Home Depot Vs IKEA Kitchen Cabinets

MikeD648 wrote: ↑ Personally, I've witnessed how fast IKEA items seem to fall apart after a year or so.

I couldn't disagree more with this statement. I've had my Ikea kitchen for 2+ years at this point and they look and perform the way they did the day I installed. Even so, Ikea has a 25 year warranty on their kitchens.

mickman wrote: ↑ I couldn't disagree more with this statement. I've had my Ikea kitchen for 2+ years at this point and they look and perform the way they did the day I installed. Even so, Ikea has a 25 year warranty on their kitchens.

Same. No issues.

IKEA.....

I never understood how people abuse their kitchens to make it fall apart regardless of brand. It's one thing if there was water damage or a small fire.

But from normal use, the door hinges and the drawer tracks and handles are the only things that really should potentially fail after a long time. And of course if it's MDF with a laminate/thermofoil over top, I suppose that could peel at edges over time.

Otherwise, it boggles my mind how cabinet frame integrity could be compromised that it would fall apart.

We put in our IKEA kitchen years ago, and it’s still looking much the same as when we bought it. But we don’t have young kids hanging off the doors, either...

As far as IKEA stuff falling apart, in my experience that is more likely to happen after multiple moves, especially if you have to disassemble and reassemble. But if you’re doing that with your kitchen, you’re doing it wrong. IMHO.

C

People disassemble and reassemble kitchen cabinets?

MikeD648 wrote: ↑ Hello Folks,

I'm looking to redo my kitchen in the New Year for my recently purchased Town House.

I was wondering what the group's experience was when in came to Home Depot Vs IKEA Kitchen Cabinets.

Ikea has the the lower price and I've been advised by friends that their experience has been positive. Personally, I've witnessed how fast IKEA items seem to fall apart after a year or so.

I plan on living in this place for some time. I would prefer quality over corner cutting. Is there a real difference in the quality?

Discuss!

Are you comparing Ikea cabinets, to the flat pack HD cabinets or those prebuilt "season especiales"? If the latter, don't waste your money; those cabinets primed and ready for landfill.

Home Depot recently switched to a manufacturer in Quebec for their flat pack kitchens, and as much as I'd like to promote Canadian jobs, IMHO, the Ikea cabinets are slightly better, both in quality control and in hardware.
To be fair, this is based on a sample size of exactly three. I'm also comparing kitchen cabinets (HD) to a bathroom cabinets (Ikea), but they're basically the same thing; MDF boxes with doors, drawers and hardware.

Now, if you have a problem with something and you live 300km away from an Ikea, that's a disadvantage. HD is typically in every city, which is good, because the HD kitchen I installed for a client required three trips to get replacement parts (smashed plastic legs in two different packages, one metal drawer assembly that had no threads cut on one side). The manufacturer had provided HD with a parts kit, which is also good, but be prepared that they may not have the parts you require, because someone at HD needs to alert the manufacturer that they need more spare parts, and, well, we're talking Home Disappointment here. I digress.

The first set of Ikea bathroom cabinets I installed were for a client, the second set in my own home. Apart from the insane amount of time to assemble, the fit and finish was good, (although the drain assemblies are bizarro).

The downside of the Ikea kitchens is the limitation on choice of door and cabinet styles and finishes. If you are good with the limited selection, Ikea is a solid choice. If you want more selection, the HD cabinets are acceptable.

MrFrugal1 wrote: ↑ ...

The first set of Ikea bathroom cabinets I installed were for a client, the second set in my own home. Apart from the insane amount of time to assemble, the fit and finish was good, (although the drain assemblies are bizarro).

...

I heard that there was something fishy about their drains. What was the problem you encountered?

When I see them in the showroom, and they use that flexible drain pipe, almost like those long flexi straws that are used in the big drink containers, I just think, no way would I use that. And thus, the drawers wouldn't work for a better and proper conventional drain. I guess that's why you see the u-shaped drawers at other places, to go around the drain pipe.

I know you can get Home Depot cabinets right off the shelf yourself, easy-peasy. I don't think that is the case with Ikea, so there's that. Plus, if you read the comments on Ikea's Facebook and Instagram page right now, their customer service, delivery and curbside offerings during these times are in a shambles. Missed deliveries, cancelled deliveries, unfilled, half-filled orders, unanswered calls to the customer services lines, its a mess. They've really done a lousy job stepping up to the plate and adapting to the new way of shopping.

kenchau wrote: ↑ I heard that there was something fishy about their drains. What was the problem you encountered?

When I see them in the showroom, and they use that flexible drain pipe, almost like those long flexi straws that are used in the big drink containers, I just think, no way would I use that. And thus, the drawers wouldn't work for a better and proper conventional drain. I guess that's why you see the u-shaped drawers at other places, to go around the drain pipe.

