KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF of IKEA kitchens!!! 1.5 years construction site, 10 vacation days wasted, 4 assembly appointments, 2 planning appointments, 2 surveying appointments, broken electrical appliances, countless emails and telephone calls ... Kitchen still not free of defects, zero service, zero compensation, just trouble !!! I'm moving out of my apartment after just two years - IKEA (https://www.ikea.com/de/de/store/muenchen_eching/) still has not managed to finish the kitchen. I've lived here until the very end in a kitchen construction site with broken, blended worktops, falling out stove, gaps in the cabinets, broken electrical appliances and leaking sinks! In addition, I remain with € 300 uncompensated TV repair costs, because during assembly of the defective stove AND defective oven about 5x the fuse popped out, whereupon the TV mainboard was fried. I was always promised compensation during the 1.5 years until I actually wanted to claim it. For example, the clerk Ms. Sandra H. (customer service IKEA Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG, Eching) offered the option to withdraw from the purchase contract in an email pledged for defect removal costs of € 1,400, i.e. 38% of the purchase price (‘Of course you are also free to withdraw from the complete purchase contract." Email of Sandra H. from 19.09.18). When I wanted to take this a week later, the resignation was again denied ("This is smaller (legally ‘minor’) deviation from the agreed condition, which is why your client has no right of withdrawal and regarding a purchase price reduction , we consider here a reduction of 5% of the purchase price of the kitchen for appropriate.’ Email of Sandra H. from 27.09.18). The € 1,400 costs estimated by IKEA itself for defect removal are suddenly ‘legally minor’?!?! This customer-devaluing attrition strategy from IKEA customer service is absolutely inappropriate! In the meantime I have given up even with a lawyer involved, because I have to hand over the apartment to the new tenant - I have refused the offered 91 € impairment and remain on my kitchen defects and repair costs. I did not mention many annoying details in this summary. Should anyone still want to buy an IKEA kitchen at IKEA, here is my review of the appointment / assembly process, which she/he should plan with: - 11.05.2017 1.surveying appointment at home: normal - 15.05.2017 1.planing apptmt at IKEA: normal - 12.06.2017 1.installation apptmt at home: Planning error (measures copied incorrectly), broken kitchen appliances, broken TV, cabinet gaps, no worktop - 13.06.2017 2.planing apptmt at IKEA: complete replaning due to 40cm length planing error - 28.06.2017 2.installation apptmt: incorrect parts delivery, scratched, incorrectly cut worktop, broken rear wall - 04.07.2017 2.surveying apptmt: new measurement for worktop - 13.11.2017 3.installation apptmt: worktop supplied by 5cm too narrow - 02.06.2018 4.installation apptmt: worktop supplied by 2cm too wide & 2cm too short - about 12 repetitive hotline calls (always longer than 30min) including waiting loop - 10 WASTE HOLIDAYS - 26 Email pure for the coordination of the kitchen installation - 43 Email with IKEA "customer service" for the misclaimed "claim settlement" - 300 € collateral damage - Zero compensation (91 € were offered to me, which I refused)

The only good pictures I could find were from when we placed the kitchen (we're messy people, lol). The kitchen is 2.3x1.4m and we've adjusted some cabinets ourselves (hence the vent pipe). It was fun to look at these photo's, because at the time I was halfway pregnancy and it was a hot summer. I remember grouting the tiles and the countertop felt nice and cool on my belly. The countertop is secondhand, since we blew our budget on double mortgage (hadn't sold the other home yet), a bathroom and some new windows and insulation. I was thrilled to find a small L with the (nearly) exact spots for sink and cooktop, just a tad bit too long on both sides, which was perfect for us! We had to help gut their kitchen and paid €500 for everything. Resold their appliances for about €300, used the old handles and dumped the cabinets. Bargain! This is an inbetween :) (built in 1950 I suppose this house has had several kitchens) The old kitchen! And where that wall used to be (see photo above), we made a peninsula with 100cm tall upper cabinets and an old workbench top: And we've used Veddinge doors under a desk next to the dining table, opposite the kitchen:

Our new kitchen was Ikea and we spray painted the Ikea doors with F&B. Our builders customised the kick boards and made tailor made tongue & groove end panels and infills. As colourhappy says you get such a lot of space in the cabinets, not to mention some nifty in-built storage options, to make the most of the space. A lot of folks are sniffy about Ikea kitchens, but I think they're long lasting and good value. The money we saved on the cabinets & doors, we put towards Corian worktops and Neff & Fisher & Paykell appliances and a Quooker tap.

Hi, we purchased Lerhyttan light grey last year for the kitchen and absolutely love it! Just in case you want a paint colour that goes well with it too, I splashed out for Farrow & Ball 'Wevet'. It's very close to white but isn't. We have a white ceiling and you can easily see a difference in colour. It keeps the kitchen looking light. We have a wooden floor and a wooden worktop, plus put in a welsh slate windowsill and then some dark blue roller blinds. It all looks fantastic. One thing my partner did is make a 'pull out' cup ard from normal drawers and doors. It is fab, so much so that he's going to make me another as you can get right to the back of the cupboard. Why Ikea does not promote these hacks I do not know. To fit everything in, my partner also designed a breakfast bar that has the washing machine underneath it on one side (opposite the tumble dryer) and then on the other side of the island is the dishwasher. It's a great use of space as he's closed up a window that looked onto my waterbutts, fence and neighbour's extension and put in more storage for me.. We played with the Ikea planning app for maybe 1/2 a year before taking the plunge. You can really make it work it you just take the time to plan it properly. He wanted to warn you about the price of cover panels though - the large ones are £127 a pop - a huge price for just a bit of coloured wood, and you'll end up using them all over. For under the breakfast bar, he got some MDF and then glued on some floor tiles, cut through the door of the washing machine and saved us approx £220! (Came to £40 instead of £260). One thing that I cannot stress enough is that it's REALLY worth looking for returns in the 2nd hand bit. You can pick up doors at a completely bargain price so always go and have a look. Ours still isn't finished as we're doing it ourselves (so please excuse the floor protector), but it looks completely amazing already compared to what it was before! Our friends love it. Lights are from Ikea too. Go for Lerhyttan. Good luck!