Handleless kitchen front, good and affordable - which manufacturer?

& : Thank you very much for your explanations, they made me take a closer look at it now.

I have the Veddinge front with leather handles and a wooden countertop. I am also very satisfied. Especially because the Veddinge is the cheapest front. That was a surprise, I didn’t know that when I bought it. I couldn’t say what a more expensive kitchen would do better than this one. Except more choice in the standard sizes.

Ok unfortunately I could only upload a picture of the old kitchen setup. Very stylish. We wanted a higher work surface, hence the choice of the thick Ikea countertop. Can you send me the skilled worker who prepared the kitchen so photogenically? I already have the oranges....-

I would like to send you the "Facharbeiter." However, I live in Belgium, so that would be an international job. That is extra expensive. You can find installers in your regional city newspaper (formerly known as "der Reviermarkt" in the West) or via fb. There is a group called "Ikea Küchen" there. Join it and you can easily look for someone there.

My 2-line kitchen layout is very simple to assemble. The cabinets hang on a rail (provided by Ikea) at a height that Ikea specifies in the assembly instructions. Then hang the assembled cabinets on the rail. It is really not difficult if you have a relatively new building and not a half-timbered house or similar. Being two people helps. Two amateurs can achieve more than one. Corners are a bit trickier, but even that is doable with a self-assembly.

One more important thing about Ikea: the cabinets are 80cm high and Ikea divides the grid into 20cm units. There are drawers 40cm high, 20cm, and 10cm. Regardless of the supplier, you should do a storage planning to know what you want to store and use where. Since Ikea's 20cm drawers are lower than the X-sized drawers from others, you get less in one drawer but have more drawers instead. If you have many larger items (kitchen machine, bottles, bulk packages...), you need to plan well. But it works. I find it very practical that I barely have any empty space in the drawers, simply because they are so low and most package sizes fit well in them. Only soup ladles get stuck sideways. They are too tall for 10cm drawers and a 20cm drawer would be a waste. If you also want a raised built-in dishwasher: you have to saw and tinker at Ikea. It's not as difficult as it sounds. McGuyver managed it too.

Wow, that all sounds very interesting and the kitchens actually look great. Can you have the kitchens completely planned there or do you have to do it yourself? I've already gotten great planned kitchens here and could try to recreate them at IKEA sometime, then I would at least know an IKEA price. Especially since we really like the IKEA Metod with the VOXTORP front. Let's see when I find time for that in the next few days. If you buy the appliances elsewhere, you have to be careful with the dishwasher if it’s going to be installed normally, right? Or are there good models that fit directly? Are the IKEA appliances no good?

You can plan the kitchen yourself. Ikea offers an online planner. It’s mediocre, but fully sufficient for kitchen planning.

The appliances from Ikea are usually AEG, the most expensive dishwasher is from Bosch. If you want external appliances, that’s no problem. For the dishwasher, you have to make sure it is XXL (you can see if an 80cm front can be mounted) and has a Vario hinge. The term Vario hinge comes from Siemens, with other manufacturers it unfortunately is called differently. AEG has this as standard in all dishwashers. You only have to pay attention to XXL. That fits right away.

I myself have an AEG dishwasher. It feels a bit plastic-like on the inside, but washes and dries super well. And was cheaper than a model at Ikea. I wouldn’t buy extractor hoods at Ikea at all. You can forget all of them, they make noise and just serve as a lamp.

If the budget isn’t too high, it’s worth looking for second-hand ovens. Right now many good things are being discarded because there are new techniques like steam in ovens. Ovens from Ikea are really good. You can’t go too wrong in the better categories. Refrigerators from Ikea are okay, but not very quiet.