They don't use the flexible accordion (for lack of a better term) piping, at least in the two I installed, but they do use expansion oval pipes that are sealed with an O rings. I like the space saving aspect of it, but it's the seal that makes me nervous. It's obviously not pressurized, but I can't help but wonder how the O ring would handle a clog situation.
I don't think I would have installed one of those accordion pipes, frankly.

Ikea uses Blum hinges which are known to be of very high quality. Plus a 25 year warranty. We are LOVING our Ikea kitchen 2 years later. You'll have to get comfortable with their online kitchen design software and I recommend their $200 (don't remember exact cost) 2-hour private design consultation. Well worth the money.

BIG PRO TIP: There are companies that do custom wood doors/panels for ikea kitchens. For example, I really wanted an Ikea kitchen but didn't love their door selection/color. In Toronto I used a company called Allstyle cabinets. You literally bring them your ikea kitchen order, and they will supply you with all the doors/panels in any style/color you want. Then you remove them from your Ikea order. All in it cost us maybe $2000 more to go this route, but in the end we got a more custom and high quality kitchen.

PS. Try to buy your kitchen during their kitchen event. I got gift cards worth a couple thousand bucks kicking around now because of it

MrFrugal1 wrote: ↑ They don't use the flexible accordion (for lack of a better term) piping, at least in the two I installed, but they do use expansion oval pipes that are sealed with an O rings. I like the space saving aspect of it, but it's the seal that makes me nervous. It's obviously not pressurized, but I can't help but wonder how the O ring would handle a clog situation.
I don't think I would have installed one of those accordion pipes, frankly.

Ah okay. Maybe that accordion piping was just what they used for displays or that was what was included in the initial versions of their sinks.

kenchau wrote: ↑ Ah okay. Maybe that accordion piping was just what they used for displays or that was what was included in the initial versions of their sinks.

I didn't go with IKEA plumbing for my sink. Stuck with regular ABS. The sink and faucet were also non-IKEA. As long as the measurements fits the kitchen sink base cabinet, things should be fine.

WindowGuyLarry wrote: ↑ Ikea uses Blum hinges which are known to be of very high quality. Plus a 25 year warranty. We are LOVING our Ikea kitchen 2 years later. You'll have to get comfortable with their online kitchen design software and I recommend their $200 (don't remember exact cost) 2-hour private design consultation. Well worth the money.

BIG PRO TIP: There are companies that do custom wood doors/panels for ikea kitchens. For example, I really wanted an Ikea kitchen but didn't love their door selection/color. In Toronto I used a company called Allstyle cabinets. You literally bring them your ikea kitchen order, and they will supply you with all the doors/panels in any style/color you want. Then you remove them from your Ikea order. All in it cost us maybe $2000 more to go this route, but in the end we got a more custom and high quality kitchen.

PS. Try to buy your kitchen during their kitchen event. I got gift cards worth a couple thousand bucks kicking around now because of it

We were looking into this but aren't you limited to the colour of the cabinet frames that Ikea supplies?

In our previous house, we had redone our kitchen with Thomasville at HD.
We loved it! We hadn't really looked into Ikea as we don't like the look of their cabinet doors. We moved 5 years after Reno and cabinets were still in excellent shape (a few scratches in the doors but did have 2 young kids who would bang into cabinets with toys...)
We had compared the HD cabinet to custom cabinets and saved about 8k.
We will definitely look into HD again when we will renovate our current kitchen.

oldeltaco wrote: ↑ In our previous house, we had redone our kitchen with Thomasville at HD.
We loved it! We hadn't really looked into Ikea as we don't like the look of their cabinet doors. We moved 5 years after Reno and cabinets were still in excellent shape (a few scratches in the doors but did have 2 young kids who would bang into cabinets with toys...)
We had compared the HD cabinet to custom cabinets and saved about 8k.
We will definitely look into HD again when we will renovate our current kitchen.

I believe Thomasville is the US based manufacturer that Home Disappointment Canada no longer purchases their flatpack cabinets from.

MrFrugal1 wrote: ↑ I believe Thomasville is the US based manufacturer that Home Disappointment Canada no longer purchases their flatpack cabinets from.

Didn't know, thanks for the info!

mickman wrote: ↑ I couldn't disagree more with this statement. I've had my Ikea kitchen for 2+ years at this point and they look and perform the way they did the day I installed. Even so, Ikea has a 25 year warranty on their kitchens.

Yupp. I've had mine for 7 years and I got the cheapest ones thinking I would be moving after. Still feels like new. Their hardware is actually very good. The self design aspect is amazing and we added an island that we never thought of. But the design worked on the software and it's been one of the best decisions.

I feel that if made this post a poll question, Ikea would win hands down.

Love my Ikea kitchen. Saved myself $40k.