm. Just a thought.

[encino_]

Yeah thanks, thought of that, but when I say 3cm, it's not exact. I don't want to be stuck with an odd 5mm of space that I have to silicon... not that anyone would prob notice, but I always would, if you know what I mean

[Daren]

Daren,
If your going to put two side by side I would ask them if you would need an end panel between to give the doors some room. Maybe not required but a thought. With the cornice you would need to set the top of the wall cabinets down 75mm or your cornice size but you will need to screw some MDF on top for it to stick to. Shouldn't be too hard.

ah, I see what you mean. But after looking at your pics, the gap between wall cab and ceiling looks good to me (less work too) So Ive changed the plan to have the smaller wall cabs (my ceiling ht. is 2400)

After seeing the pic of your 600 mm pantry and looking at a 600 mm in real life, I've changed the plan from 2 x 400 mm pantries to a single 600 and then more bench space (200mm )

600 seems like plenty of room, IMO (for a 3 bedroom house

We originally started out with Applaud White because of price but went with the dearer one. It does look better. We kept the Applaud in the laundry and you can see the difference. Both are white. Lidingo might be a tad creamier but not much in it. The handles on the cabinets are white but no-one has picked it yet.

I actually liked the colour of th Applad (from their website, that may change in person) and the lower price seemed like a bonus. But I like thelittle design thing on the Lidingo. Lidingo might be the go if it looks better in person ..
so what handles did you get?

They had a few bench tops on display. Around six from memory. Get a copy of their kitchen book sent out. Everything in there.
With the corner cabinetsI has some melamine edged on one side and cut to fit inside the high cabinets. Glued and screwed from the sides then into a stud. Not going anywhere now. See pics.
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...ntrybottom.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...ghCabinets.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q.../Pantrytop.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...7/Cnrbrace.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...allbracing.jpg

oh, I see. that seems like a good plan (takes note)

I can understand the wall cabs, but why did you have to do it for the corner cabs? just to screw into a stud, is it?

thanks for the pics too

[Dirty Doogie]

Hi Encino

- Most of the available BLum fittings are used somewhere within Ikea's stock range. The flip, flip and fold, flip and slide, and gas strut gull wing fittings are used on some Lounge room display cabinets (or were in the 2007 range) - you wont find them in the kitchen cabinet section but they will fit on IKEA kitchen door panels and cabinets - if you try and take the fitting and put it on a NON Ikea cabinet you might need a 2mm packing shim.

I dont think they have the corner drawers though.

And I don't know whether they sell the more expensive fittings separately. All I know is that the gull wing fitting sells in cabinet supply places for $350 but you can buy the same fitting complete with 3 mirror gloss door panels for $420.