How much did your IKEA kitchen cost or is there another affordable way to renovate?

[Anonymous]

Contemplating an update and want to keep costs under control...curious about costs - if you are willing to share, what size was your kitchen and what did you spend on material and labor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Contemplating an update and want to keep costs under control...curious about costs - if you are willing to share, what size was your kitchen and what did you spend on material and labor?

We just finished our IKEA reno of a 10x15 kitchen. Simple white slab cabinets and the Barkaboda walnut herringbone countertop (it's gorgeous but I'm still somewhat skeptical about long-range durability). Appliances were somewhat basic but not bare bones (slide-in range, Blomberg dishwasher, nicer white fridge). We have no delusions of this being a premium kitchen, but when we bought the house the kitchen was unusable, with the cabinets pulling away from the wall and mouse-eaten, range and refrigerator just functional enough to count for conventional financing but functionally inoperable, and a giant section of the ceiling missing. So we had to do something fast, and decided we'd try and do a total renovation for $10k. Hence, IKEA. My ballpark breakdown of costs is:

$3k- cabinets, countertop, hardware, sink (all from IKEA)
$1.5k- rewiring, replacing all outlets with GFCI, adding 2 new circuits
$500- minor gas line relocation and plumbing repairs to existing sink infrastructure
$2.5k- new appliances and range hood
$1k- new drywall for the ceiling and one wall that looked like swiss cheese after all of the electrical work
$500- assorted incidentals, adhesives, paint, tools, etc...

We built all of the cabinets and installed them and the countertop ourselves. We got the flooring for free from a friend in the industry and installed that ourselves as well. Did the demo ourselves as well, and staggered the existing kitchen debris into 2 bulk trash pickups from the city (DC- they claim they don't take cabinets but they have for us and all of our friends who have done the same so YMMV). We still need to buy and install the tile backsplash and do some minor trimwork to give the room a more completed look, and figure that we'll spend another $500 in the process, when all is said and done.

As for IKEA versus other low-cost options, we priced out going with the basic white shaker cabinets that you can pickup at Lowe's or HD. Not really the look we were going for but wanted to do our due diligence. Price came out to be about the same, but the quality (particularly of the hardware), range of options, modularity and customization from IKEA blew the big box stores out of the water. That being said, IKEA cabinets are super labor intensive, and a PITA to install- the system is paradoxically straight forward but also complicated, and I think that if you hired that part of it out the install costs will be higher by a not insignificant amount.

[Anonymous]

We spent $5k at Ikea for the cabinets (and related hardware) at Ikea for our kitchen which is roughly two 10+ foot sides plus a 7ish foot peninsula.

Contractor charged a couple thousand for installation. However he did a lot of work not just in assembly but a lot of panel cutting to make the kitchen look more finished and polished, put in crown moulding at the top so that everything looked floor to ceiling, custom built a wine shelf to fill a weird space.

Another couple of thousand for quartz countertops which we purchased for less per square foot than Ikea pricing thanks to the contractor having a relationship with a local company and granting us his discount.

We reused our fridge and dishwasher, purchased a new range/hood and microwave

I would do it again, but I will say I was very happy to use a contractor who was familiar with Ikea ordering and his project manager was very familiar with assembly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We spent $5k at Ikea for the cabinets (and related hardware) at Ikea for our kitchen which is roughly two 10+ foot sides plus a 7ish foot peninsula.

Contractor charged a couple thousand for installation. However he did a lot of work not just in assembly but a lot of panel cutting to make the kitchen look more finished and polished, put in crown moulding at the top so that everything looked floor to ceiling, custom built a wine shelf to fill a weird space.

Another couple of thousand for quartz countertops which we purchased for less per square foot than Ikea pricing thanks to the contractor having a relationship with a local company and granting us his discount.

We reused our fridge and dishwasher, purchased a new range/hood and microwave

I would do it again, but I will say I was very happy to use a contractor who was familiar with Ikea ordering and his project manager was very familiar with assembly.

Can you share the contractor you used? Thanks!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Contemplating an update and want to keep costs under control...curious about costs - if you are willing to share, what size was your kitchen and what did you spend on material and labor?

