How to buy kitchen cabinet from IKEA

Building a proper kitchen is every homeowner’s dream and one company that makes beautiful, functional kitchen is IKEA. I recently designed and bought my entire kitchen cabinet from IKEA and here’s how you do it from start to finish.



First thing first, you’ve got to have a rough measurement of your kitchen area, preferably in millimeters. You need to measure the length and width of each wall, floor plan, including the size of your doors and windows, location of each socket, sink and tap. The more detailed the better although it’s not necessary to be too precise. This is to make it easier for the IKEA co-worker to do a preliminary sketch of your dream kitchen.





Next you’ll have to make an appointment with the IKEA kitchen specialist through the IKEA Family website. It is possible to walk in to the kitchen showroom and see the co-worker but it all depends on his/her schedule. If they’re free, they can help you right away but if their appointment schedule is full, you’ll have to wait in line for a free slot. So it is advisable to book an appointment beforehand to guarantee your spot. During the planning session, inform the co-worker clearly which cabinet design/series that you want, which countertop material, cabinet doors, even knobs, Every countertop/door/knob has different prices so which one you choose will determine the final price of your kitchen cabinet. Also, the co-worker shall include kitchen sink and lighting into the quotation so if you’re planning to buy the sink yourself or fix your own lighting, tell them in advance.







The entire planning session will take about an hour. The kitchen specialist will then print our your desired kitchen plan plus the quotation. If you wish to install the kitchen cabinet yourself or hire your own kitchen installer, you can ask the co-worker to print the sales invoice right away and proceed to pay at the cashier downstairs. If you wish to hire an IKEA appointed kitchen installer, you will need to go to the installer’s office usually next to the Customer Service counter. The kitchen installer will then give you a quotation based on the dimension of your countertop and the total size of your kitchen cabinet. The bigger they are, the costlier they will be. For my moderately sized kitchen cabinet for example, the quoted price was RM1,500.00 for the installation. If you’re happy with their quotation, you can then pay the kitchen installer to do a precise measurement of your kitchen area. Apart from the length and width of your kitchen, they will also measure the distance between sockets and kitchen sink and determine whether you need to modify your water inlet/outlet based on your selected kitchen design. In my case for example, I need to move my water outlet a few centimeters down to accommodate the counter top and kitchen sink placement. The kitchen installers will not do this type of modification for you so you will have to find your own contractor/handyman. I would really recommend you pay them to do this because they actually use a laser distance meter for precise measurement plus the extra recommendations that they provide is really useful. For my home in Semenyih, I had to pay them RM85 for the measurements.





That said if you’re confident of your own measurement and methods, you can skip this step and proceed to the next step below. If you hired the installer to do the measurement, they will give you a copy of their measurements which you can bring to the kitchen specialist one more time to finalize your design or do any modifications (remember to rebook an appointment). Once you’re happy with the final design and price, the co-worker will print an invoice/shopping list for you to pay. You will then proceed to pay at the checkout counter and then go on to the kitchen installer office to pay them as well. Usually the kitchen specialist will accompany you to pick up any loose bits and pieces of kitchen furniture (lighting, knobs, etcetera) all the way to the checkout counter. During my visit however, they were occupied with to many appointments that I had to pickup the things myself. The final invoice will include transportation charges already so you don't need to go to the delivery counter to pay for that separately.







After that, the kitchen installer will present the final quotation for the kitchen installation and quote you a price which will take into account the distance of your home from their office. Once everything is paid for, the installer will set a date for the kitchen installation, depending on their schedule, could be up to a month later.



Before the day of the installation, make sure your kitchen area is clear from all old furniture and fittings including taps and kitchen sink. For my kitchen, the installation took two whole days with a workforce of two people. They work from 11:00AM until 5:00PM. On the second day, the installer said I forgot to buy a little transformer for my lighting fixture which is totally not my fault. Remember when the IKEA co-worker was supposed to accompany me to pickup the little things? Well they forgot to include the transformer in the shopping list so I had to literally run to IKEA to buy that thing separately for the installer to install.







The installer will install your kitchen sink and tap, hood and hob as well as lighting fixtures, they’re all included in the price you pay. They did a generally good job with the kitchen installation with quality craftsmanship. The only thing I want to complain is that they could have done something about the lighting wires on top of the cabinet. Maybe they’re in a hurry since they had to wait for me to buy that little transformer earlier, I don’t know but that part could be better.









So that’s the entire process of my IKEA kitchen cabinet installation. So far I’m happy with the entire process and the final result. Here’s some tip for you to save a little bit on your final price. The worktop material will hugely influence the final price of your kitchen furniture with laminated wood worktop the cheapest and the more expensive solid wood/quartz/granite types. We picked the Metod laminated wood worktop of course since it’s the cheapest of them all. Apart from that, the price for the cabinet door differs with each model/design and also the different types of door knobs and lighting fixtures. You might be tempted to skip the lighting fixtures but trust me, they make your IKEA kitchen cabinet literally shine above the rest.

IKEA also provide a general guide on how to build your own kitchen here.