My home is around 45 years old. My wife and I want to sell in the near future (in a year or so).
Newer kitchens help sell a house. But to what extent?
I just received an IKEA catalog in the mail. It looks like there are some pretty good options in there; but I’ve never seen their cabinets up close. The catalog even says they have installation teams to do the part that I don’t or can’t do myself.
The latest estimate from Home Depot was $10K, which seemed a little pricey for my small kitchen.
So; let’s talk kitchen remodeling. Anyone have any experience with an IKEA kitchen cabinets? What’s your opinion? What are other low cost options to remodel the kitchen? (Well not so much remodel as replace old crappy counter tops and cabinets.
Husband does this for a living (remodeling) - I just talked to him and asked him about the cabinets from IKEA. Not having seen your kitchen or anything, he really wasn’t comfortable commenting on costs, however, he did say that with regard to IKEA cabinetry, “you get what you pay for”.
Have you all talked with a kitchen designing type of person? Do you know of any local contractors you could talk with? $10K for cabinets from Home Depot for a small kitchen seems way way way whacked (in husband’s opinion).
Everything I’ve read has said that IKEA cabinets have excellent quality for the price. Ikeafans has lots of info, pics, and forums full of enthusiastic remodlers that can help you decide.
I have them. One of the previous owners had installed some, and we added more of them. They are decent. You can tell that they aren’t high end ultra expensive cabinets but they get the job done and are as good as most.
I would go take a look and see what they have. Some are cheaper than others. For the extra cabinets that I wanted installed, I didn’t have their installers come out but rather hired my own contractors who had no trouble getting them installed.
If I was buying a house where someone did an “IKEA Install” (cabs, cheap lighting, cheap window treatments), I’d say, “man, I wish they would have just left it alone.”
Will you REALLY get that much extra from selling it?
I don’t think the “return on kitchen renovation” is really greater than 100%.
On many of the “Sell This House” shows, kitchen cabinets are often painted or otherwise refinished. New hardware may be added. If your cabinets aren’t falling apart, if they weren’t cheapo when new, this might be a good solution.
Kitchen upgrades can also involve new floors and counter tops. To replace stained & damaged surfaces–or just to “update.” Are your “surfaces” in good shape, but somewhat out of fashion? What’s the standard for houses being sold in your neighborhood? Does everybody expect granite counter tops? They’re quite expensive & need upkeep–and some granite looks a bit “generic.”
Then, there are the appliances. The current fashion is for Stainless (goes so well with the Granite.) Again, find out what’s going on in your neighborhood. (Snoop at some open houses? Ask your new neighbors?) For some buyers, shiny new appliances in white or “bisque” might be fine.
Don’t forget new paint, window treatments & other cheaper methods of making the kitchen look better.
People have this idea of IKEA that they sell one grade of stuff. They actually sell a range of merchandise which includes both “cheap/chintzy” and “inexpensive but quite nice.” For an example of the latter I have a kitchen island thing from IKEA: all wood, 2 shelves, caster wheels for mobility, just the right size for my tiny kitchen… it cost $45 – sometimes you can’t beat IKEA! But I agree you need to see for yourself because you can’t tell from pictures what is worth the money and what isn’t.
My notion of “IKEA Install” wasn’t even necessarily limited to stuff from IKEA.
I’m really talking about the houses you look at where someone was like, “I can’t show this house with an old shitty kitchen”.
So, they install a “new shitty kitchen”. A kitchen that isn’t a good working kitchen; it’s not going to last. It’s installed just to show well cosmetically, not to be a kitchen that you’re going to use and love.
IMHOP, IKEA cabinets are medium-quality. Don’t forget-you get what you pay for. There is no way that veneer-on-pressboard cabinets are going to last as long as solid oak. However, cabinet prices amaze me-a skilled finish carpenter can make you a nice set of birch-faced plywood cabinets (they look great with IKEA-style handles) for MUCH less than 3K$
I’m glad you said that as it’s something I want to comment on. It’s my understanding that you only get back about 60% of the remodel. However, what it does do; is allow it sell faster… something that’s important in this depressed market.
The surfaces are out of fashion and not in good shape. It’s an (obviously) older neighborhood, but it’s still sort of nice. I mean, I’m on 3/4 of an acre. The house is four side brick. I think granite counter tops would be nicer than what the neighborhood calls for. Our plans are to update the appliances. Partly out of how we want to change the kitchen layout. For example we have a stove top built into a cabinet on one wall, but the oven is built into a different wall. We plan to replace that with an actual oven with a microwave overhead (right now the microwave is taking up valuable counter space).
The cabinets are definitely showing signs of age. The tracks that hold the drawers level are messed up. The cabinet doors don’t close ‘nicely’, the counter tops (Formica) are chipped up. We did paint. It helped a little. It will need new floors too (If I’m not mistaken, it’s currently white linoleum on top of a nice earth tone linoleum); but that’s a different discussion I suppose.
This is very useful information to me (as is the post in which you were replying to). I need to just go down there and see if I’m comfortable with what I see. On one hand I want to save money, on the other hand a want a kitchen I won’t mind living with for a while, and on yet another hand I don’t want to do work on my kitchen only to have a person say (as above) “I wish they’d just left it alone”.
I have an IKEA Kitchen. They had a style that was exactly what we were looking for, at a really good price. They were also very highly rated at Consumer Reports. It’s a pressboard cabinet frame, hung from the wall via a metal track. The floor cabinets stand on feet, of adjustable height, rather than requiring shims like a standard cabinet. You then clip on a toekick to hide the works.
I find the biggest problem with Ikea’s stuff is that it doesn’t move well, but if it’s permanently installed it does the trick, and I think these will last for decades. One thing you will not get is a typical wood drawer, their drawers are sheet metal sides and grey bottom panels. They roll nicely, and extend pretty far out, but they’re more industrial looking than a regular drawer.
Ikea also offers bunch of countertop materials, from their own solid wood to Corian to granite. When you have “them” install it, it’s really just a local contractor they arrange it with.
Also if you’ve never been to IKEA let me give you some advice:
If you need to go on a weekend plan to get there as early as possible, as early as they open if you can. About noon on a weekend the place gets BUSY.
The fabrics and home do-dads are in a separate area from the main showcase floors (usually nearer to the warehouse area). Take a good look around for useful things – for example, I needed a very narrow pot rack and ended up using a towel rack made from the same modular steel tubing so the hooks still fit fine.
They offer child care (free) and a cafeteria (inexpensive; get the meatballs) on site so you don’t have to drag tired children around or get cranky with low blood sugar.
Its kind of an ordeal but when you find great stuff you can afford its well worth it.
IMO the kitchens from IKEA are excellent value for money. Sure you can get better stuff but you will pay a lot for it. I have friends who have spent insane amounts of money on their kitchens and I do not think theirs look better than our kitchen.
Like a previous poster mentioned they have a range of styles (and qualities) available. It is not all pressboard either (well the frames are but that doesn’t matter). There are doors available in wood as well if that is more to your liking.
I have an IKEA kitchen both in the apartment and in the summer house and they are fine. In the summer house I even installed 95 percent of it myself and I am not extremely handy. The only things I did not do were water and electricity.
I just bought a house with an IKEA kitchen. It’s a rehab so they started from scratch. The IKEA wasn’t a huge selling point, as there certainly is better stuff out there, but it’s servicable and this was their higher quality line.
A new kitchen will really help show a house, but if the build and install quality isn’t top notch, don’t bother.