We just finished our IKEA reno of a 10x15 kitchen. Simple white slab cabinets and the Barkaboda walnut herringbone countertop (it's gorgeous but I'm still somewhat skeptical about long-range durability). Appliances were somewhat basic but not bare bones (slide-in range, Blomberg dishwasher, nicer white fridge). We have no delusions of this being a premium kitchen, but when we bought the house the kitchen was unusable, with the cabinets pulling away from the wall and mouse-eaten, range and refrigerator just functional enough to count for conventional financing but functionally inoperable, and a giant section of the ceiling missing. So we had to do something fast, and decided we'd try and do a total renovation for $10k. Hence, IKEA. My ballpark breakdown of costs is:

$3k- cabinets, countertop, hardware, sink (all from IKEA)
$1.5k- rewiring, replacing all outlets with GFCI, adding 2 new circuits
$500- minor gas line relocation and plumbing repairs to existing sink infrastructure
$2.5k- new appliances and range hood
$1k- new drywall for the ceiling and one wall that looked like swiss cheese after all of the electrical work
$500- assorted incidentals, adhesives, paint, tools, etc...

We built all of the cabinets and installed them and the countertop ourselves. We got the flooring for free from a friend in the industry and installed that ourselves as well. Did the demo ourselves as well, and staggered the existing kitchen debris into 2 bulk trash pickups from the city (DC- they claim they don't take cabinets but they have for us and all of our friends who have done the same so YMMV). We still need to buy and install the tile backsplash and do some minor trimwork to give the room a more completed look, and figure that we'll spend another $500 in the process, when all is said and done.

As for IKEA versus other low-cost options, we priced out going with the basic white shaker cabinets that you can pickup at Lowe's or HD. Not really the look we were going for but wanted to do our due diligence. Price came out to be about the same, but the quality (particularly of the hardware), range of options, modularity and customization from IKEA blew the big box stores out of the water. That being said, IKEA cabinets are super labor intensive, and a PITA to install- the system is paradoxically straight forward but also complicated, and I think that if you hired that part of it out the install costs will be higher by a not insignificant amount.

THank you - which cabinets did you choose and what size kitchen (maybe I overlooked this)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Contemplating an update and want to keep costs under control...curious about costs - if you are willing to share, what size was your kitchen and what did you spend on material and labor?

We just finished our IKEA reno of a 10x15 kitchen. Simple white slab cabinets and the Barkaboda walnut herringbone countertop (it's gorgeous but I'm still somewhat skeptical about long-range durability). Appliances were somewhat basic but not bare bones (slide-in range, Blomberg dishwasher, nicer white fridge). We have no delusions of this being a premium kitchen, but when we bought the house the kitchen was unusable, with the cabinets pulling away from the wall and mouse-eaten, range and refrigerator just functional enough to count for conventional financing but functionally inoperable, and a giant section of the ceiling missing. So we had to do something fast, and decided we'd try and do a total renovation for $10k. Hence, IKEA. My ballpark breakdown of costs is:

$3k- cabinets, countertop, hardware, sink (all from IKEA)
$1.5k- rewiring, replacing all outlets with GFCI, adding 2 new circuits
$500- minor gas line relocation and plumbing repairs to existing sink infrastructure
$2.5k- new appliances and range hood
$1k- new drywall for the ceiling and one wall that looked like swiss cheese after all of the electrical work
$500- assorted incidentals, adhesives, paint, tools, etc...

We built all of the cabinets and installed them and the countertop ourselves. We got the flooring for free from a friend in the industry and installed that ourselves as well. Did the demo ourselves as well, and staggered the existing kitchen debris into 2 bulk trash pickups from the city (DC- they claim they don't take cabinets but they have for us and all of our friends who have done the same so YMMV). We still need to buy and install the tile backsplash and do some minor trimwork to give the room a more completed look, and figure that we'll spend another $500 in the process, when all is said and done.

As for IKEA versus other low-cost options, we priced out going with the basic white shaker cabinets that you can pickup at Lowe's or HD. Not really the look we were going for but wanted to do our due diligence. Price came out to be about the same, but the quality (particularly of the hardware), range of options, modularity and customization from IKEA blew the big box stores out of the water. That being said, IKEA cabinets are super labor intensive, and a PITA to install- the system is paradoxically straight forward but also complicated, and I think that if you hired that part of it out the install costs will be higher by a not insignificant amount.

THank you - which cabinets did you choose and what size kitchen (maybe I overlooked this)?

