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[quote=Anonymous]Thanks...this is VERY helpful. Exactly the kind of information I was hoping for.

[quote=Anonymous]We used them and were happy with the end result and much of the process, but you will need to be very involved with the planning.

The $199 design service -- you get what you pay for.  They have a familiarity with Ikea products and dimensions, so will be able to quickly tell you what fits where.  But they will not spend the time with you as you figure out what you like, what will work for you, what works well from a functionality process, where do you want cabinets versus drawers, etc.  Bottom line, they are not kitchen designers.  You are your own designer and you will need to spend time figuring that out.  We revised our design 3 or 4 times before the installation began, and thank god we did.

The Ikea self-service online design tool sucks.  It is not at all user-friendly.  Fortunately their "designer" patiently entered all of our design changes for us, though we had to do a little bit of hounding.  In the end it worked out.  Nice guy, it's just a process.  They want to hurry up and get started on the work, but for you, you want to make sure the design is right first.  That has to be finalized, and the drawings and material lists generated, before you buy the materials and demolition starts.  It is a problem to make changes on the fly after you begin.

Once they get started, plan on taking a fair amount of time off to be there to make decisions.  Stuff comes up.  (Like what's under your floor when they rip it up, and how to deal with that, or what happens when a measurement is off and a trim won't work, etc.)  If you're not there to decide it may get done differently than you want it.  (Example: we went from a single to a double sink, and now our disposal is on the wrong side because no one ever asked, and once it was done it was too expensive to undo.)

The Ikea install is a great value, but they make it that way by doing it high-speed, high-volume.  You save money but you are your own general contractor.  (For instance, they do not do the plumbing, electric, or HVAC, you have to hire and manage those folks yourself.  Hiring the ones they recommend helps because they're all using to working with and around each other, though the electricians they recommended were not as on-time and detail-oriented as their main team was.  The main team does the cabinets and counters, and if you want them to, the tile and floors, though you can hire your own for that if you want to.  If I had to do it again, I'd use the main team for the tile and floors; they were good and using our own folks just slowed stuff up.)

We would do it again.  But know what you're getting into--it is a lot of work on your part that you are not paying a designer or general contractor to handle for you.  
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