[greenmush]

Didn't really search for one yet but i figured i'd get a thread going anyway.....it's for people to post the mistakes we made along the way in our installation, in hopes that future ikeans embarking upon kitchen remodeling will avoid the pitfalls, no matter how stupid they might seem. So it's time to enter the IKEA KITCHEN CONFESSIONAL!!!! (and feel free to redeem yourselves by following up with helpful tips you employed that made you feel super-savvy along the way.....this way, we can balance out the mistakes)

I will lead off:

I feel our kitchen went pretty smoothly to be perfectly honest. Very few mistakes in the long run, but it is still nearly impossible to avoid a few bumps in the road.

1) Buy enough of the plinth and deco strips. I did in fact buy tons of the plinth, so no problem there....but i didn't buy enough deco strip TO ACCOUNT FOR A BAD CUT. I was cutting the trim for the "crown moulding" at the top of my cabinets, which by the way we glued to the ceiling with construction adhesive. Anyhow, it's very hard to look at a drawing that's essentially opposite what it's like looking at your ceiling, so it's VERY EASY to screw up.....and i did. I got the measurement right, but the angle of the miter wrong....big oops. And guess what, not enough deco strip to finish the kitchen. I could finish the current goal of putting up the ceiling moulding (i flipped my drawing over and looked at it THROUGH the paper, as if i were looking above the ceiling....don't ask me why, but it helped). But my advice would be to always buy AT LEAST ONE MORE STICK THAN YOU PLAN TO NEED of both deco strips and plinth, simply to have the buffer in case you goof on a cut.....you can always return this stuff.

2) Screw the legs on! We didn't on our first cabinet installation, which was our pantry cabinet.....and THAT WAS FUN everytime we moved the thing and legs fell off.....dear god. We glued them, but it takes that construction adhesive a good 24 hours to cure completely, so you glue and then move the cabinet, be prepared for falling legs. Luckily we got this guy in place, legs aligned, and now i'm sure the glue has dried and it's going nowhere.

3) The leg plates...don't forget about them!! Goofed on this.....we DID use them on the pantry, so we're ok there. But we completely forgot about them on the sink cabinet, 12" pull-out, and 18" drawer cabinet. I believe they're for spreading the load from the sides of the cabinets directly to the legs....oops. The good news is this: We're talking 3 small cabinets only holding up a p-lam countertop and stainless steel sink....no cast iron or granite, so i don't feel we're over-stressing the cabinet or the legs in the slightest....it just bothers me that we didn't do that right! But we realized it when we go to the island, after those previous 3 base cabinets were installed. I think we just forgot about those pieces! But never fear, they are on the pantry.....our gigantic pantry.

4) Buy enough paint!! It's embarassing being an ex-painter, but here i stand wearing my mistake on my sleeve. I spent $$$ on nice benjamin moore regal pearl finish paint for my ceiling, only to have the ceiling suck up practically an entire gallon on the first coat!! That gallon was supposed to do 2 coats!!! And yes, it was over a previously painted ceiling, but i guess they used flat, so it was like painting a sponge. Why do i listen to paint guys?!?! I was suspicious at the time when they said one gallon would cover, and to be honest i think i went along because i wanted to hear that i didn't have to shell out another $$$ for an extra gallon of just-in-case paint. But all of this happened on a Sunday, when Ben Moore is closed......so i went to Home Depot, had them mix me the same color (they have Ben Moore color codes, so they can mix it EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED, same color name and everything)....and that's good i suppose, but the irritating part is that the $40-gallon of paint is covered up by the $20-gallon of paint.....that isn't even the finish i wanted. But whatever, live and learn. Either buy a Ben Moore primer (which is cheaper) and get it tinted to the color of you actual paint (this is free), or buy a cheaper version and use it as your first coat / undercoat.