We used the Haggeby white cabinets- we had initally planned to use the Veddinge white, thinking that as the cheapest option the Haggeby would be sh*t. In the process, we read a lot of not so great reviews about the Veddinge- specifically that the finish doesn't hold up very well, and have friends who used Haggeby for their commercial bakery kitchen and found that hey held up well over 3 years. We spent our money on the cabinet carcasses, hardware, and optimizing layout over the cabinet fronts, as we're not sure if this is a 5 year house, or a 20 year house- and if we stay, we'll upgrade the cabinet fronts to Ringhult ($$$ gloss white finish) and the countertops to Silestone. The actual Haggeby fronts were maybe $250 total- the bulk of the cost is the innards- so we're willing to eat this as a sunk cost if we stay long term.

Our kitchen has 2 parts, one is a 10x10 "L" with all of the appliances, sink, etc... and then a 6' run of base cabinets only along the opposite wall. The kitchen was billed as "eat-in" but really only fit a tiny 2-person bistro table, so we opted to add cabinets and work surface as we already have a large dining room that we prefer to eat in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Contemplating an update and want to keep costs under control...curious about costs - if you are willing to share, what size was your kitchen and what did you spend on material and labor?

We just finished our IKEA reno of a 10x15 kitchen. Simple white slab cabinets and the Barkaboda walnut herringbone countertop (it's gorgeous but I'm still somewhat skeptical about long-range durability). Appliances were somewhat basic but not bare bones (slide-in range, Blomberg dishwasher, nicer white fridge). We have no delusions of this being a premium kitchen, but when we bought the house the kitchen was unusable, with the cabinets pulling away from the wall and mouse-eaten, range and refrigerator just functional enough to count for conventional financing but functionally inoperable, and a giant section of the ceiling missing. So we had to do something fast, and decided we'd try and do a total renovation for $10k. Hence, IKEA. My ballpark breakdown of costs is:

$3k- cabinets, countertop, hardware, sink (all from IKEA)
$1.5k- rewiring, replacing all outlets with GFCI, adding 2 new circuits
$500- minor gas line relocation and plumbing repairs to existing sink infrastructure
$2.5k- new appliances and range hood
$1k- new drywall for the ceiling and one wall that looked like swiss cheese after all of the electrical work
$500- assorted incidentals, adhesives, paint, tools, etc...

We built all of the cabinets and installed them and the countertop ourselves. We got the flooring for free from a friend in the industry and installed that ourselves as well. Did the demo ourselves as well, and staggered the existing kitchen debris into 2 bulk trash pickups from the city (DC- they claim they don't take cabinets but they have for us and all of our friends who have done the same so YMMV). We still need to buy and install the tile backsplash and do some minor trimwork to give the room a more completed look, and figure that we'll spend another $500 in the process, when all is said and done.

As for IKEA versus other low-cost options, we priced out going with the basic white shaker cabinets that you can pickup at Lowe's or HD. Not really the look we were going for but wanted to do our due diligence. Price came out to be about the same, but the quality (particularly of the hardware), range of options, modularity and customization from IKEA blew the big box stores out of the water. That being said, IKEA cabinets are super labor intensive, and a PITA to install- the system is paradoxically straight forward but also complicated, and I think that if you hired that part of it out the install costs will be higher by a not insignificant amount.

THank you - which cabinets did you choose and what size kitchen (maybe I overlooked this)?

We used the Haggeby white cabinets- we had initally planned to use the Veddinge white, thinking that as the cheapest option the Haggeby would be sh*t. In the process, we read a lot of not so great reviews about the Veddinge- specifically that the finish doesn't hold up very well, and have friends who used Haggeby for their commercial bakery kitchen and found that hey held up well over 3 years. We spent our money on the cabinet carcasses, hardware, and optimizing layout over the cabinet fronts, as we're not sure if this is a 5 year house, or a 20 year house- and if we stay, we'll upgrade the cabinet fronts to Ringhult ($$$ gloss white finish) and the countertops to Silestone. The actual Haggeby fronts were maybe $250 total- the bulk of the cost is the innards- so we're willing to eat this as a sunk cost if we stay long term.

Our kitchen has 2 parts, one is a 10x10 "L" with all of the appliances, sink, etc... and then a 6' run of base cabinets only along the opposite wall. The kitchen was billed as "eat-in" but really only fit a tiny 2-person bistro table, so we opted to add cabinets and work surface as we already have a large dining room that we prefer to eat in.

Above poster and I might add that their kitchen systems can be as basic or decked out as you want them to be. We went for the premium hardware for all of our cabinets, and have a lot more drawers and pull-outs (trash, spices, etc) than is absolutely necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Contemplating an update and want to keep costs under control...curious about costs - if you are willing to share, what size was your kitchen and what did you spend on material and labor?

