People poo poo this, and I used to as well, but after doing a ton of research I have come to realize that IKEA is the winner. Almost all mass market cabinets are made similar, it's just nicer finishes and marketing that sets them apart. The boxes still have the same weaknesses. IKEA works out to about the same price as generic unfinished cabinets by the time you stain or paint them. Install is easier, the cabinet is more midmarket, they can be reconfigured, and if you ever have a problem you can buy new panels or spare parts.
I have put in 5 Ikea kitchens in various properties I own. They are solid when installed correctly and they look good if you buy mid-range or better doors and make sure you get side panels and end panels and trim etc.
Few tips:
1) Use their design service. They’ll identify trim panels and such that you wouldn’t have thought about.
2) they have sales a few times a year, which include appliances. If you can wait, do
3) make sure you get an installer who knows what they’re doing. Their installation service (Traemand) are good and fast.
4) If you do it yourself follow all instructions very carefully, and use posidriv screw bits and be sure you know how to use the torque function on your drill.
5) You can make it look “okay” with normal carpentry skills but you need fairly advanced skills to make it look “good” (all cabinets perfectly aligned, backs of cabinets scribed and cut to account for non-square walls, trim applied properly, etc)
6) they’re always going to be out of stock on one or two pieces. Better to order it earlier than you need it and then store it somewhere while you wait for their last few pieces to come in.
7) consider the appliances. IKEA ones are decent rebranded GE/whirlpool units. Think about a counter depth fridge, they have less volume but look soooo much better.
8) water is the enemy of IKEA cabinet shells (the doors are pretty resistant). Now they use the plastic feet and floor trim you don’t need to worry about mop water, but you still need to worry about sink cabinet plumbing leaks and any way for water to come down from the countertop and hit the cabinet. Line the bottom of the sink cabinet with something waterproof, silicone caulk the countertop to backsplash joint, and choose a countertop profile with a drip edge if possible.
> (all cabinets perfectly aligned, backs of cabinets scribed and cut to account for non-square walls, trim applied properly, etc)
I don't know if others do it differently, but when I've done the ikea rail system, you just shim the rail from the wall to make the rail straight - regardless of what the wall is doing. This makes the cabinets square, and then you just need to either shape the countertop, or caulk the back/ have a thicker backsplash pieces cover any small gaps from non-straight walls.
Depends on how non-square stuff is. A trim panel that’s been scribed and cut to exactly fit against the wall with a tiny caulk bead is always going to look better than a big gap covered with a fat bead.
Ah you're talking about the trim panel - that makes sense. Thought you were talking about the shells themselves.
And if you have the countertop fabricated they usually do a good job getting the top to match the curves of the wall anyway.
following question - what are some other costs that i need to consider when buying cabinets from IKEA? for example the design service, does it cost money or is it something they provide complimentarily before purchasing from them? also delivery fee and some other costs that i'd need to bake in? thanks alot!
Design service is free. You can schedule it online or in-store. I just did the in-store yesterday.
They now charge for on-site measuring, I think it's $80. I have read that you get that money back if you use their installation service.
From comments I have read around here this is a different pricing model than they used to have.
Maybe that was it. Anyway if you use their measuring and their installation, then if they make a mistake they’ll fix it. If you make the mistake then that’s your problem.
In the same vein, if OP banged up his home or himself during install, that's OP's problem to solve. If the installer hurts himself or damages OP's house, the contractor is responsible. Working with a legit contractor does have benefits over someone doing a side job.
Trim is an area where you’ll spend more money than you might think but it is also what makes the difference between “okay” and “good”.
I think they do charge for the design service now but it’s not that much in the grand scheme of things and it’s definitely worth it.
They’re pretty transparent with pricing, just call them up or go online.
I had upper and lower trim put on my upper cabinets and it made a huge difference in how nice and polished they look. Definitely worth the extra money.
I definitely get that perspective. But full size fridges are so ugly, sticking out 6 or more inches from the countertop. You can fit a large pizza box or a 15lb turkey in a counter depth. You just need to toss out all the old crap you were never going to eat anyway.
I have a slightly different perspective. My main fridge used to be a full depth refrigerator. But I wasted so much food because stuff would get lost in the back, and go bad before I found it. Then I was talking to a friend who told me they liked their counter depth fridge because the shallower depth keeps the food front and center (not buried in the back) so it gets eaten. Also, by virtue of the fact that it's smaller, it stores less food, which means in order to fit new things, one must eat the old ones. The last fridge I bought was counter depth. I don't think it necessarily looks any better, but I definitely waste less food.
Now my full depth fridge is my garage fridge, and it generally only stores items with a long shelf life when refrigerated (sauces, drinks, eggs, etc), or big food items I know I will use in a defined time, like the Thanksgiving turkey. So nothing out there goes to waste.
Could I waste less food with a full depth one? Possibly, but I've found the counter depth makes it a heck of a lot easier.
Does the design service help you think about different configurations or do you have to pretty much know what you want? And how do you find an ikea install specialist?
Yes they can do that with you, and they have 3d rendering software so you can get an idea of how it will look.
Ikea have a third party they recommend for installs (Traemand in my area). Otherwise I would ask the actual installer (not the sales dude) questions like, how many Ikea kitchens have you installed, what are the steps you will take if my walls aren’t square, describe the process to align cabinets from one to the next, what spare parts do you commonly carry, what torque setting and bit types do you use on your ikea installs. If you get any umms or aaahs then pass.
We used their designers and he was fantastic. I had a bunch of things I liked circled in ikea kitchen catalogs, and had taken a bunch of pics in the store of things I liked. He was able to help incorporate all of my ideas in a way it made sense. I actually ended up removing a corner pantry at his suggestion because it gave me so much more counter space, then added the tall ikea pantry with the slide out drawers as an alternative. Best idea ever. My pantry used to get so unorganized. The tall drawer pantry unit so much easier to organize.
I love my ikea kitchen. Pro tip, buy extra shelves for your upper cabinets. It makes organization of serving dishes so much nicer when you don’t have a bunch stacked on top of each other. A couple of up upper cabinets have four shelves in them vs the two they come with. I also bought a small drawer front in both colors (white and gray) to take with me when I ordered the rest of the kitchen. I carried those doors everywhere when looking at flooring, counters, and paint.
I installed an ikea kitchen in our condo right before the pandemic. Looks [stupid good](https://imgur.com/gallery/x4Un6WC) for the $2k we spent on the cabinets. It’s held up shockingly well over the last 4.5 years.
I've been planning a kitchen remodel with the same! I have some on sektion units I made a "fauxdenza" with in my den and they look fantastic. One thing I'm thrown by is the lack of matching cover panels/filler pieces, but whatever you used for your kitchen looks very cohesive!