5) Buy more laminate flooring than you need....at least one extra box! I bought enough, but it was JUST enough.....as in I had not a single WHOLE piece left at the end of the job...just scraps. And i bought over 250 SF of flooring for about 230 SF.....i needed a larger margin of error....especially since it was a special order item; it wasn't like i could just scamper out to buy more!! But we made it happen, it was just very scary at the end. But probably not a bad idea to have a bit extra on hand! Who knows....if you like it enough, maybe you'll use the extra in a bathroom or something!!

6) Buy an extra IMPERATIV panel if that's your backsplash. This stuff cuts great with a good, smooth-metal jigsaw blade (you just need more than one depending on your amount of cuts). But i had to do a serious cut-out around a windowsill, and i got the first cut dead on except for the very tight curve around the sill part.....i messed that up bigtime....a jigsaw will only do a curve so tight, especially in metal....therefore, i had a huge gap by my sill because of bad cutting...that and i had warped it. I realized i should have drilled out a hole for that curve, instead of cutting....so off on another trip to IKEA to get another panel (and they were out of the 30x15 size, so i had to by the 30x24 and cut the **** out of it!! what a waste....) But one more, just in case.

Ok, enough confessing.....here are some tips i found useful:

A) Mark your hardware screw-hole template. I just took a sharpie to mine and labeled with letters, so that if the template was changed from a left opening door (the A-holes....feel free to laugh), to a right opening door (the B-holes), and my drawer knobs (C-hole)....i also marked on my template my drill bit sizes. Since i used knobs and pulls, they each required a different bit size...one just had the screw go through the hole to meet the knob, but the pulls actually GO IN the holes, and the screws attach into them through the door (shorter screws). And ALWAYS ALWAYS double-check your handle placement....OCD people like me should have no problem doing this. I didn't make a single mistake with these, but please check THRICE, drill once.

B) Blue tape....buy it, used it....everywhere. This stuph is great.... there's currently a thread on it....search it out for some great uses for this stuph. I used it to mark the cabinet holes where the hinges would go, so i wouldn't accidentally screw the cabinets together through those holes, or put a shelf there, or screws for end panels, etc.....Blue tape is also good for anywhere you plan to cut or drill, front and back......it's marvelous stuph.

C) Tell your family you love them, and that they will see you again soon....really.

D) I really think you need three people to install a 24" deep wall cabinet. We put one over our fridge and my husband and my dad got it up and i did the screws....but it was by far the hardest wall cabinet to install.....i don't think it's THAT heavy, but just very large and cumbersome....don't try it with 2 people....it's too hard.

E) Flooring is tough....even good flooring that's supposed to be easy...it's still hard. Prepare for set-backs and slow-downs....and for god-sakes buy some knee-pads!!

Wow, this is almost like a blog. I'm tired now....if i think of any more tips i'll be back to post them here.

[reefer]

Originally Posted by greenmush

3) The leg plates...don't forget about them!! Goofed on this.....we DID use them on the pantry, so we're ok there. But we completely forgot about them on the sink cabinet, 12" pull-out, and 18" drawer cabinet. I believe they're for spreading the load from the sides of the cabinets directly to the legs....oops. The good news is this: We're talking 3 small cabinets only holding up a p-lam countertop and stainless steel sink....no cast iron or granite, so i don't feel we're over-stressing the cabinet or the legs in the slightest....it just bothers me that we didn't do that right!

I made the same mistake on the first 2 cabinets (49" corner and 15"). Luckily the counter top is not yet screwed down, so I'm going to pull those cabinets out and correct the problem.

[LizT06]

One mistake I made was putting on the drawer front upside down - AND drilling the holes for the handle before realizing my mistake. I now put in all drawers before drilling.

[ndiego2000]

It is 2:30 a.m. I just finished assembling and installing a bunch of drawers for a 123 inch run of base cabinets. Installation of the base cabinets was easy. The drawer project started around 8:30 p.m. yesterday. Now that was tedious!