We just finished our IKEA reno of a 10x15 kitchen. Simple white slab cabinets and the Barkaboda walnut herringbone countertop (it's gorgeous but I'm still somewhat skeptical about long-range durability). Appliances were somewhat basic but not bare bones (slide-in range, Blomberg dishwasher, nicer white fridge). We have no delusions of this being a premium kitchen, but when we bought the house the kitchen was unusable, with the cabinets pulling away from the wall and mouse-eaten, range and refrigerator just functional enough to count for conventional financing but functionally inoperable, and a giant section of the ceiling missing. So we had to do something fast, and decided we'd try and do a total renovation for $10k. Hence, IKEA. My ballpark breakdown of costs is:

$3k- cabinets, countertop, hardware, sink (all from IKEA)
$1.5k- rewiring, replacing all outlets with GFCI, adding 2 new circuits
$500- minor gas line relocation and plumbing repairs to existing sink infrastructure
$2.5k- new appliances and range hood
$1k- new drywall for the ceiling and one wall that looked like swiss cheese after all of the electrical work
$500- assorted incidentals, adhesives, paint, tools, etc...

We built all of the cabinets and installed them and the countertop ourselves. We got the flooring for free from a friend in the industry and installed that ourselves as well. Did the demo ourselves as well, and staggered the existing kitchen debris into 2 bulk trash pickups from the city (DC- they claim they don't take cabinets but they have for us and all of our friends who have done the same so YMMV). We still need to buy and install the tile backsplash and do some minor trimwork to give the room a more completed look, and figure that we'll spend another $500 in the process, when all is said and done.

As for IKEA versus other low-cost options, we priced out going with the basic white shaker cabinets that you can pickup at Lowe's or HD. Not really the look we were going for but wanted to do our due diligence. Price came out to be about the same, but the quality (particularly of the hardware), range of options, modularity and customization from IKEA blew the big box stores out of the water. That being said, IKEA cabinets are super labor intensive, and a PITA to install- the system is paradoxically straight forward but also complicated, and I think that if you hired that part of it out the install costs will be higher by a not insignificant amount.

THank you - which cabinets did you choose and what size kitchen (maybe I overlooked this)?

We used the Haggeby white cabinets- we had initally planned to use the Veddinge white, thinking that as the cheapest option the Haggeby would be sh*t. In the process, we read a lot of not so great reviews about the Veddinge- specifically that the finish doesn't hold up very well, and have friends who used Haggeby for their commercial bakery kitchen and found that hey held up well over 3 years. We spent our money on the cabinet carcasses, hardware, and optimizing layout over the cabinet fronts, as we're not sure if this is a 5 year house, or a 20 year house- and if we stay, we'll upgrade the cabinet fronts to Ringhult ($$$ gloss white finish) and the countertops to Silestone. The actual Haggeby fronts were maybe $250 total- the bulk of the cost is the innards- so we're willing to eat this as a sunk cost if we stay long term.

Our kitchen has 2 parts, one is a 10x10 "L" with all of the appliances, sink, etc... and then a 6' run of base cabinets only along the opposite wall. The kitchen was billed as "eat-in" but really only fit a tiny 2-person bistro table, so we opted to add cabinets and work surface as we already have a large dining room that we prefer to eat in.

It's more than just cabinet fronts if you change out doors - filler panels, trimwork, and the like to all get it to match.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Contemplating an update and want to keep costs under control...curious about costs - if you are willing to share, what size was your kitchen and what did you spend on material and labor?

We just finished our IKEA reno of a 10x15 kitchen. Simple white slab cabinets and the Barkaboda walnut herringbone countertop (it's gorgeous but I'm still somewhat skeptical about long-range durability). Appliances were somewhat basic but not bare bones (slide-in range, Blomberg dishwasher, nicer white fridge). We have no delusions of this being a premium kitchen, but when we bought the house the kitchen was unusable, with the cabinets pulling away from the wall and mouse-eaten, range and refrigerator just functional enough to count for conventional financing but functionally inoperable, and a giant section of the ceiling missing. So we had to do something fast, and decided we'd try and do a total renovation for $10k. Hence, IKEA. My ballpark breakdown of costs is:

$3k- cabinets, countertop, hardware, sink (all from IKEA)
$1.5k- rewiring, replacing all outlets with GFCI, adding 2 new circuits
$500- minor gas line relocation and plumbing repairs to existing sink infrastructure
$2.5k- new appliances and range hood
$1k- new drywall for the ceiling and one wall that looked like swiss cheese after all of the electrical work
$500- assorted incidentals, adhesives, paint, tools, etc...

