What to Expect- Ikea Kitchen Ordering

What to expect when ordering a kitchen from Ikea

Welp, it’s week three of my kitchen renovation and things are starting to get exciting! Our kitchen is getting torn apart (goodbye old cabinets!) which means it’s time to order new cabinets. Before starting, I looked at a bunch of cabinet options and we ended up going with Ikea because of cost and customization.

I read so many blog posts about ordering a kitchen from Ikea and couldn’t find what to exactly expect when you order a kitchen from them, so I thought I’d document the process here. If you like to know what to expect and you are planning an Ikea kitchen, this post is for you!

1 Go to Ikea and get ideas.

Lots and lots of ideas! Open each cabinet in every one of the mini kitchens and note what you love and hate. You might be surprised at what you like in real life that you wouldn’t have guessed you would like! Grab a few kitchen catalogs and eat some Swedish Meatballs. Maybe pretend you’re Summer from 500 days of Summer (oh wait, is that just me who does that?!)

2 At home, plug in the measurements of your kitchen into Ikea’s kitchen planner.

Ikea has a free website they offer where you can try out every cabinet configuration you can dream of and see what it’ll look like. Make sure to create a login and save your work (the program is prone to crashing). Change and tweak your kitchen until it’s perfect (and then save it once more).

It’s officially time to head back to Ikea to place your order.

Plan on at least 4 hours at the store to complete  your order. I suggest to go early on a weekday when it’ll probably be the least busy. Bring a truck or trailer  and some tie downs since you will need to haul your kitchen home (though you can pay for delivery).

Once you arrive at Ikea

Go straight to the kitchen planning area of the stores (where all of the computers are on the 2nd floor) and get in line for assistance. You can sit down at an open computer and when it’s your turn you’ll get a salesperson. Have your kitchen plan open on the computer and a list of any questions you may have.

Your salesperson will go through your plan with you

They will try to ensure there are no mistakes. They’ll add in anything you might have missed. Depending on how complete your plan was this could take 45 minutes to an hour. You’ll pay for the cabinet part of your purchase in the kitchen planning area so that it can be picked for you in the warehouse while you finish shopping. You will be given a receipt, the plan for your kitchen, and a list of every piece you will receive and your order number.

Don being an angel while we placed our order. Tablet plus lots of snacks = happy toddler. If your child is potty trained and 37″-54″ tall, they can use IKEA’s play place.

What if something is out of stock?

We had two pieces end up being out of stock- a drawer front and a part to our dishwasher. Those will be shipped to us for $15 in about one week.

Note, if you buy during the sale (especially at the end), most or all of your kitchen might be out of stock. Be prepared to wait 7-10 days for it to be restocked.

How long will it take to pick?

We were told that for all 90 pieces of our kitchen it would take around one hour for the warehouse employees to gather them. It was a little longer than that. Have lunch, buy your kitchen accessories, back your truck or trailer into the loading area and then head to the Furniture Pickup area to see if your order is up on the screen.

Inventory time.

Once your order has been pulled, you will need to take inventory and make sure they got everything from your order. This part isn’t fun and takes 30-45 minutes of checking each item off the list. You need to sign that all items were picked so you’re in charge of ensuring it was done correctly.

Loading up.

Now you have all of your pretty cabinets in flat boxes and it’s time to load them up and take them home. You might want to wear gloves for this step since the cardboard can cut you (I wish I wasn’t telling you this from personal experience). Tie your boxes down and drive slowly home. Our trip home took much longer than usual because we took a slower highway instead of a freeway.

Sales Timing

We went during the Ikea kitchen event where all kitchens are 20% off so it was extra busy. Being there during the sale saved us $900 so if you can time your visit during a sale, it sure is worth it!

Cost

Are you wondering what everything cost that we got from Ikea? The total we spent at Ikea was $3,571.17. This includes new cabinets, a dishwasher, a sink, and some accessories. We have a small kitchen so the total will depend on your selection and size of a space you are making over. We went with the Bodbyn cabinets (which I am so excited about)! Click here to see the grand total for our whole kitchen renovation.

conclusion

And just like that, we have a new kitchen in a bunch of flat boxes! We are storing them in our garage and building one piece at a time, things are about to get real messy!

Have you ever done a kitchen renovation? Are you doing one now? I want to hear all about it! From a girl who loves to plan and would have LOVED to have this list a head of time to know what to expect, I hope it is helpful to you.

Any questions- just leave me a comment! Next week I will update you on where we are with our renovation! I am doing this renovation for the One Room Challenge so that means 4 more weeks to go to the final reveal! And just for fun- here’s a sneak peek of what the kitchen looks like now:

For more behind the scenes, I’ll be on Instagram stories sharing the progress! Just joining us? Catch up on my renovation!

The inspiration and why I was scared to start this HUGE project

How I prepped my house for the kitchen renovation

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