Planning kitchen appliances. How to proceed. Market is not clear

Ikea has two weaknesses. Device selection no name, so only their stuff. And 20 cm grid If it doesn’t quite fit, you either make a fitting strip in front or leave a broom niche. That’s how it is then. They are working on the third weakness: Hermes assembly service. I got the info in HL, they had fired Hermes because they were not capable of doing what was supposed to be done. Complete assembly in one go without mistakes or flaws for 199.00 per meter. What is specifically good at IKEA: fronts, fit, drawers, gap dimensions, hinges. We have Veddinge white silk matte painted, not coated or foiled, this type of front costs a fortune elsewhere. At IKEA it is one of the cheaper ones. Even solid wood countertops are affordable there, but those made of gold dust do not exist. Karsten

Ikea has far more weaknesses. The fronts are certainly OK, for example, but compared to a high-quality front from good kitchen manufacturers, you can already see the difference very clearly, especially in open kitchens with a lot of light. Of course, if you don't value that, it doesn't bother you, it's just cheaper. Ikea Metod scores 1.9 out of 5 and is thus in the lower mid-range. There are worse, but there are clearly many better ones... logically, in the end, you get what you pay for. Even Ikea can't work magic. But at least there is transparency. Price/performance is also OK, but by comparing offers and investing the appropriate amount of time (if you want to), you can also get better kitchens (according to ranking) for the same price.

I also once had the Ikea kitchen variant, and it was perfectly fine for its time. Over time, my standards increased - especially the visual ones, especially in my own house. But that is certainly very irrational and can hardly be represented in a comparison focused on objective quality.

For example, can IKEA and furniture stores manage to install undermount sinks made of composite material (Fragranit, Silgranit) flush? For example, no one wanted to offer us that... it is just a bit more complicated than cutting out, gluing in, done. The countertop has to be milled away down to the laminate, and the sink has to be glued watertight underneath with epoxy resin. For example, no "real" kitchen builder had a problem with that...

We have, for example, the real wood fronts made of ash, manage well with the 20 cm grid, the electrical appliances are Miele/Neff/Siemens, sink Blanko Axia. For me, this has avoided the major weak points. I am still missing dust seals on the doors, but I can live with that flaw. Carcasses, drawers, and fittings are above average at Ikea.

By the way, I don’t believe that assembly for 199 euros per meter can be done reliably and accurately in detail. Too much joinery work is simply necessary for that.

People with Ikea kitchens always have to convince themselves that they bought top quality for a low price.

- Fittings are good average
- Damping is below average
- Hinge attachment is rubbish
- Final fine-tuning for optimal use is not possible because various things are simply not possible since they are not in the program
- Cabinet is good
- Fronts in terms of appearance are comparable to the cheapest price range of good kitchen manufacturers, but far from higher price ranges (obviously)

What was a deal-breaker for me: We wanted handleless (ok you can discuss whether that is good or bad), but you can forget Ikea for that. Incredibly unergonomic to grip, other kitchen manufacturers do that much better (Leicht, Häcker, etc.). We ourselves had an Ikea kitchen for a long time, but for the house it just had to be a bit more upscale.

Everything works, an Opel drives after all, but it’s still not a BMW. Some care about that, some don’t. I still can’t get a BMW at the price of an Opel.

The installation service and the aftersales service: the hermes guy did not properly fix our wall panels. Glued with silicone instead of doweling the frame into the wall. Of course, it only holds well for about a week. Took a photo, emailed it to Ikea at the store in Lübeck. That was yesterday. Today, a call. Appointment on September 29th, an employee will come, replace all the panels with new ones. Free of charge for us. That is satisfactory. Handleless, dust-tight, flush sink, my wife doesn’t care, neither do I. This is a kitchen, not a work of art. It will be used and that’s good. I hope the IKEA appliances last their time....Karsten