ᐅ Ordering a handleless kitchen involves an additional charge.

... Everyone wants Jerome :-)

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You definitely have a talent for writing, very entertaining to read. Best regards, Steffi.

Thank you for the great report.

Curly, are you talking about me? Yes, with the Skinande dishwasher, induction cooktop, oven, and the cheapest microwave, plus a mid-range extractor hood, and no refrigerator—it should stand alone. We have a tall, bulky silver one like that.

Alex85 schrieb:
Buying a kitchen always comes with this amateurish drama about supposed birthday discounts, manager discounts (I’ll step out for a smoke and then the offer gets cheaper), and similar tactics. In the end, it wastes a lot of time on both sides and you still feel like you got a bad deal.
That’s why we like IKEA. Clear products, clear prices. But of course, it has to look right, and IKEA doesn’t offer every little fancy option.

I completely agree. In the end, kitchens are basically all the same. The cabinet boxes in a $40,000 kitchen are made from the “same” particleboard panels as the cheap budget kitchens. The big price differences come from the appliances—Constructa versus Miele, for example—and, of course, the cabinet fronts, ranging from simple ones to rare real wood veneers.
What’s nice about IKEA is that you can skip the ridiculous haggling. Essentially, the only real bargaining is on the appliance prices (from the manufacturer’s suggested retail price down to online prices), while the cabinet prices are almost fixed.
When you buy cabinets from IKEA, you pay pretty much the same for the cabinets as you would from a professional kitchen installer. Then you get the appliances online and find the best possible discounts that any local dealer would offer after multiple discussions with their manager (minus assembly fees). Most appliances just plug into a socket, which anyone can handle ^^ For the stove, you ask someone with basic handyman skills (it’s not rocket science either).
IKEA + online appliances + DIY assembly = maximum efficiency without discount battles and lack of transparency.

You just have to like IKEA parts… otherwise, you’re stuck in the discount wars.

In the end, we decided to go with Ikea. With the help of a carpenter friend and a handy friend, we installed everything ourselves – it went smoothly. Ikea appliances are decent; the refrigerator is a bit noisier than expected, but it’s still completely manageable. We spent about 5,200 EUR (around $5,600) on furniture and appliances, plus 800 EUR (around $860) for assembly as described, which took six full person-days. Doing the assembly alone would have been almost impossible (especially due to the heavy lifting and holding tasks involved). For reference, having Ikea do the assembly would have cost about 1,800 EUR (about $1,950).

Now we are enjoying our kitchen...