ᐅ The Right Time to Plan Your Kitchen in a New Build?

Hello,

ypg schrieb:

I wouldn’t recommend IKEA, as the effort required to assemble it yourself is quite high, but having it assembled professionally is rather expensive. Afterwards, there is no warranty for defects, and with appliances, you are not very flexible—you have to take the refrigerator from IKEA.
The interior fittings don’t last long and tend to be flimsy, aligning the drawers is tedious, and the wall cabinets have mounting hooks that annoy every carpenter, let alone a DIYer. So, you don’t really save much in the end...

I am very reluctant to disagree with you, but in this case, I have no choice.

A few years ago, I also faced the problem of getting a new kitchen—every offer turned out to be quite expensive "bargains" in retrospect. Then a good friend suggested trying the Swedish store. With the same prejudices as you and mostly due to the friend's persistent urging, we went to the furniture store and were quite surprised. I was even more so—because it was one of those rare occasions when the best husband in the world behaved like a classic housewife. Drawers were opened and closed, doors put through stress tests, etc.

We actually put together and bought the kitchen cabinets but without appliances. The stuff they offer in that category wasn’t and still isn’t for me; we later purchased branded appliances from a specialist retailer.

My conclusion: I wouldn’t assemble the kitchen myself again—not because it’s as fiddly as you described, but it is definitely time-consuming if you’re not a carpenter. However, I would buy the cabinets from the Swedish store again anytime! Overall, our kitchen cost us about EUR 6,000 less than a comparable branded kitchen, and despite two moves in the meantime, the cabinets have held up well and remain as sturdy as ever.

Regards, Bauexperte

Bauexperte schrieb:
Hello,
I am reluctant to disagree with you, but in this case, I have no other choice.

But that's okay! Everyone has different experiences, and readers can decide for themselves.

I also love my kitchen wall cabinets from Ikea (they probably have a different mounting system since I didn’t hear my husband curse at the time), but not my drawers ;( The dark wood finish is no longer available, but buying it from a specialist store would have definitely cost four times as much...
I’m also the type of person who enjoys assembling an Ikea shelf/cabinet/furniture and regularly finds an excuse to visit the store , while others reject Ikea designs and only talk about cheap particleboard furniture.
By the way, there is an Ikea forum where the kitchen topic is discussed in detail

ypg schrieb:
That really interests me now.
Did you improvise or possibly modify something, or was it straightforward: fridge in fridge cabinet?

No, we didn’t modify anything. We measured the niche dimensions and simply installed a fridge from Quelle (they still existed back then ). Attaching the overlay hinges to the door was not a problem at all.

We have now decided on a small kitchen studio.
We didn’t go to IKEA at all. The assembling was just too complicated for us.
So, we visited a smaller chain (Küchenshow in Sieg) once again, and the price came to around €15,000.
For the same service, we have to pay €10,800 at the small kitchen studio.

Anirbas schrieb:
We have now decided on a small kitchen studio.
We didn’t even visit IKEA anymore. Putting it together felt way too complicated for us.
So we went to a smaller chain again (Küchenshow in Sieg), where the price came to around €15,000.
For the same scope, the small kitchen studio charges us €10,800.

We also planned our kitchen after the floor plan was finalized—one partition wall has since been removed and a door relocated. Since we have an island, IKEA was not an option—the countertops at IKEA are standard depth, so either you have to order the worktop elsewhere or accept a seam, which is unacceptable for me as an avid cook.
We have visited three kitchen studios so far and will probably go with the custom kitchen maker—they are the most affordable, and the granite countertop comes in one solid piece, which is not the case with the big furniture stores, among other things.

That said, I have to add that we are probably aiming for upper-tier appliances and fixtures.
I’ve also built IKEA kitchens before, and compared to a proper kitchen, there are significant differences in the hinges, fronts, and so on. For example, the wall cabinet with a carousel is a nightmare to assemble! The door hinges are designed in such a way that adjusting them takes much more time than with other manufacturers in the same price range…

We found what we were looking for at Möbel Buhl.
The same kitchen that Küchen Aktuell also offered us—just nearly €3000 cheaper.