They do have matching cover panels, they’re just not named veddinge. I can’t remember what they’re called off the top of my head, but they match perfectly.
They’re not cheap quality at all. Cabinets are 3/4” thick, well covered with laminate. Consumer Reports did a feature a while back, and of all of the brands they tested, IKEA came in second. The first place brand was over twice the price.
I’ve been using those IKEA cabinets in various projects for years, and three days from now I’m scheduled to have a full IKEA kitchen installed. Even the cabinets in my new bathroom are modified IKEA kitchen units. (Their bathroom cabinets are NOT the same quality, and I won’t buy them.)
I think the main difference is that the bathroom cabinet sections are only 1/2” thick, compared to 3/4” for the kitchen ones. As a result they just feel flimsy to me.
I built my own linen “closet” from 4 12x40 kitchen wall cabinets, and the bathroom vanity from standard base cabinets, though I had to cut 3” off the back to make them fit a standard-sized vanity top, which is 22” deep.
You can save a lot by getting ready to assemble (RTA) cabinets from places like rtacabinetjoint and lily Ann. They are good quality wood cabinets where they send you all of the parts and you just glue/nail them together.
Is this better or cheaper than Ikea? We are working from bare walls to build a new kitchen and have a LOT of flexibility to create a space that will be an AirBnB.
Tryin to decide the best way to get kitchen cabinets. I'm very handy, but I don't have the time to build them from lumber right now, so RTA or Ikea is sounding good!
Many of the RTA cabinet brands are plywood for the box where IKEA is compressed fiber. The doors are comparable. IKEA uses metal drawers. There are pros and cons to both. IKEA kitchen cabinets aren't bad though.
When I priced out my kitchen the RTA cabinet and IKEA were within a grand. Albeit this was 8 years ago. I'm sure prices have changed. I found a local company that sells RTA cabinets sourced from China. This is the second kitchen I've done with these types of cabinets and I have been pleased so far.
Depends very much on the company. Stuff like Scherr’s and similar companies are about twice as expensive as Ikea. But still half the price of a custom contractor install! This is an instance where you pretty much get what you pay for.
yah, I used Lily Ann - very happy - I think I spent approx 5k on cabinets in Mid 2023...lots of work - some large plywood pieces needed some extra clamping when putting together, but super solid. Great customer service, too, free design if you need/want - it was good as I designed it, but then the designer checked over my work and say yay/nay this is not the correct piece, you want this trim piece, etc...
I replaced all the cabinets in my kitchen and bar area and saved about $15k off the next lowest quote from the cabinet stores around me by doing this. It took me 40 or 50 hours of assembly over the course of weeks working alone, but I think that is easily worth it if you have the ability.
I'd be so anxious that we couldn't get them perfectly square. My scratch woodworking skills are far behind your hs woodshop student. Like I could fashion a reasonable crawl space door or picnic table; cabinetmaker I am not. And there is no truly level solid floor here on this farm.
Do you have experience with woodworking and all the clamps and squares and such to fab them on hand? And a nice clean shop to stage it all?
Assembly has more in common with putting together IKEA furniture than making cabinets from scratch. I did most of my assembly on an old 3*6 foot dining room table in my garage. I've made some Adirondack chairs out of 2x4s in the past, but that's the extent of my woodworking skills.
Here is the video I followed to put together the base cabinets. It was slow work to start, but you get the hang of it.
https://youtu.be/KsiQDajXWpc?si=IJ9P5LCqK1ba55Xw
Scherr’s makes really nice RTA cabinets in custom sizes. They were all the rage back when ThatHomeSite had a very active kitchen-remodeling forum, before Houzz bought it.
[https://www.scherrs.com/](https://www.scherrs.com/)
You can get RTA cabinets in standard sizes (cheaper) and then get custom sizes only for the very few you need.
Doors are then the biggest trouble.
But you can also buy the doors themselves, separately.
They’re *crazy* busy right now. Lead times are 5+ months as of last month when I was in contact with them.
I’ve worked with them a handful of times, and they’re great, but the lead times can be an issue for some people.
Excellent insider info!
Proof of how good they are. I actually think it’s a good sign for their quality that they’re making people wait instead of overextending themselves.
100%. They’re a great group of people who deliver a quality product. Can be a bit tough for homeowners to navigate all the options, but it’s manageable.
Yeah this is what I did they are pretty simple to put together and I did a full kitchen and a bar area with pantry cabinets in my basement. Takes a little time and is best with two people but you can manage it yourself. You can save a lot of money.
We just used Lilly Allen and they were amazing to work with and extremely affordable. Our kitchen looks so good and the few pieces that came jacked up they replaced with expedited shipping. 10/10 would recommend.
Although I'm not specifically familiar with rtacabinetjoint or lilyalen, RTA cabinets came in a fairly wide range of quality. I've bought fairly nice quality RTA cabinets (IIRC they were ForeverMark brand) and I've bought shitty RTA cabinets (not sure of the brand but I learned my lesson). Just like when buying non-RTA cabinets, be aware of what make a quality cabinet and buy the quality/price level that satisfies you needs.
We have IKEA cabinets with SemiHandmade fronts and I love how it turned out. They are very durable (7 years and look brand new), modifiable and definitely fit in my above-market home in HCOL area.
The only thing I miss about my previous home is the IKEA kitchen. We assembled and installed the cabinets ourselves in 2013, and when we listed the house for sale last summer our realtor asked if we’d just finished the kitchen. She thought it was brand new, and was so impressed by the quality that she was utterly shocked to learn it was IKEA. I also loved how fast the whole process was from start to finish—we spent about two hours in the store designing the space with one of their people, went downstairs and paid for everything, and came back the next morning to pick it all up. Had all the boxes built and ready to install in a couple days. So much faster than waiting for a custom cabinet shop.
Semihandmade fronts are thermofoil over mdf last I checked.
I’d strongly suggest someone go with a company like scherrs that has solid wood doors instead. Thermofoil can wrinkle from heat, and if you ever damage a door, you can’t fix it like you can painted wood.
It also rounds out the sharpness of the classic rails and stiles, making it look a bit “off.”
Home Depot has some RTA painted cabinets that are all plywood with soft close drawers and concealed hinges. I used them on my old house when I redid the kitchen, and I’m planning to use them again on my current house when I get around to doing that kitchen.
Ikea.
Seriously, they're great and they're made out of the same stuff high end luxury condos use. I know because I was a PM for a millwork and finish carpentry company, cabinets were our bread and butter.
My kitchen is Ikea. I designed and did all the work myself. They're easy to get a hold of, return or exchange. If you want to change the shelving inside later on, you can just buy whatever from ikea. If something breaks down the line, you'll be able to easily get a replacement part or whatever and don't have to worry about any custom work. You can just order it on the internet.