Right now, I'm sitting on my sofa with my SECOND rum and coke in hand. Yes, I'm getting drunk. At 2:30 a.m.
(Did I spell "tedious" correctly?)

The most important lesson I learned is that the ledger board rocks! It makes installation and leveling of the base cabinets so much easier.

HOWEVER, do NOT use the ledger board that Ikea provides. Use real ledger boards - at least 1 inch in depth - preferably 2 x 4s from, say, Lowes. It will provide that extra support you may need in the vent your walls are not in perfect alignment.

It's 2:50 a.m. I'm going to sleep. Or, passing out.

[greenie227]

Practice with a brad nailer on something other than the first Ikea cabinet built.

(Assuming you've never used one before. Luckily that first cabinet will hold drawers, because the number of nails poking through looks creepy.)

[Wendy]

When drilling holes for handles. Use a template, mark and then punch a starter hole (I used an awl). Good every time.

[demicent]

Oh is that was those leg plate things are for?

[GardenOfDarwin]

It's been a while since we did our install, and I fear it will be even longer still til we do the kitchen, but here goes:

• Use the box as a cushion when assembling cabinets - prevents scratches to both floor and cabinet, plus wear on the knees.
• Use a center punch to start the holes for the teensy, tinsy nails if you don't have a nail gun.

Sorry, that's it for now, but maybe Tigger will have some other advice.

Susan

[ndiego2000]

As a follow-up to my earlier post, if you're using the ledger board provided by ikea, as I did, definitely consider using legs in the back for extra support. The ledger board is really thin, and I was worried about the back cabinet somehow sliding off the board, for whatever reason.

Also, consider doing your kitchen in stages, as I'm doing. It's worked out well for me. I purchased the upper cabinets. And now I'm doing 1/2 the lower cabs. I found it easier to double check inventory when I picked up my items from ikea. Also, I don't have tons of boxes lying around. There is, however, the risk that ikea might discontinue your cabinet line while you're in the middle of your kitchen reno.

[greenmush]

I agree on the use of the boxes as cushions....i did that all over. Less for the actual cabinet assembly but moreso when i was dealing with doors and drawer fronts.....putting them face down on the cardboard to put in the hinges and to drill the holes for the hardware.

Also, i didn't have any issues just hammering in the nails for the back of the cabinets. Is that an issue for people?? My dad and i just took the nails and slightly angled them towards the cabinet frames when we were pounding them in.....we didn't have one nail go through the back....all of them hit their mark. But i suppose a pilot hole or an awl isn't a bad idea of you need that to make sure that you DON'T have nails poking through the back, so more power to you!!

As for me, i decided to knock out my kitchen renovation in just a couple of weeks. We did the pantry weeks before everything else as sort of a "test" project (to see how these cabinets really worked) and also because that's really how i had to phase the kitchen.....it was a better way to phase rather than to wait until the end for the pantry.....it was either/or really....but it was nice to do it first since it was a stand-alone cabinet, so then that way it wouldn't screw up anything else if we messed something up on that project.

I agree that phasing is something that definitely needs consideration, but i wouldn't want to draw out the project over a long period of time....mostly because i want to get things done so i can bask in the finished glory, but because we just simply can't afford to be fumbling around in a half-done kitchen for an indefinite amount of time. But that's just me. Also, we didn't really move any utilities beyond easy homeowner-type work, and i know that's something that can lengthen a project. To each his own i say, but if you can get a couple of SOLID weekends in working, and you're not doing any major movement of plumbing or electric, i'd suggest to just knock it out....it's just that much sooner that you can get your cabinets re-filled and order restored to your life.

Ug.....gotta go put quarter-round down on the floor now.....would have done it yesterday but it was raining and i didn't really feel like being electrocuted in the afternoon. So the project is moved to today....should only take a few hours, but it will be the FINAL bits for the project to be labeled COMPLETE (aside from me having to install the PATRULL baby-proofing on the cabinets)