[jtran79]

hello all,
I am new to this site and in the process of starting the build of a new home. we are currently in the process of picking out our kitchen cabinets and debating whether or not to go with ikea cabinets. I love the stylish design and price point and i am aware that they were rated number 4 by consumer reports. however my only concern is how it will affect the resale value of our home. I would love to hear your opinion and experiences on this subject.

Thanks,
JT

[DesignDiva]

Quite frankly, no one is really going to care who manufactured the kitchen cabinets (unless they are TKO people like us LOL) I would imagine most people would be impressed with the extra features and clean styling that IKEA cabinets provide, and it would be a definite plus.

	TKO definition TKO stands for Totally Kitchen Obsessed - a highly contagious and expensive condition.

[fisheggs]

I'd expect that the quality of the install is far more important than which particular cabinet company you use. ANY cabinet will look bad if installed poorly.

[Brodysmom]

Re-sale value of home improvement is one of my favorite topics! I have no basis for my opinions, but I have a lot them! One caveat, I live in the NYC area, there is no real "new construction" market, so people here are used to buying usedhomes.

I think that a well installed Ikea kitchen (you can see great DIY and professionally installed kitchens in the photo area) will offer an extremely high return on investment. Ikea kitchens offerhomeowners an opportunity to make a huge changeon a reasonable budget.In my opinion, the more reasonably priced the update, the higher the return on investment.Also,improvements (including kitchens)depreciate. A brand new kitchentoday, no matterhow"timeless," will look dated in 10 years.The less an improvement costs, the less it can depreciate over time.

I truly think that in 10 years, my kitchen will add as much value to my house as someone else's 10 year old $100,000 kitchen adds to value of their house.

After all that opining, I have to say, that unless you plan to sell quickly, you should pick what you love, not what you think is best for re-sale.If the only thing you like aboutan Ikea kitchen is the price, spent the extra money and get something else.My husband and I have loved Ikea kitchens since we first saw AdelBirch about 8 years ago. In the end, we put Tidaholm in our kitchen and everyday I'm amazed that I createdsuch a beautiful and inviting space. That it was affordable, is only a bonus.

[chmpgntst]

This is one of my favorite topics too -- a perfect storm of real estate, home decor and sociology.

I think the fact that we have identified and documented occurrences of ikea-tudemeans that it's possible a homebuyer may be turned-off by Ikea cabinets. Whether we like it or not, some people have pre-conceived notions about the quality of Ikea products.

That said, I think the majority of buyers will place a lot of weight onlooks alone. Those who are not kitchen-obsessed will just want to see if it looks nice, clean and in good repair.

Some may open cabinets and drawers. I think one drawback is that a lot of people use dovetail drawers as a litmus test (i.e., dovetail=good, anything else=bad). However, if they're opening drawers, my guess is they will be as likely to notice the smooth motion, full extension and soft close as they are to notice the metal sides.

A lot of buyers will look at appliances -- and if Ikea cabinets allow you to spend a bit more on those, I think you will get some bang there.

I pondered the resale question quite a bit, as we will almost certainly be moving in 3-5 years. My feeling is that it's a crap-shoot. I could get pricey wood cabinets by Omega, only to hear that a buyer didn't like my choice of stain or paint (I love off-white cabinets and am not a fan of dark cherry; a friend told me shewouldn't even look at houses with white kitchens during her recent house-hunt, and bought a house w/cherry cabinets).

I also agree with brodysmom that by making a smaller investment, you have less investment to lose. We could spend $60,000 and recoup $45,000, or we could spend $40K and recoup $20K. We still come out ahead b/c we spent less up front (unless I'm really bad at math).

And then, when it comes down to it, I think there's a buyer for every house. We made a lot of improvements to our last house that we thought would help for resale, but when it came down to it, I think our buyer would have bought the "before" version for pretty much the same price. But we loved what we did and enjoyed living in it.

So to make a long story short, I say go for it! (maybe I should have said that first and saved everyone some time).

Amy

	W definition W is a wall cabinet designation, as in W18, can be a stand-in for Wide, or when followed by a / stands for With.

[Minmin]

I'm intrigued by this subject as well. A friend recently said he was interested in doing some upgrades right before he put his place on the market. OK, I've watched "designed to sell," I fully appreciate that some modest money and some clever staging really does improve a place (or at least viewer's perceptions of a place), but I think one should renovate with two things in mind: both how it will improve YOUR life, and help in resale down the line.

I think it's a mistake when people only think of resale and do it at the end, because that's when we see too mamy corners being cut! Like the friend who discovered his tile counter was tiled on top of insecure laminate. Or the really really cheap replacement cabinets that don't last at all. There are various formulas which say which renos pay-off the most, and kitchens rank quite highly. I think it's important to find your own comfort level, in terms of what you want to spend, can afford to spend, and what you want to have.

[DesignDiva]

Personally, I just tell people that my cabinets are from a high end European manufacturer. Which is true. That word "European" for some reason means "exclusive and expensive" and no one ever asks which manufacturer I mean for fear of not recognizing the name and therefore showing their lack of taste.

[laurie]

Ingeniousanswer, Eva!!!!

[Lisa]

My boyfriend's mother, who may have a touch of the snob brush, loved my "European Kitchen" so I suspect that my cabinets wouldn't have a negative effect on resale at all.

Now the original kitchen? That just goes to show that someone will buy *anything*

[chabuchie]

On Designed to Sell a couple months ago, the only thing the realtor liked was the Ikea kitchen. I've been looking at houses a lot over the past few months, and I must say that I wish more people had Ikea kitchens. I haven't seen a single custom built kitchen in my area that I've liked, and with Ikea, even if I didn't like the door style someone had picked, I could just buy new doors and they'd fit with no modifications necessary. I'm not saying that custom kitchens are bad necessarily (my parents have one that is really quite beautiful), but I don't think they'll improve your house's value anywhere near the amount that you put in. I think I saw recently an article saying that a ten thousand dollar kitchen reno will improve your house's selling value anywhere from 12-15 thousand dollars. The same article said that a fifty thousand dollar reno will also add about 12-15 thousand dollars to your selling price. If there's a reason you really want custom, and it's worth it to you, by all means get custom. Just be aware that it might not be the great investment that you had hoped. And definitely check out all the hardware upgrades. My parents payed for all the "upgrades" their custom cabinetmaker offered, and they're nowhere near as nice as standard Ikea hardware.