If you’re planning a kitchen renovation, or just some updates, and are on a budget you likely have considered Ikea. After struggling through supply shortages and long wait times, we finished our renovations the end of Summer 2021, so I’m here to give a review of both the product itself and the process we encountered during this crazy time.

I know Ikea is still experiencing some supply chain issues, so I wanted to give a full breakdown for more context. I broke this up into two categories – cabinets and countertops/sink. If you’re just looking for the quick overview of how we feel about the actual product, feel free to skip to the end!

Disclosure – This post contains affiliate links that I may earn a small commission on with no additional cost to you.

Ikea Kitchen Review : Cabinets

Pros

Obviously, they’re significantly more affordable than custom cabinets. A huge pro if you’re on a budget. But are they any good?

When I was a teen my parents renovated a house and went with Ikea cabinets to keep costs low. With 4 teenagers in the house heavily using the kitchen I saw first hand that they could withstand a beating. They still looked brand new when they sold the house. My mom was so impressed that she went with an Ikea kitchen again in their next house. With that experience I knew I didn’t need to worry about them falling apart a few years in.

Having an older home I wanted to keep things more traditional to feel cohesive with our house. They have a mix of modern and more traditional looks, so you likely can find something that will work. We went with the AKSTAD cabinet fronts. They are a simple shaker look that feels a little more historic so I knew they would feel right with our house.

Cons

Do I have to say it? Putting them together is not a walk in the park. Most of it isn’t hard and can be done while re-watching The Office for the 100th time, but the worst part comes at the end. Once you get them in you have to adjust them to sit right and it can be incredibly frustrating. We tag teamed this. I would put them in and do my best to get them adjusted, then my husband would take over and get them just right.

Another small con is that because they’re made to customize the cabinets have tons of pre-drilled holes. To me, this wasn’t a big deal, we weren’t going with any open or glass front cabinets, so all those holes would be hidden behind doors. However, I’ve seen some people go to lengths to fill in all of these holes in cabinets with glass fronts. Something to keep in mind when planning out.

If you have a tight space, your choice of cabinets might be super limited. While they have tons and tons of options, in certain sizes there may only be one or two. In order to get our kitchen puzzle to work we ended up going with a lazy Susan corner cabinet, which we didn’t want (but we actually like, so hey it all worked out).

And that takes up to the last “con” the planning process. It’s not terrible, but it definitely can drive you mad using that planner. Read on for the full planning process.

The Process : Planning

Planning your kitchen yourself is not “easy” so you want to leave yourself plenty of time to get it done. I spent hours figuring out the best configuration for our space.

If, like us, you’re working with limited space that might mean you’re limited on which types of cabinets you can put where. The kitchen planner tool is like playing high steaks Tetris, and sometimes you have to keep trying until you find that magical piece that makes it all work.

Once I was fairly confident in my design I used the phone consultation service. I simply just wanted a second pair of eyes to make sure it all looked right and I hadn’t missed anything. The person I worked with on the phone was incredibly kind and helpful. They didn’t change any of my designs, but were able to fix a few things I struggled with (I couldn’t get the kick plates to show up no matter what I dad! agh!).

The Process :Ordering the Cabinets

This is where things started to get funky. We placed the bulk of our kitchen order on 3/2/21. There had been shortages the past year of of the pandemic but things seemed to be starting to get re-stocked so we felt good. We were able to get about 80% of what we needed in that first order, but there were a few major pieces we knew we would need to track down.

The first order was delivered within a few weeks right to our house. With such a big order it was definitely worth the extra charge to get it delivered as we would have had to rent a moving truck otherwise.

Getting the remaining cabinets is where things got interesting. I had a list of the item numbers we were hunting down and I would go on the website every morning to see if any semi-local stores got them in stock. We were able to round up most of them within the next month. We were just left hunting 2 that never were restocked within 100 miles of us.

It seemed there was a second big wave of supply shortages that our area was getting hit with. We realized we were going to have to get creative if we wanted to finish our kitchen. We have a family member who lives in south Florida and we noticed our missing cabinets were in stock at their local store. My husband was planning a visit anyway, so he ended up picking up the cabinets at that Florida store and shipping them back to New Jersey. Not a cheap solution, but we likely would have had to wait months if we didn’t pull the trigger.

Customization Tip : Hardware

Ikea does have some fun modern hardware to choose from (I love the leather pulls!). But overall their options for hardware are fairly limited. I did initially buy some of the Ikea hardware, but ended up returning it and going with these pulls from Amazon. Hardware is a great place to maybe splurge just a tiny bit as it can make those basic Ikea cabinets look a little more custom.