We built all of the cabinets and installed them and the countertop ourselves. We got the flooring for free from a friend in the industry and installed that ourselves as well. Did the demo ourselves as well, and staggered the existing kitchen debris into 2 bulk trash pickups from the city (DC- they claim they don't take cabinets but they have for us and all of our friends who have done the same so YMMV). We still need to buy and install the tile backsplash and do some minor trimwork to give the room a more completed look, and figure that we'll spend another $500 in the process, when all is said and done.

As for IKEA versus other low-cost options, we priced out going with the basic white shaker cabinets that you can pickup at Lowe's or HD. Not really the look we were going for but wanted to do our due diligence. Price came out to be about the same, but the quality (particularly of the hardware), range of options, modularity and customization from IKEA blew the big box stores out of the water. That being said, IKEA cabinets are super labor intensive, and a PITA to install- the system is paradoxically straight forward but also complicated, and I think that if you hired that part of it out the install costs will be higher by a not insignificant amount.

As you should be. I have that in my office. My son left ice water on it and the condensation bubbled up the veneer. Very pretty, but it is one step better than pressed cardboard. I think the "walnut veneer" is a few millimeters thick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:... Simple white slab cabinets and the Barkaboda walnut herringbone countertop (it's gorgeous but I'm still somewhat skeptical about long-range durability).

As you should be. I have that in my office. My son left ice water on it and the condensation bubbled up the veneer. Very pretty, but it is one step better than pressed cardboard. I think the "walnut veneer" is a few millimeters thick.

Just FYI- the solid butcherblock countertops from "hardwood reflections" at home depot are quite reasonable. We got an unfinished 8' counter of walnut for about $300, and finished it ourselves with waterlox. It looks really nice and is much better than the ikea butcherblock (even the solid one.)

[Anonymous]

What are other low cost options compared to Ikea?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:... Simple white slab cabinets and the Barkaboda walnut herringbone countertop (it's gorgeous but I'm still somewhat skeptical about long-range durability).

As you should be. I have that in my office. My son left ice water on it and the condensation bubbled up the veneer. Very pretty, but it is one step better than pressed cardboard. I think the "walnut veneer" is a few millimeters thick.

Just FYI- the solid butcherblock countertops from "hardwood reflections" at home depot are quite reasonable. We got an unfinished 8' counter of walnut for about $300, and finished it ourselves with waterlox. It looks really nice and is much better than the ikea butcherblock (even the solid one.)

Good to know. I will say that ikea counter she is talking about is very pretty. The one I have spans a 10 foot stretch in my office. Because it is such low grade quality it is very cheap. I'll just replace the desk top if it bothers me with the same thing, or the next time my kids leave a cuo sitting on the counter.

I can't imagine having that particular ikea top in my kitchen.

[Anonymous]

I've priced semi-custom vs Ikea. Ikea is only low cost, if you are performing the assembly and installation yourself, and you value your labor at $0.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:... Simple white slab cabinets and the Barkaboda walnut herringbone countertop (it's gorgeous but I'm still somewhat skeptical about long-range durability).

As you should be. I have that in my office. My son left ice water on it and the condensation bubbled up the veneer. Very pretty, but it is one step better than pressed cardboard. I think the "walnut veneer" is a few millimeters thick.

Just FYI- the solid butcherblock countertops from "hardwood reflections" at home depot are quite reasonable. We got an unfinished 8' counter of walnut for about $300, and finished it ourselves with waterlox. It looks really nice and is much better than the ikea butcherblock (even the solid one.)

Good to know. I will say that ikea counter she is talking about is very pretty. The one I have spans a 10 foot stretch in my office. Because it is such low grade quality it is very cheap. I'll just replace the desk top if it bothers me with the same thing, or the next time my kids leave a cuo sitting on the counter.

I can't imagine having that particular ikea top in my kitchen.

PP who has it in the kitchen- it's been fine so far. I don't think that it's a forever solution for us, we just needed something cheap to get our kitchen up and running on a bare bones budget and it was beautiful to boot, and could be delivered with our cabinets by Ikea, so it made sense at the time. We also don't have kids which makes it a lot easier to control things like water sitting on it for more than a few minutes.