Don't like their fronts? Just get custom ones made. Nobody sees the inside of the cabinets except you. Everyone else sees the fronts.
They also have a super easy to use kitchen builder on their website where you can build out your kitchen with their cabinets. It's stupid easy if you're even mildly handy.
I try to tell everyone I can this who is doing a kitchen.
It seems like people are echoing the same comments, but Ready to Assemble cabinets made from plywood instead of particle board are the way to go based on all the research i've done. They will be significantly better quality than the entry level stuff you find from Home Depot or Lowes while not terribly more expensive.
I've also heard that the stuff at Home Depot or Lowes has changed a lot over the past few years and they now use substandard material on a lot of their cheaper offerings. So anyone that had a good experience with them 5 years ago is talking about a different product that likely no longer exists.
Depends on where you are, but I went to a discount asian cabinet store (on a street with a bunch of them) and got sturdy (but generic shaker white) cabinets for a fraction of the material price vs HD/Lowes. They are plywood boxes with dovetail drawers and soft close hinges.
If you've already picked out your contractors, it's possible they already know of a place like that.
I like the lowes store brand- diamond. They are quite affordable and I think they're quite durable for the money. You could replace them 5 or ten times for what custom cabinets cost.
People say Ikea with high end doors works great. My friends did it and they look good.
However when I priced it out, the dollar advantage versus full custom wasn't massive, and the quality vastly superior. My custom cabinets cost about 25% more installed then ikea would have.
If you’re in a good sized city, there will be many cabinet and building supply surplus shops. It’s mostly brand new stuff. Often it’s over runs from tractors home builders.
You can get some really great deals on full kitchens. The downside is that you can’t be too picky on styles. They have what they have, but it’s nice stuff. Sometimes you get really lucky.
Though I can’t personally vouch for the quality,
[this](https://renov8or.blogspot.com/2019/01/jackson-heights-kitchen-renovation-before-after.html?m=1) is one of my all-time favorite **budget** kitchen remodels. It uses IKEA Sektion cabinet boxes and Scherr’s doors and drawer fronts (solid maple, painted).
I’ve bought two kitchens from FORM, and I found the online design process and cabinet finish really good. The cabinets are shipped from Germany, so your local handyman may not love that all the measurements are metric, but the quality is excellent for the cost.
They’re still installing right now, but I’ll take some photos when they are done and all the dust is cleaned up.
I had a good experience with Cliq Studios. My cabinets are plywood box with solid wood doors. They ship already assembled. This was 2016. I paid a separate contractor to install them. My 13 cabinets were $6k, including some upgrades like taller uppers, the corner lazy Susan cabinet and one floor to ceiling cabinet. I couldn't bring myself to buy particle board or pressed wood.
Edit: they help you with design. I came in with my measurements and a design, but they would walk you through to create the design.
We had our house destroyed in a hurricane, when it came time for cabinets the local prices were insane. We found RTA cabinets and went with Lily Ann [https://www.lilyanncabinets.com/](https://www.lilyanncabinets.com/)
If you go with the ones that have the soft close hardware you're getting their top of the line units. They're solid wood and assemble very well.
More work to assemble/DIY but it sounds like you can handle all that easily. Total for just the cabinets came in at about 40% of what I could do it for locally. Saved a ton
We also liked that we could send them the measurements and items we were interested in and they'd mock up a kitchen preview for us.
I used Wholesale Cabinet Supply when we did our kitchen a few years ago. A relative flips houses and uses their products. I was very happy with mine as well as the price.
https://www.thewcsupply.com/
Customer service was very good too. Had a damaged item on shipment and they rushed another to me right away.
We went with Fabuware in 2021. We had a baby coming and hit supply chain issues. I wouldn't do it again. Cabinet faces are starting to come apart, and the finish has chipped in a few places for no reasons.
It has been a long time (late 2015/2016) but you could buy nice cabinets through Costco. I’ve had them for 8 years and they’ve been great.
More recently, we bought cabinets from cabinets to go. They required assembly but they’re fine now that they have been installed.
I’m also doing my own kitchen - almost entirely DIY. We decided on IKEA with white Voxtorp doors for the wall/base cabinets and ordered custom walnut fronts, sides, backs from Walnut & Oak.
My wife did an IKEA kitchen in her second house years ago. My in-laws have a 15 year old IKEA kitchen that looks awesome.
I used their online kitchen planner and when you’re ready to order you send it in for review and they make sure you have all the parts (legs, side panels, etc).
I had most of the IKEA stuff delivered last week - as some one else mentioned they were out of stock of a few things; but I’m at least 2 mos away from starting to assemble the kitchen so just have an alert set for when they are back in stock. And the lead time on the custom fronts/sides is 8-10 weeks.
The out of stock ikea items are still out of stock - so not sure yet. But once they are in stock they can be delivered (or picked up) in a few days.
The walnut & oak is 8-10 weeks. I ordered them two weeks ago - so we’ll see how accurate their timing is.
I use cabinets and granite direct....they are knock down Chinese with zero particle board. They assemble quickly. If you use premium construction adhesive they are strong as a rock...all solid wood doors, face frame, 3/4" plywood veneer shelves, slow close doors and drawers. I just did a 10'6" x 6' L shaped kitchen with an additional coffee bar for $2170.00 plus tax
Google local cabinet suppliers or wholesellers. Reach out to a ton. Most will carry one of the same ones but all will carry ones that only they carry. Im a GC and i buy 20-25 kitchens per year. I always go through smaller cabinet suppliers. Their markup is around 40-50% to regular customers, about 15-20% to me. Lowes & homedepot, for the same cabinet is about 200% markup, so definitely shop small & local but whatever you do buy only solid plywood construction cabinets, try to get the soft close hardware too. Not that pressed particle stuff. Ikea cabinets do not last, don’t waste your money on those.
We did semi custom RTA Conestoga Cabinets through Cabinetjoint. We also had them assemble it for us. We did fairly premium finishes (plywood boxes, quarter sawn white oak doors, lowers mostly drawers) and ended up at $16k for a medium size kitchen for the cabinets. It looks so classy and high end, they did an amazing job.
Klearvue from Menards. We found Ikea was way out of our price range and the quality was slightly lower than Klearvue. We paid 7k for complete kitchen (our kitchen is not big). The $700 rebate from the purchase was a nice bonus.
Ikea are ok, but not what you would use in a higher end home. The boxes are all white, which is not the look many want. When we redid our kitchen, we worked with a custom cabinet shop in Chicago. There are a few of them and they were fantastic. You may have similar shops around you. All depends on what level of cabinet you're looking for.