From Amazon, I also ordered this hardware template and was happy I did. It makes the process of lining up your drill holes so much easier.

Ikea Kitchen Review : Sink + Countertops

Apron Front Sink

After looking at several farmhouse sink styles from we went with the Ikea HAVSEN Apron Front Double Bowl Sink. Ikea’s price was significantly lower, so we decided to just go for it.

Pros

While it doesn’t have that super deep look of most farmhouse sinks, I actually really like the physical depth. It isn’t too deep where you break your back bending over it, but it’s not shallow like our old sink, which would leave you soaked in water after doing dishes.

I haven’t had any trouble with cracks on chipping (although I use these sink grates, just to be extra careful).

Cons

I honestly think the only “con” in my opinion is the visual depth. If you’re dead set on having that super deep farmhouse style look, this doesn’t have quite the same impact. I honestly like that it’s not too farmhouse-y and the price just couldn’t be beat.

Our faucet is another Amazon find! I love how tall it is. I’m able to easily fit huge pots in the sink to fill up with no problem (I’ve even fit one of those Home Depot orange buckets!).

Ikea Quartz Countertops

Pros

Although I’ve never personally had quartz from another retailer, in my view these feel just as high quality as any other quartz counters I’ve seen. Despite my personal experience with ordering (see below) I think in general it’s a fairly streamline process. Ikea subcontracts with local companies to do the quartz and everyone we dealt with from that company was nice and accommodating.

Cons

Like I mentioned, the process I experienced with ordering was a little wonky. I chalk this up to bad timing (both supply chain timing, as well as the day and time of the week I went in to order). We have nothing but good things to say about the quality of the product.

The Process : Ordering

Once we had all of the cabinets installed I made the trek to Ikea to order the countertops. We went with the KASKER Off-white Marble Effect (level 2). Ordering them was a bit of a headache. I came prepared with all the specifics, but halfway through the process the associate helping me needed to clock out. They had to call in another associate who had never worked in the kitchen department. She was incredibly nice and we got through it, but it easily doubled the amount of time simply due to her not being familiar with the process. For something like this I would highly recommend going at a quieter time if you can make it work.

The Process : Template and Installation

I believe it was about 2 weeks before the quartz subcontractor came out to make a template for the quartz. The gentleman who came was very nice and was done in a little less than an hour. We showed him the edge we wanted from one of the samples. Apparently they didn’t normally do that type of edge (despite being one of the samples we were sent by ikea), but he was able to put in a special request for us.

We were told they would contact us when the counters were ready, usually about a week. Two weeks went by, I finally called and was told they had been sitting ready just waiting for us to call. No big deal, but something to keep in mind if you find yourself waiting!

Unfortunately, by the time I got them on the phone they were pretty backed up so we ended up with an installation date a month out. When the day finally came everything went pretty smooth. It took about 2 hours for them to install everything. Keep in mind they cut the holes for any plumbing fixtures but they don’t install them.

Final Thoughts

Overall I’m really happy with the cabinets, sink, and countertops. While I would have loved to go with a more custom color or shape of cabinet doors, I’m really happy with ours for the price. People point out that the white cabinets are hard to keep clean. Yes, they show dirt more obviously, but the Ikea cabinets are super easy to clean. What doesn’t come out with daily cleaner will wipe right up with a magic eraser no problem.

When we considered getting the quartz countertops from Ikea I had trouble finding many reviews or articles about them. Even though the countertops were the biggest splurge (at around $3k) I have no regrets. They feel high quality and they clean up really nicely. My parents kitchen had the Ikea butcher block counters, which I remember feeling like it was a hassle to keep clean and properly sealed. I love our quartz!

The sink does the job and I’d recommend it. It’s not a super fancy sink, but for the price I think the size and quality are well worth it when compared to the prices of similar styles out there.

If you’re looking to save a little bit of money, I say Ikea kitchens are the way to go. It’s not always a super smooth or quick process, but the quality for the price feels worth the little extra hassle in my opinion.

2023 Update

It has now been nearly two years since we installed our Ikea kitchen and we are still overall really happy with it! The quartz countertops have continued to hold up well and I haven’t had any issues with staining. I regularly give my cabinet fronts a quick wipe down which is plenty to keep them clean and looking good! A magic eraser has been plenty to take care of any tough stains on the cabinets.

I am not sure what the current supply chain looks like or whether it’s still difficult to get cabinets. The only thing I might do different now would be to look at more countertop options outside of Ikea. We are definitely happy with ours, but at the time with how bad supply chain issues were it felt like it was just easiest to stick with Ikea and I didn’t get quotes from anyone else. If you’re currently looking I would suggest doing some research and maybe getting quotes from a few local places as well!

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