Lessons learnt from installing an IKEA kitchen
1. Get the direct number of your local store
The main switchboard customer care number is useless. They are always “experiencing high call volumes at the moment.” In my experience, the call is rarely ever answered at all and when they do, they give you the wrong information. Your local store will have a direct number, then you just need the extension number for kitchens. (IKEA Gateshead is 0191 4932021 ext 6402).
2. Avoid July
The new IKEA catalogue comes out on the 1st August therefore July is chaos as old products get discontinued and new ones aren’t yet available. We turned up at the store ready to purchase a hob only to be told that was now discontinued and the new one was home delivery only… I will say, the home delivery was relatively quick but there was a fee for that!
3. Buy two options
The main bonus of IKEA (well apart from the fact it’s about 50% cheaper than anywhere else due to sheer volume) is that you can buy it as you want. Most places, you design it, sign to say this is it, then the whole lot gets delivered and you can no longer move in your soon-to-be-kitchen because of all the boxes! So instead, we bought a few cabinets at a time*, took them home, assembled them and tried them in different places. You can take back anything you don’t use so why not? We got glass and solid doors in some cases simply because we couldn’t imagine how it would look in our room so we decided to try it out and see.
*granted this only worked because we live so close to an IKEA store.
4. Buy the doors later
The doors are the easy bit to install. They are also the expensive, easily damaged bit so instead of having them in a big vulnerable pile in the corner whilst joiners, electricians and plumbers invade your space, leave them at IKEA for a while! You also only need one soft closer per door, not one per hinge as you might think….
4b But don’t forget the legs….
Floor cabinets come with legs. But they are sold completely separately so if you’re doing a large complicated order it is very easy to forget…. Fitting a kitchen legless is not recommended! It meant an extra trip back on a day when it was really inconvenient so please do learn from my mistake on this one.
5. Get a Family card
Not only does it give you free coffee Monday to Friday, it also insures your purchases against damage on the way home and even in assembly! It makes it much less worrying putting something together.
mininglibrarian 