Honestly, are Ikea kitchens any good?

Thanks for your reply. Found it very informative.

Looking for own stay, so definitely the Metod series. I quite like the idea of an Ikea kitchen mainly because of the fittings that you can put into their cabinets i.e. you can add on slowly to make it more organised, add drawers in, etc. My family are not into heavy cooking as we have our own personal chefs (Foodpanda, Grab), so the cabinets don't have to be super durable and I'll probably just have one kitchen without the need of a dry and wet area. At most, water may only come into the picture during dish washing time as we don't plan on having a dishwasher.

I know overseas, Ikea kitchens are seen as a 'cheap' kitchen. However, in the Malaysian context, is the Ikea kitchen considered cheap, mid-tier or expensive? I mean, it it's considered expensive, then I might want to approach other companies to see what they can offer. Honestly, at the moment I haven't looked at other companies so I really don't have any points of reference to compare to.

Thanks again. You've been a great help and you've also cleared up some things in my mind.

Will probably get in touch with some of the names mentioned in the posts you have linked to and if the prices they quote is around Ikea's prices, I'll probably opt for the Swedish brand and be done with it.

For reference, I'm looking at something like this:



The long part of the 'L' is around 3.5m and the shorter part around 2.8m. Looking at around RM15k on Ikea without countertop but includes fancy sink and lights.

Just a quick one. What's the normal distance/spacing between the bottom and upper cabinets of a kitchen?

Is 70 cm considered OK?

Cheers friends.

I'm pretty set on getting an Ikea kitchen, so looks likely I'll go for something between 60 to 70 cm depending on when we actually get to sample the kitchens in Ikea. My wife and I are of the same height so shouldn't need to get into an argument to agree on this (I'm not too optimistic though).

If I recall correctly as well, Ikea bottom cabinets tend to be quite 'tall' around 90 cm in height after legs and countertop so as you rightly pointed out, don't want to need a ladder to reach the upper cabinets.

Personally, I think a lot depends on what you view your current place as. Is it just a temporary one before you upgrade/move or is this going to be a place you'll be staying for the next 10 years at least (or forever for that matter).

I plan to stay in my current place for long, so I didn't spending a bit on my countertop. The length of my quartz top is actually longer than yours and it didn't cost as much. I went for Silestone by the way. Maybe you just need to scale down the design/type of the quartz top to get it to something within your budget.

Although I didn't install on my own, I'm currently using an Ikea kitchen with a different tabletop. Tabletop depends if you want branded or not. I'm using Silestone and recommend Surfaces Market Sdn Bhd. They offered the best price for the design I was looking for. Workmanship also was good.

You need to install the cabinet first before the tabletop fellow can come and measure. Mine was installed within 1 week as my tabletop was in stock.

Hood and hob first in my opinion. That way the person measuring your cabinet has an idea on the size and placement of the various cabinets.

No problem. Just that you'll be charged a bit higher later to cut because of transportation, etc.

More important is to have the necessary power points ready.

Not from experience but from Google:

If they are too close, heat from the stove can make the fridge work harder, making it less energy efficient. Additionally, it can also cause the food in the fridge to spoil faster.

But if you don't cook that often, shouldn't be such a big issue except that when you cook, it'll be quite uncomfortable without the extra elbow room.

Honestly, for simple cooking I'd rather use a portable induction hob. Then when you're not cooking, you can keep the hob and maximise counter space for other things like unpacking your Foodpanda orders and the like.

My wife and I hardly cook, so that's how we lived for more than 10 years.

Ah no wonder then. In that case, just whack the fridge where it can fit and enjoy living.

Far worse things to worry about in the home my friend.

How tall are you? I had that concern before but once my Metod kitchen was installed, just got used to it and had no problems since.

My wife is around 1.6 m tall by the way.

I think you need to be a bit more clear with your query.

Do you mean better to buy Ikea or other providers?

What he/she said. It depends on the shape of your kitchen really.

Since the space for my kitchen is a simple rectangular shape, I went with a gallery kitchen so it was pretty easy to use IKEA cabinets to make it look nice and custom. If you have a weird shaped space for your kitchen (like angles which aren't 90 degrees), then a custom kitchen is the way to go.

If you decide to go with IKEA, you can measure your kitchen space and ID it yourself using their website.

Yup, there will be a seam but usually the contractor will try to join the 2 pieces at an inconspicuous place (maybe at the hob, sink, etc.).

As for the size, the usual brands like Silestone and Caeserstone only go up to 3.5 m. Maybe can find marble or granite if you don't want to have a seam.

More expensive maybe? Also, more prone to breaking as it's basically 2 pieces stuck together.

I personally went without edging, but more for aesthetic purposes as I wanted a minimal looking kitchen.

Unless you're Superman, I believe shouldn't be an issue if you go for a good top with a decent installer.

Perhaps go for edging in the dry kitchen and plain for wet kitchen.

This is the edge everyone's talking about:



So actually the dust issue will only come up depending on the gap between countertop and cabinet. You can have no gap, but need some spacing to clear the top of your kitchen door and the lowest part of the countertop 'waterfall'.

Basically, if you want to make it look nice and minimise issues, all these need to be planned upfront between countertop and kitchen contractors, so that the kitchen can be designed to accommodate your countertop choice.

Blanco? Expensive though.