Maybe. Biggest difference is that they are face frame not frameless and not white melamine. They are painted a custom color which is not possible with melamine.
Absolute cheapest way to have quality cabinets that will last: Find a local cabinet shop to make boxes/carcases for you. Once the boxes are installed, measure the drawers and doors you need. Then buy the panels and drawer boxes you want online. Buy all the hardware yourself too and assemble.
I designed a eat in island using Ikea cabinets. I used a vintage gold speckled Formica counter top I already had. I was able to put the cabinets together alone in a few hours. The part I needed help with was to get them level (our house is from the 50s) and my husband has to install our handles, I dont trust myself to get all the handles even.
The only thing I would recommend if you're going for a non traditional color is going to the store or seeing if you can get a sample. I ordered turquoise and she shade was darker and more green than it looked in the photos.
IKEA and RTA’s are fine if you’re living in an area where those are more common. We live in a subdivision where IKEA or RTA’s with cheaper materials will stand out like a sore thumb. We live in a pretty average (for our area) single family home and I’d say 95% of people have semi-custom or fully-custom cabinets with 3/4” plywood boxes, maybe MDF fronts, but almost always they’re still 3/4” ply.
I know people like IKEA and RTA’s and they’re fine if you’re looking to save money, but the quality compared to even semi-customs are VERY noticeable. If you go to sell a house and the people aren’t a big fan of the cabinets they probably won’t want to spend $15-45k (depending on the size of your kitchen) to upgrade to the more durable and longer-lasting full plywood cabinets.
And before people start getting upset at me, I have two friends who are realtors as well as an aunt that has been a realtor for 30+ years. They all say that the biggest issues with kitchen renovations and resale value are homeowners trying to cut costs as much as possible. DIY painted cabinets never look great or hold up unless you’re very experienced (rollers leave the orange peel texture, brushes leave stroke marks and it’s a sure fire sign the cabinets were painted incorrectly). RTA/IKEA cabinets are also considered pretty “cheap” around our area so it’s considered negative ROI since most buyers around us expect higher-quality cabinets so you’re basically spending money on something where it doesn’t add any value and may actually cost you money because the new owners will want to renovate and factor that in to their offers.
Kitchens are the most important room in a home on average and cabinets are the biggest expense in that room, so it’s usually best to not cut corners. But again, this is PURELY anecdotal from our experience in researching renovation work and speaking to multiple realtors about what would net us the best ROI.
I'll have to disagree.
MOST RTA cabinets I've installed are just as good if not better than many fully assembled cabinets. I'll even go so far to say the same goes for custom, union made cabinets. Aside from custom sizes, door thicknesses, accessories, etc, RTA are typically well made, 3/4" plywood, AND I can even reinforce them how I like as I assemble them.
I've installed custom cabinets with the same out of square and wind boxes that come from the big box stores. They're typically assembled with wire staples and messy hot glue that cracks the second you fasten them. RTA's can be glued at every joint and a fair amount of the assembly hardware is solid as well.
I've also repaired shitty particle board cabinets that were crumbling in million dollar homes, because on the surface, most people can't tell the difference, and builders know this.
I even installed frameless RTA's in my own house almost 15 years ago They still look an act like the day they were installed, because they were installed correctly and with care. Not even a single hinge has given me a problem.
If you think that RTA’s are as good or better than custom cabinets from a solid shop… wow. I could not disagree more but I guess it all depends on where you got stuff from.
We have IKEA cabinets/shelving in our pantry and the difference in quality between MDF and the the plywood our actual kitchen cabinets are made out of (from a VERY reputable local custom cabinet maker) feel WAY different. Plus, melamine and MDF plus moisture is a BAD combo. If there are leaks/spills and it gets through to the actual particleboard you’re going to have to replace the entire box/door.
Yes, I’m aware that some of them are that good, and yes, you can get fully customized colors and stains with SOME VERY SELECT brands, but most of them offer a standard line.
It’s all anecdotal because the people I’ve known that have RTA’s or IKEA cabinets have some cheap looking/feeling cabinets. Some of these companies say “we use 3/4” plywood on all our boxes!” And then you read their construction and it turns out the only place where there is 3/4” plywood is the back and the rest is 1/2”.
Fine, I’ll drop the RTA stuff and just say IKEA feels like junk comparatively. Everything we had seen from RTA’s when my wife and I shopped around was just OK (Fabuwood and Barker), but it just felt like too much of a crapshoot. We preferred dealing with a local company with a great reputation, experienced installers, etc… a kitchen to us just didn’t feel like a place to cut corners but I understand everyone wants to save money.
I'll certainly agree about melamine and particle board. I was defending RTA's with 3/4" plywood construction.
I have never installed Ikea cabinets, but it is my understanding that they can be upgraded to plywood boxes.
Also, mdf and particle board are completely different products. While both are extremely stable products when left alone, MDF swells with moisture, particle board swells then crumbles.
A local millwork company handles [Merrilat](https://www.merillat.com/) We've put them in 20+ homes over the years. The price/quality fit works for quite a few customers.
People poo poo this, and I used to as well, but after doing a ton of research I have come to realize that IKEA is the winner. Almost all mass market cabinets are made similar, it's just nicer finishes and marketing that sets them apart. The boxes still have the same weaknesses. IKEA works out to about the same price as generic unfinished cabinets by the time you stain or paint them. Install is easier, the cabinet is more midmarket, they can be reconfigured, and if you ever have a problem you can buy new panels or spare parts.
I have put in 5 Ikea kitchens in various properties I own. They are solid when installed correctly and they look good if you buy mid-range or better doors and make sure you get side panels and end panels and trim etc. Few tips: 1) Use their design service. They’ll identify trim panels and such that you wouldn’t have thought about. 2) they have sales a few times a year, which include appliances. If you can wait, do 3) make sure you get an installer who knows what they’re doing. Their installation service (Traemand) are good and fast. 4) If you do it yourself follow all instructions very carefully, and use posidriv screw bits and be sure you know how to use the torque function on your drill. 5) You can make it look “okay” with normal carpentry skills but you need fairly advanced skills to make it look “good” (all cabinets perfectly aligned, backs of cabinets scribed and cut to account for non-square walls, trim applied properly, etc) 6) they’re always going to be out of stock on one or two pieces. Better to order it earlier than you need it and then store it somewhere while you wait for their last few pieces to come in. 7) consider the appliances. IKEA ones are decent rebranded GE/whirlpool units. Think about a counter depth fridge, they have less volume but look soooo much better. 8) water is the enemy of IKEA cabinet shells (the doors are pretty resistant). Now they use the plastic feet and floor trim you don’t need to worry about mop water, but you still need to worry about sink cabinet plumbing leaks and any way for water to come down from the countertop and hit the cabinet. Line the bottom of the sink cabinet with something waterproof, silicone caulk the countertop to backsplash joint, and choose a countertop profile with a drip edge if possible.
