Majjie's Blog

I'm often asked what I think about IKEA kitchens ... so I thought I'd tell you. Before I do that, though, I should perhaps declare some prejudice in the matter. First of all, I loved their last tv advert, the one featuring Jona Lewie's "You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties". For fellow fans, here's a longer version than the one on the tv:

Secondly, they invited me to breakfast at the recent Grand Designs Live show at the NEC (I've already written about my Grand Designs Live visit) ... and they plied me with food (always an easy way to my heart!).
So - first of all - what did IKEA have to say?

Well, the stand featured three kitchens, designed for a lifetime of kitchen customers. IKEA don't just flog cheap kitchens, they put an enormous amount of thought into what they sell. The first kitchen was aimed at young professionals and featured the Abstrakt high gloss grey door. It's apparently the fastest selling kitchen door that IKEA have introduced - that isn't white! Young professionals often have double incomes and a bit of money to spend, so this kitchen also featured Personlig custom made, white worktops (below) - I am a big fan of IKEA's made to measure worktops.

The appliances for each kitchen had also been very carefully thought out. Appliances are the biggest product growth area for IKEA and they're now including appliance prices in their sample kitchen costings (although I haven't been in store to check). Their appliances are made by Electrolux and Whirlpool and come with a very useful 5 year guarantee. There are no logos or branding; the idea is that the styling and design speaks for itself. You'll find most of them labelled Nutid (now), Framtid (tomorrow) or Datid (past) ... so an induction hob might be Nutid and a traditionally styled oven, Datid.

For their young professionals, IKEA provided an induction hob (they do one for £299; wanting to make induction cooking more affordable); a pyrolytic oven (young people are often not keen on cleaning) with a meat probe (to make cooking easier for novices); and a built-in microwave with "auto crisp" function.

The next kitchen was for a family, so disposable income was in shorter supply. The display was in the best selling Abstrakt White high gloss door, with a couple of feature doors in an accent colour. This kitchen had standard timber worktops; a sink with lots of accessories; an entry level oven (but still with steam function); an A+ rated fridge-freezer (to save energy); and a hob with a guard to protect little fingers (below).

This kitchen also featured base units without any sets of drawers. That's apparently safer for kids - who can use the drawers as a staircase to climb up onto the worktop (especially after IKEA have put the idea into their heads with their Jona Lewie advert!). I think I'd probably recommend that you don't leave your young children alone in the kitchen - and design it how you want it, for cooking - but perhaps IKEA expect you to buy a new kitchen when the kids have got a bit older! Anyway, this kitchen was designed to be very practical - but still with a sense of style.

The third kitchen was designed for empty nesters and the display featured the new Ramsjo brown-black door with slightly more sophisticated appliances, including a 5-burner gas hob (below).

The door has a stained, solid beech frame, with veneered centre panel, and the range also features IKEA's first glazed units with clear glass (requiring a coloured interior to the cabinet). IKEA's glazed units normally have a universally white interior with opaque glass. There's also a white Ramsjo, which has a lacquered birch/birch veneer door. The white version allows you to see the style more clearly; the door has a flat centre panel and a stepped profile to the frame:

One thing that's always noticeable with IKEA kitchen displays, is that they look great, because they're always packed full of pots and pans and accessories. They look as if you could move in and start cooking straight away. IKEA is always a good place to look for inexpensive pots, pans, shelves, racks, trolleys and food containers. Their thoughtfulness extends to the accessories too ... they make sure that their cookshop containers, for instance, will fit into the racks on their fridge doors.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, we were shown round the displays by Paul Kenney, kitchen sales team leader in the UK ... and his enthusiasm for his subject was evident. He's proud of IKEA kitchens; proud of their low prices, their style and IKEA's honest approach.

I'm impressed by all of those things too. IKEA do keep their prices low ... because of their buying power and global sourcing ... but also by having universal white carcasses and only limited unit sizes (you can't have everything!). More impressive, perhaps, is the fact that they don't pretend that their kitchens are enormously expensive ... and then offer you a huge discount ... and they don't make disproportionately high profits on accessories like cornice and end panels. They're alone in that, when it comes to national multiples, selling kitchens. IKEA do also put a lot of thought into styling and often come up with something a bit different. They genuinely want to provide decent kitchens for people who don't want to spend a fortune.

Where I might differ from IKEA's and Paul's opinions, is on whether their kitchens are suitable for those with a bit more money to spend. I think their range of unit sizes and accessories is too limited for a really high class kitchen design. I don't like white carcasses with timber doors ... just having one colour matched carcasse, for the glazed doors in one kitchen range, isn't enough ... and I don't like their skimpy end panels. Why can't they do some bigger sizes, so that islands and peninsular units don't have to have joins in the panels, and so that the end panels can sometimes extend to the ground?

In the past, one of the disadvantages, of buying a kitchen from IKEA, was that you basically had to design it yourself. That was an advantage to me, of course; I've helped with the design of quite a few IKEA kitchens. They have a free on-line planner but it's very basic, doesn't give great visualisations and isn't much good for complicated rooms. They also have in-store advisers ... who can access your on-line plan. Recently, though, they've introduced an in-home planning service with their own kitchen designers and - in accordance with their honest pricing policy - they're charging £100 for the service. No pretending it's free for IKEA!  If you buy the kitchen, you get a £50 refund. That doesn't reflect the true cost of a good design, of course, but at least IKEA are putting some value on the design process.

It will be interesting to see what the quality of the designs is like. IKEA undoubtedly have some very talented kitchen designers but having a few stars is not the same as having a consistently high standard of designers in every store. Other national kitchen suppliers don't seem to be able to manage that. (And do I see the introduction of their service as the end of my involvment with IKEA kitchens?  No ... they're not independent kitchen designers ... they won't tell you if your kitchen would be best suited to another make of kitchen, with sizes they don't do; and they won't suggest mixing and matching IKEA units with other makes).

Incidentally, I should also mention that IKEA have a fitting service for their kitchens ... and they seem to be taking great care to vet their fitters and make sure they provide a good service. They will also provide 0% finance (including the fitting) over one year, for kitchens costing at least £1,500, and over two years, if the price is more than £3,000.

It all sounds wonderful. It's not going to be easy to maintain high standards in design and fitting ... on the scale required ... but I wish them well and really hope they manage it. I've always said that good design skills shouldn't be exclusive to very expensive kitchens!

My next IKEA blog - when I get round to it - will be about the practicalities of actually designing with IKEA units.

Note Added: April 2011

OK I've finally got round to: Part 2: Designing a Kitchen with IKEA Units