IKEA kitchen cabinets Design

I've explained our big kitchen project, shown you the demolition, and shared our financing, and now it's time to get down to business. The bones of a kitchen are the cabinets and their layout, and we knew from the beginning that we wanted to use IKEA's cabinet system. Here are some things we learned along the way.

An early rendering of my kitchen from the IKEA software.

IKEA has officially announced that they are replacing the AKURUM line of cabinets seen here with a new and improved system of cabinets — SEKTION. Read more about this change here:

Why an IKEA Kitchen?

The decision to get an IKEA kitchen came down to two factors: Price and modern design.

1. Price - IKEA is like no other company when it comes to scale of economy in their home furnishings. I don't love every single thing that IKEA does, but when it comes to kitchen cabinets, I really didn't see any other way to get the size and style of kitchen we wanted.
2. Modular and Modern - IKEA cabinets are completely modular — you can buy them in many configurations and adapt them to your style to a rather astonishing degree, especially if you, like us, wanted a more modern and sleek look. Their cabinets are frameless and easily adaptable to modern, flat-fronted doors.

How Is the Quality of IKEA Kitchen Cabinets?

I understand that some people are suspicious of IKEA cabinets, since they are made of particle board (similar to MDF — medium density fiberboard). The low cost of the cabinets and their material make some folks uneasy about purchasing.

But let's take a closer look.

The Scoop on Particle Board & MDF

Most off-the-rack cabinet systems are also made of some grade of particle board. Any other cabinets we could afford (like the Kraftmaid cabinets or other lines sold at stores like Lowe's and Home Depot) were also particle board. You can go a step up and get cabinet-grade plywood, but there is some debate over whether that is actually superior to particle board or MDF.

But What About Custom-Made Cabinets?

To go all the way to the top and buy custom-made, solid wood cabinet boxes — that just wasn't feasible for us. Yes, custom-made cabinets can sometimes be cheaper than you expect if you find local resources, but even so, for us it would have cost tens of thousands of dollars, money we couldn't justify even if we had wanted to. Our entire cabinet system cost much less than $10, 000. (See my full price breakdown at the end.)

High-Quality Hardware

For me, the most key part of a cabinet is the drawer. If anything is going to swell and warp, it's a drawer. But IKEA's drawers are solid metal, with really superb hardware, Blum hinges, and drawer dampers for soft-closing. (We love the dampers — I'll explain more about them in the next post.)

I read copiously on other homeowners' experiences with IKEA cabinets and talked to contractor friends. For the most part, they were uniformly enthusiastic. Yes, IKEA cabinets are cheap, but that doesn't mean they're shoddy or flimsy.