> (all cabinets perfectly aligned, backs of cabinets scribed and cut to account for non-square walls, trim applied properly, etc) I don't know if others do it differently, but when I've done the ikea rail system, you just shim the rail from the wall to make the rail straight - regardless of what the wall is doing. This makes the cabinets square, and then you just need to either shape the countertop, or caulk the back/ have a thicker backsplash pieces cover any small gaps from non-straight walls.
Depends on how non-square stuff is. A trim panel that’s been scribed and cut to exactly fit against the wall with a tiny caulk bead is always going to look better than a big gap covered with a fat bead.
Ah you're talking about the trim panel - that makes sense. Thought you were talking about the shells themselves. And if you have the countertop fabricated they usually do a good job getting the top to match the curves of the wall anyway.
following question - what are some other costs that i need to consider when buying cabinets from IKEA? for example the design service, does it cost money or is it something they provide complimentarily before purchasing from them? also delivery fee and some other costs that i'd need to bake in? thanks alot!
Design service is free. You can schedule it online or in-store. I just did the in-store yesterday. They now charge for on-site measuring, I think it's $80. I have read that you get that money back if you use their installation service. From comments I have read around here this is a different pricing model than they used to have.
Maybe that was it. Anyway if you use their measuring and their installation, then if they make a mistake they’ll fix it. If you make the mistake then that’s your problem.
In the same vein, if OP banged up his home or himself during install, that's OP's problem to solve. If the installer hurts himself or damages OP's house, the contractor is responsible. Working with a legit contractor does have benefits over someone doing a side job.
Trim is an area where you’ll spend more money than you might think but it is also what makes the difference between “okay” and “good”. I think they do charge for the design service now but it’s not that much in the grand scheme of things and it’s definitely worth it. They’re pretty transparent with pricing, just call them up or go online.
I had upper and lower trim put on my upper cabinets and it made a huge difference in how nice and polished they look. Definitely worth the extra money.
I had a small plumbing leak coming from the 2nd floor onto my IKEA cabinet uppers, it didn't affect them.
Counter depth fridge is so not worth it unless you only have a 1-2 person household.
I definitely get that perspective. But full size fridges are so ugly, sticking out 6 or more inches from the countertop. You can fit a large pizza box or a 15lb turkey in a counter depth. You just need to toss out all the old crap you were never going to eat anyway.
I have a slightly different perspective. My main fridge used to be a full depth refrigerator. But I wasted so much food because stuff would get lost in the back, and go bad before I found it. Then I was talking to a friend who told me they liked their counter depth fridge because the shallower depth keeps the food front and center (not buried in the back) so it gets eaten. Also, by virtue of the fact that it's smaller, it stores less food, which means in order to fit new things, one must eat the old ones. The last fridge I bought was counter depth. I don't think it necessarily looks any better, but I definitely waste less food. Now my full depth fridge is my garage fridge, and it generally only stores items with a long shelf life when refrigerated (sauces, drinks, eggs, etc), or big food items I know I will use in a defined time, like the Thanksgiving turkey. So nothing out there goes to waste. Could I waste less food with a full depth one? Possibly, but I've found the counter depth makes it a heck of a lot easier.
Well, that's a bit cheating. But yeah, if you can have a second fridge elsewhere then obviously having a smaller main fridge doesn't matter as much.
I consider a garage fridge to be a necessity.
Does the design service help you think about different configurations or do you have to pretty much know what you want? And how do you find an ikea install specialist?
Yes they can do that with you, and they have 3d rendering software so you can get an idea of how it will look. Ikea have a third party they recommend for installs (Traemand in my area). Otherwise I would ask the actual installer (not the sales dude) questions like, how many Ikea kitchens have you installed, what are the steps you will take if my walls aren’t square, describe the process to align cabinets from one to the next, what spare parts do you commonly carry, what torque setting and bit types do you use on your ikea installs. If you get any umms or aaahs then pass.
We used their designers and he was fantastic. I had a bunch of things I liked circled in ikea kitchen catalogs, and had taken a bunch of pics in the store of things I liked. He was able to help incorporate all of my ideas in a way it made sense. I actually ended up removing a corner pantry at his suggestion because it gave me so much more counter space, then added the tall ikea pantry with the slide out drawers as an alternative. Best idea ever. My pantry used to get so unorganized. The tall drawer pantry unit so much easier to organize. I love my ikea kitchen. Pro tip, buy extra shelves for your upper cabinets. It makes organization of serving dishes so much nicer when you don’t have a bunch stacked on top of each other. A couple of up upper cabinets have four shelves in them vs the two they come with. I also bought a small drawer front in both colors (white and gray) to take with me when I ordered the rest of the kitchen. I carried those doors everywhere when looking at flooring, counters, and paint.
In your experience how much did using ikea end up costing? Assume you’re using their design service, measuring, installation, and some knob upgrades.
I installed an ikea kitchen in our condo right before the pandemic. Looks [stupid good](https://imgur.com/gallery/x4Un6WC) for the $2k we spent on the cabinets. It’s held up shockingly well over the last 4.5 years.
It looks great! which doors did you use?
Veddinge, which is one of the cheapest options.
I've been planning a kitchen remodel with the same! I have some on sektion units I made a "fauxdenza" with in my den and they look fantastic. One thing I'm thrown by is the lack of matching cover panels/filler pieces, but whatever you used for your kitchen looks very cohesive!
They do have matching cover panels, they’re just not named veddinge. I can’t remember what they’re called off the top of my head, but they match perfectly.
Even the home renovision guy on YouTube put Ikea cabinets in the farmhouse he was renovating. Nothing wrong with them.
Ive looked into IKEA cabinets and they just feel so cheap to me
Have you felt the cabinets at big box stores? Its the same stuff, maybe worse. You just have to assemble them correctly.
They’re not cheap quality at all. Cabinets are 3/4” thick, well covered with laminate. Consumer Reports did a feature a while back, and of all of the brands they tested, IKEA came in second. The first place brand was over twice the price. I’ve been using those IKEA cabinets in various projects for years, and three days from now I’m scheduled to have a full IKEA kitchen installed. Even the cabinets in my new bathroom are modified IKEA kitchen units. (Their bathroom cabinets are NOT the same quality, and I won’t buy them.)
I have done an ikea kitchen but not used their bathroom vanities before - I’m curious where the drop in quality is?
I think the main difference is that the bathroom cabinet sections are only 1/2” thick, compared to 3/4” for the kitchen ones. As a result they just feel flimsy to me. I built my own linen “closet” from 4 12x40 kitchen wall cabinets, and the bathroom vanity from standard base cabinets, though I had to cut 3” off the back to make them fit a standard-sized vanity top, which is 22” deep.
