Three Things To Avoid When Designing and Installing Ikea Kitchens
Avoid These Common Mistakes in Your IKEA Kitchen Installation!
When creating the perfect IKEA kitchen, some design choices can lead to unforeseen challenges and compromises in your kitchen’s functionality and aesthetics.
No one wants that!
As an expert IKEA installer, I will share three important things to consider when creating your IKEA kitchen layout plan. Not doing these things could hurt the finished result.
Watch the full video below, or keep reading to learn more about making informed choices that enhance your kitchen’s beauty and functionality!
Mistakes to Avoid with Knobs and Handles
When choosing styles of knobs, I recommend always going with circular knobs.
These will be easier to install correctly because they will always sit as you want them to. An oval-style or square knob must always be installed perfectly aligned with the rest of the knobs to look correct, whereas a circular knob will never look tilted.
Even if the non-circular knob is installed perfectly at the start, it will loosen over time and become out of place.
When choosing handle styles, look for handles that come in one piece. Some popular IKEA handles (KALLRÖR) come in three pieces and do not fit together at a perfect 90-degree angle when you assemble and install them.
This might not bother everyone, but I am not too fond of the look of a kitchen full of all these wonky handles. You will get better results with one-piece handles with a similar look.
Mistakes to Avoid with Kitchen Island Panels
The next tip to avoid is for anyone installing double-row islands, i.e. islands where you mount two rows of IKEA cabinets back-to-back. This applies explicitly to islands where two different depths of cabinets are used.
When you combine these cabinets of different sizes, IKEA does not make a side panel that fits well here. Instead, IKEA recommends cutting two side panels and putting them together to fit. However, I cannot entirely agree with this practice. If you do this, you end up with tear-out on both edges, resulting in an ugly seam that is very obvious.
To avoid this, I recommend not cutting your panels at all. Instead, widen the island by mounting the IKEA assembly kit to the back of the cabinets but moved out a notch. With the assembly kit between the two rows of cabinets, the island will now be the perfect size to use the 25″ and the 15″ panels together. Since you do not make any cuts, the edges of the panels will be clean, and the seam will be much less noticeable.
Read more about how to build a double-row island.
Mistakes to Avoid with High Cabinets and Deco Strips
IKEA deco strips go at the top of the upper cabinets. They are popular because many people like how they look when staged at IKEA. However, most people should not use this piece.
Most houses have about 96 inches from the floor to the ceiling, but this can vary from 94.5 to 96 inches. So, 40″ high wall cabinets or 90″ high pantry cabinets will measure about 94.5 inches from floor to top, and there will be no room to squeeze in the deco strip.
Of course, you could decide to lower the upper cabinets to make room for the strip, but this will sacrifice room on your countertops for small appliances. It will also screw up any other cabinets that need to align with this cabinet, so it is not recommended.
However, what if you have enough ceilings to accommodate the deco strip? In that case, I still do not recommend using it.
Looking closer at the strip, you will see that getting it lined up perfectly is challenging. Often, our homes are not perfectly square in every place, so the strip will protrude in some places and end up looking sloppy, so it is better to skip it.
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Still going strong
I bought one of these when I started my business more than five years ago, and it is still going strong after more than 250 kitchens.
Unbelievable quality. I use it to assemble all cabinets and drawers, and the Gyro feature is excellent. There’s only one button to press. The twist of your hand controls the rotational direction.
Very clever. I love it.
Go Green and save batteries
This is the third laser level I bought since I started to install kitchens, and hopefully, the last. It uses the same battery as my power tools and can run for a long time on a full charge.
This one has a green laser light, making it much easier to see the lines in broad daylight.
It is not a cheap tool, though, but I would have saved quite a bit of dollars if I had bought it, to begin with, instead of purchasing more affordable options twice.
Since I use the laser for a lot more than just checking ceilings and hanging rails, it has been money well spent for me.