ᐅ IKEA Kitchen Quality and User Experiences?

Created on: 22 Mar 2016 10:35
N
niccibran
Hello everyone,

as the question suggests, I find it surprising that IKEA kitchens are quite affordable. How is the workmanship, meaning the quality? And what about the IKEA hinges? Do IKEA kitchens last a long time?

Best regards
L
Legurit
3 Sep 2016 09:02
Pino, Nobilia? Difficult... they always or often sell with delivery and installation included.
Neige3 Sep 2016 11:07
Curly schrieb:
What I like about IKEA is that you can clearly see exactly how much everything costs. This way, you can carefully consider whether the extra cost is worth it or not.

But then you don’t get any information about the quality.
daniels87 schrieb:
Which product lines would be better than IKEA, for example?

A counterquestion: What exactly does IKEA do well? Is it the quality of the fittings, the materials used, or the surface finishes?

As mentioned before, kitchen manufacturers like Nolte, Nobilia, Alno, and others also offer affordable product lines and are more flexible, which means kitchens are made to order. IKEA, on the other hand, produces in mass quantities. They build parts that customers have to work with, as is.
RobsonMKK3 Sep 2016 11:34
Who do you think will supply the fittings for Ikea kitchens?
And if flexibility is important, then the price will be completely different. Even kitchen manufacturers can only produce their low-cost series in large quantities.
P
Payday
3 Sep 2016 13:08
There are only 3 or 4 companies providing hardware anyway ^^

The cabinet components don’t really determine the price in regular kitchen construction. These are usually made of particleboard, and no one can really charge exorbitant prices for them. The money is made on the electrical appliances, which are subject to huge discounts online (MSRP 2500, sold online for 900). And of course, the fronts, which cost money depending on the design.

The cheapest and best kitchen can be obtained by:

- ordering the electrical appliances online yourself
- sourcing cabinet components elsewhere, e.g., IKEA or whoever sells the units individually
- getting fronts directly from a carpenter
- buying hardware directly from the manufacturer or a wholesaler (or through the carpenter)
- ordering the countertop directly from a stonemason (if you want granite / these are the people who sell gravestones...) or a carpenter, or even buying simple shapes from a hardware store
- ordering other items like handles, sink + faucet, waste sorting system online (these cost about 30-50% of the MSRP there)
- doing the assembly yourself

Every middle step adds extra costs. The granite countertop from the kitchen builder costs twice as much as buying it directly, even if the kitchen builder orders it from the same place. Hardware that costs 10 cents is sold as a luxury item for 20 because some 1-cent spring dampens something, etc.
A kitchen costing €15,000 (after discounts in the kitchen studio) can quickly become a €7,000–8,000 kitchen this way.
The problem is clearly that you have to do everything yourself and some planning is required.
L
Legurit
3 Sep 2016 13:17
By the way, electrical appliances on the internet are not always significantly cheaper... in the case of our range hood, it was actually more expensive. Apart from that, through exchanging devices during the quotation process, we found that the price markups at the more reputable studios are moderate... (I had also thought at one point that they always charge the list price or something like that).
RobsonMKK3 Sep 2016 13:54
@Payday That’s exactly what I meant regarding the fittings. They include Hettich, Grass, and two others.