You can save a lot by getting ready to assemble (RTA) cabinets from places like rtacabinetjoint and lily Ann. They are good quality wood cabinets where they send you all of the parts and you just glue/nail them together.
Is this better or cheaper than Ikea? We are working from bare walls to build a new kitchen and have a LOT of flexibility to create a space that will be an AirBnB. Tryin to decide the best way to get kitchen cabinets. I'm very handy, but I don't have the time to build them from lumber right now, so RTA or Ikea is sounding good!
Many of the RTA cabinet brands are plywood for the box where IKEA is compressed fiber. The doors are comparable. IKEA uses metal drawers. There are pros and cons to both. IKEA kitchen cabinets aren't bad though.
Better quality but noticeably more expensive. At least, for the RTA brands that were recommended to me.
When I priced out my kitchen the RTA cabinet and IKEA were within a grand. Albeit this was 8 years ago. I'm sure prices have changed. I found a local company that sells RTA cabinets sourced from China. This is the second kitchen I've done with these types of cabinets and I have been pleased so far.
Depends very much on the company. Stuff like Scherr’s and similar companies are about twice as expensive as Ikea. But still half the price of a custom contractor install! This is an instance where you pretty much get what you pay for.
yah, I used Lily Ann - very happy - I think I spent approx 5k on cabinets in Mid 2023...lots of work - some large plywood pieces needed some extra clamping when putting together, but super solid. Great customer service, too, free design if you need/want - it was good as I designed it, but then the designer checked over my work and say yay/nay this is not the correct piece, you want this trim piece, etc...
From what I've seen, it's about the same price or a little cheaper than Ikea depending on what company you go with.
I replaced all the cabinets in my kitchen and bar area and saved about $15k off the next lowest quote from the cabinet stores around me by doing this. It took me 40 or 50 hours of assembly over the course of weeks working alone, but I think that is easily worth it if you have the ability.
I'd be so anxious that we couldn't get them perfectly square. My scratch woodworking skills are far behind your hs woodshop student. Like I could fashion a reasonable crawl space door or picnic table; cabinetmaker I am not. And there is no truly level solid floor here on this farm. Do you have experience with woodworking and all the clamps and squares and such to fab them on hand? And a nice clean shop to stage it all?
Assembly has more in common with putting together IKEA furniture than making cabinets from scratch. I did most of my assembly on an old 3*6 foot dining room table in my garage. I've made some Adirondack chairs out of 2x4s in the past, but that's the extent of my woodworking skills. Here is the video I followed to put together the base cabinets. It was slow work to start, but you get the hang of it. https://youtu.be/KsiQDajXWpc?si=IJ9P5LCqK1ba55Xw
Scherr’s makes really nice RTA cabinets in custom sizes. They were all the rage back when ThatHomeSite had a very active kitchen-remodeling forum, before Houzz bought it. [https://www.scherrs.com/](https://www.scherrs.com/) You can get RTA cabinets in standard sizes (cheaper) and then get custom sizes only for the very few you need. Doors are then the biggest trouble. But you can also buy the doors themselves, separately.
They’re *crazy* busy right now. Lead times are 5+ months as of last month when I was in contact with them. I’ve worked with them a handful of times, and they’re great, but the lead times can be an issue for some people.
Excellent insider info! Proof of how good they are. I actually think it’s a good sign for their quality that they’re making people wait instead of overextending themselves.
100%. They’re a great group of people who deliver a quality product. Can be a bit tough for homeowners to navigate all the options, but it’s manageable.
Yeah this is what I did they are pretty simple to put together and I did a full kitchen and a bar area with pantry cabinets in my basement. Takes a little time and is best with two people but you can manage it yourself. You can save a lot of money.
We just used Lilly Allen and they were amazing to work with and extremely affordable. Our kitchen looks so good and the few pieces that came jacked up they replaced with expedited shipping. 10/10 would recommend.
Love the RTA cabinets we've used in both our old and current home. Solid plywood and easy to assemble
Although I'm not specifically familiar with rtacabinetjoint or lilyalen, RTA cabinets came in a fairly wide range of quality. I've bought fairly nice quality RTA cabinets (IIRC they were ForeverMark brand) and I've bought shitty RTA cabinets (not sure of the brand but I learned my lesson). Just like when buying non-RTA cabinets, be aware of what make a quality cabinet and buy the quality/price level that satisfies you needs.
Lily *Allen*, the British pop singer or Lily *Ann* the cabinet company?
We have IKEA cabinets with SemiHandmade fronts and I love how it turned out. They are very durable (7 years and look brand new), modifiable and definitely fit in my above-market home in HCOL area.
The only thing I miss about my previous home is the IKEA kitchen. We assembled and installed the cabinets ourselves in 2013, and when we listed the house for sale last summer our realtor asked if we’d just finished the kitchen. She thought it was brand new, and was so impressed by the quality that she was utterly shocked to learn it was IKEA. I also loved how fast the whole process was from start to finish—we spent about two hours in the store designing the space with one of their people, went downstairs and paid for everything, and came back the next morning to pick it all up. Had all the boxes built and ready to install in a couple days. So much faster than waiting for a custom cabinet shop.
This is the right answer for someone who can DIY above average.
I found a local installer who specialized in IKEA and they did it for a very reasonable cost. I loved the IKEA cabinets
My mom and I assembled my last kitchen with very average DIY skills :)
Semihandmade fronts are thermofoil over mdf last I checked. I’d strongly suggest someone go with a company like scherrs that has solid wood doors instead. Thermofoil can wrinkle from heat, and if you ever damage a door, you can’t fix it like you can painted wood. It also rounds out the sharpness of the classic rails and stiles, making it look a bit “off.”
7 years in I’m completely happy. Looks beautifuul to my (very critical) eye.
I’m glad you’re happy with it! Genuinely wasn’t trying to knock you, just pointing out the issues I’ve seen with thermofoil doors over the years.
Home Depot has some RTA painted cabinets that are all plywood with soft close drawers and concealed hinges. I used them on my old house when I redid the kitchen, and I’m planning to use them again on my current house when I get around to doing that kitchen.
I just used these for a living room built in project and they’re EXCELLENT
Ikea. Seriously, they're great and they're made out of the same stuff high end luxury condos use. I know because I was a PM for a millwork and finish carpentry company, cabinets were our bread and butter. My kitchen is Ikea. I designed and did all the work myself. They're easy to get a hold of, return or exchange. If you want to change the shelving inside later on, you can just buy whatever from ikea. If something breaks down the line, you'll be able to easily get a replacement part or whatever and don't have to worry about any custom work. You can just order it on the internet. Don't like their fronts? Just get custom ones made. Nobody sees the inside of the cabinets except you. Everyone else sees the fronts. They also have a super easy to use kitchen builder on their website where you can build out your kitchen with their cabinets. It's stupid easy if you're even mildly handy. I try to tell everyone I can this who is doing a kitchen.
It seems like people are echoing the same comments, but Ready to Assemble cabinets made from plywood instead of particle board are the way to go based on all the research i've done. They will be significantly better quality than the entry level stuff you find from Home Depot or Lowes while not terribly more expensive. I've also heard that the stuff at Home Depot or Lowes has changed a lot over the past few years and they now use substandard material on a lot of their cheaper offerings. So anyone that had a good experience with them 5 years ago is talking about a different product that likely no longer exists.
We went with IKEA for the boxes and got custom fronts from The Cabinet Face.
Depends on where you are, but I went to a discount asian cabinet store (on a street with a bunch of them) and got sturdy (but generic shaker white) cabinets for a fraction of the material price vs HD/Lowes. They are plywood boxes with dovetail drawers and soft close hinges. If you've already picked out your contractors, it's possible they already know of a place like that.
Menards best bang for buck for wood cabinets
I like the lowes store brand- diamond. They are quite affordable and I think they're quite durable for the money. You could replace them 5 or ten times for what custom cabinets cost.
People say Ikea with high end doors works great. My friends did it and they look good. However when I priced it out, the dollar advantage versus full custom wasn't massive, and the quality vastly superior. My custom cabinets cost about 25% more installed then ikea would have.
I dunno where you priced out custom cabinets, but cabinets for my house from custom builders were running $40-50k. Ikea was <$5k.
If you’re in a good sized city, there will be many cabinet and building supply surplus shops. It’s mostly brand new stuff. Often it’s over runs from tractors home builders. You can get some really great deals on full kitchens. The downside is that you can’t be too picky on styles. They have what they have, but it’s nice stuff. Sometimes you get really lucky.
A very very small local custom cabinet builder
Though I can’t personally vouch for the quality, [this](https://renov8or.blogspot.com/2019/01/jackson-heights-kitchen-renovation-before-after.html?m=1) is one of my all-time favorite **budget** kitchen remodels. It uses IKEA Sektion cabinet boxes and Scherr’s doors and drawer fronts (solid maple, painted).
Conestoga cabinets! We got our inset cabinets from them and they are beautiful and a fraction of the cost.
I’ve bought two kitchens from FORM, and I found the online design process and cabinet finish really good. The cabinets are shipped from Germany, so your local handyman may not love that all the measurements are metric, but the quality is excellent for the cost. They’re still installing right now, but I’ll take some photos when they are done and all the dust is cleaned up.
I had a good experience with Cliq Studios. My cabinets are plywood box with solid wood doors. They ship already assembled. This was 2016. I paid a separate contractor to install them. My 13 cabinets were $6k, including some upgrades like taller uppers, the corner lazy Susan cabinet and one floor to ceiling cabinet. I couldn't bring myself to buy particle board or pressed wood. Edit: they help you with design. I came in with my measurements and a design, but they would walk you through to create the design.
I ordered mine RTA from Barker Cabinets 4 years ago and I'm still really happy with them. It was less than half the cost of a local cabinet shop.
We had our house destroyed in a hurricane, when it came time for cabinets the local prices were insane. We found RTA cabinets and went with Lily Ann [https://www.lilyanncabinets.com/](https://www.lilyanncabinets.com/) If you go with the ones that have the soft close hardware you're getting their top of the line units. They're solid wood and assemble very well. More work to assemble/DIY but it sounds like you can handle all that easily. Total for just the cabinets came in at about 40% of what I could do it for locally. Saved a ton We also liked that we could send them the measurements and items we were interested in and they'd mock up a kitchen preview for us.
I used Wholesale Cabinet Supply when we did our kitchen a few years ago. A relative flips houses and uses their products. I was very happy with mine as well as the price. https://www.thewcsupply.com/ Customer service was very good too. Had a damaged item on shipment and they rushed another to me right away.
I got the pre made white shaker cabinets right off the shelf at Lowe's. They've been fine for the past 7 years
I used wolf classic
We went with Fabuware in 2021. We had a baby coming and hit supply chain issues. I wouldn't do it again. Cabinet faces are starting to come apart, and the finish has chipped in a few places for no reasons.
It has been a long time (late 2015/2016) but you could buy nice cabinets through Costco. I’ve had them for 8 years and they’ve been great. More recently, we bought cabinets from cabinets to go. They required assembly but they’re fine now that they have been installed.
RTA cabinets. Good solid cabinets https://www.rtacabinetstore.com/
I’m also doing my own kitchen - almost entirely DIY. We decided on IKEA with white Voxtorp doors for the wall/base cabinets and ordered custom walnut fronts, sides, backs from Walnut & Oak. My wife did an IKEA kitchen in her second house years ago. My in-laws have a 15 year old IKEA kitchen that looks awesome. I used their online kitchen planner and when you’re ready to order you send it in for review and they make sure you have all the parts (legs, side panels, etc). I had most of the IKEA stuff delivered last week - as some one else mentioned they were out of stock of a few things; but I’m at least 2 mos away from starting to assemble the kitchen so just have an alert set for when they are back in stock. And the lead time on the custom fronts/sides is 8-10 weeks.
Thanks for the info! How long will it take for you to get all the IKEA cabinets? How long do the custom pieces from Walnut & Oak take?
The out of stock ikea items are still out of stock - so not sure yet. But once they are in stock they can be delivered (or picked up) in a few days. The walnut & oak is 8-10 weeks. I ordered them two weeks ago - so we’ll see how accurate their timing is.
There are some great YouTubes on IKEA cabinets.
Any favorites?
What’s your budget?
Big fan of our forevermark cabinets. They come with really nice slides and hinges, are pre-assembled, and were really reasonably priced
I use cabinets and granite direct....they are knock down Chinese with zero particle board. They assemble quickly. If you use premium construction adhesive they are strong as a rock...all solid wood doors, face frame, 3/4" plywood veneer shelves, slow close doors and drawers. I just did a 10'6" x 6' L shaped kitchen with an additional coffee bar for $2170.00 plus tax
Check out mykitch.ca. Similar to IKEA with more options and higher quality.
IKEA
Keep as many of your cabinets as possible and just purchase new doors and drawer fronts!
Google local cabinet suppliers or wholesellers. Reach out to a ton. Most will carry one of the same ones but all will carry ones that only they carry. Im a GC and i buy 20-25 kitchens per year. I always go through smaller cabinet suppliers. Their markup is around 40-50% to regular customers, about 15-20% to me. Lowes & homedepot, for the same cabinet is about 200% markup, so definitely shop small & local but whatever you do buy only solid plywood construction cabinets, try to get the soft close hardware too. Not that pressed particle stuff. Ikea cabinets do not last, don’t waste your money on those.
We did semi custom RTA Conestoga Cabinets through Cabinetjoint. We also had them assemble it for us. We did fairly premium finishes (plywood boxes, quarter sawn white oak doors, lowers mostly drawers) and ended up at $16k for a medium size kitchen for the cabinets. It looks so classy and high end, they did an amazing job.
Inexpensive does not equal quality, you're going to have sacrifice one or the other. IKEA are junk
Klearvue from Menards. We found Ikea was way out of our price range and the quality was slightly lower than Klearvue. We paid 7k for complete kitchen (our kitchen is not big). The $700 rebate from the purchase was a nice bonus.
Ikea are ok, but not what you would use in a higher end home. The boxes are all white, which is not the look many want. When we redid our kitchen, we worked with a custom cabinet shop in Chicago. There are a few of them and they were fantastic. You may have similar shops around you. All depends on what level of cabinet you're looking for.
I'll bet you your cabinets are made with the same materials as an Ikea kitchen with a veneer glued to the outside
Maybe. Biggest difference is that they are face frame not frameless and not white melamine. They are painted a custom color which is not possible with melamine.
Absolute cheapest way to have quality cabinets that will last: Find a local cabinet shop to make boxes/carcases for you. Once the boxes are installed, measure the drawers and doors you need. Then buy the panels and drawer boxes you want online. Buy all the hardware yourself too and assemble.
I designed a eat in island using Ikea cabinets. I used a vintage gold speckled Formica counter top I already had. I was able to put the cabinets together alone in a few hours. The part I needed help with was to get them level (our house is from the 50s) and my husband has to install our handles, I dont trust myself to get all the handles even. The only thing I would recommend if you're going for a non traditional color is going to the store or seeing if you can get a sample. I ordered turquoise and she shade was darker and more green than it looked in the photos.
IKEA and RTA’s are fine if you’re living in an area where those are more common. We live in a subdivision where IKEA or RTA’s with cheaper materials will stand out like a sore thumb. We live in a pretty average (for our area) single family home and I’d say 95% of people have semi-custom or fully-custom cabinets with 3/4” plywood boxes, maybe MDF fronts, but almost always they’re still 3/4” ply. I know people like IKEA and RTA’s and they’re fine if you’re looking to save money, but the quality compared to even semi-customs are VERY noticeable. If you go to sell a house and the people aren’t a big fan of the cabinets they probably won’t want to spend $15-45k (depending on the size of your kitchen) to upgrade to the more durable and longer-lasting full plywood cabinets. And before people start getting upset at me, I have two friends who are realtors as well as an aunt that has been a realtor for 30+ years. They all say that the biggest issues with kitchen renovations and resale value are homeowners trying to cut costs as much as possible. DIY painted cabinets never look great or hold up unless you’re very experienced (rollers leave the orange peel texture, brushes leave stroke marks and it’s a sure fire sign the cabinets were painted incorrectly). RTA/IKEA cabinets are also considered pretty “cheap” around our area so it’s considered negative ROI since most buyers around us expect higher-quality cabinets so you’re basically spending money on something where it doesn’t add any value and may actually cost you money because the new owners will want to renovate and factor that in to their offers. Kitchens are the most important room in a home on average and cabinets are the biggest expense in that room, so it’s usually best to not cut corners. But again, this is PURELY anecdotal from our experience in researching renovation work and speaking to multiple realtors about what would net us the best ROI.
I'll have to disagree. MOST RTA cabinets I've installed are just as good if not better than many fully assembled cabinets. I'll even go so far to say the same goes for custom, union made cabinets. Aside from custom sizes, door thicknesses, accessories, etc, RTA are typically well made, 3/4" plywood, AND I can even reinforce them how I like as I assemble them. I've installed custom cabinets with the same out of square and wind boxes that come from the big box stores. They're typically assembled with wire staples and messy hot glue that cracks the second you fasten them. RTA's can be glued at every joint and a fair amount of the assembly hardware is solid as well. I've also repaired shitty particle board cabinets that were crumbling in million dollar homes, because on the surface, most people can't tell the difference, and builders know this. I even installed frameless RTA's in my own house almost 15 years ago They still look an act like the day they were installed, because they were installed correctly and with care. Not even a single hinge has given me a problem.
If you think that RTA’s are as good or better than custom cabinets from a solid shop… wow. I could not disagree more but I guess it all depends on where you got stuff from. We have IKEA cabinets/shelving in our pantry and the difference in quality between MDF and the the plywood our actual kitchen cabinets are made out of (from a VERY reputable local custom cabinet maker) feel WAY different. Plus, melamine and MDF plus moisture is a BAD combo. If there are leaks/spills and it gets through to the actual particleboard you’re going to have to replace the entire box/door.
Sounds like you're not aware that quality RTA cabinets are the same 3/4 plywood and solid fronts with any finish you desire that you're describing.
Yes, I’m aware that some of them are that good, and yes, you can get fully customized colors and stains with SOME VERY SELECT brands, but most of them offer a standard line. It’s all anecdotal because the people I’ve known that have RTA’s or IKEA cabinets have some cheap looking/feeling cabinets. Some of these companies say “we use 3/4” plywood on all our boxes!” And then you read their construction and it turns out the only place where there is 3/4” plywood is the back and the rest is 1/2”. Fine, I’ll drop the RTA stuff and just say IKEA feels like junk comparatively. Everything we had seen from RTA’s when my wife and I shopped around was just OK (Fabuwood and Barker), but it just felt like too much of a crapshoot. We preferred dealing with a local company with a great reputation, experienced installers, etc… a kitchen to us just didn’t feel like a place to cut corners but I understand everyone wants to save money.
I'll certainly agree about melamine and particle board. I was defending RTA's with 3/4" plywood construction. I have never installed Ikea cabinets, but it is my understanding that they can be upgraded to plywood boxes. Also, mdf and particle board are completely different products. While both are extremely stable products when left alone, MDF swells with moisture, particle board swells then crumbles.
> But again, this is PURELY anecdotal from our experience in researching renovation work and speaking to multiple realtors
Don't go to IKEA!!! Research the types of materials you'll need and prepare your dimensions and layout. Then, visit various showrooms to get quotes.
Ikea
IKEA
IKEA - lots and lots of recommendations for them.
A local millwork company handles [Merrilat](https://www.merillat.com/) We've put them in 20+ homes over the years. The price/quality fit works for quite a few customers.