You know I am the world’s biggest proponent of doing things “the hard way.” But sometimes, I see these Ikea kitchen makeovers, and I think: They look pretty darn good and would be so easy, especially compared to spending five years hunting down vintage steel cabinets. Case in point, above: Jerry has embarked on a new project — buying midcentury homes in Pittsburgh and renovating them, as required and in period-sympathetic style, for rental. I like to show lots of different ways to go after your home remodeling projects. I have never shown an Ikea kitchen before. I think this could be a very practical and relatively affordable solution for many people. Read on for Jerry’s story, for more photos, and for more discussion of The Ikea Option. Do you have experience with these cabinets? Please share!
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Jerry writes:
Hi Pam,I have attached pictures of my first Mid-Century Modest Renovation. The house is a ranch built in 1963 that I renovated to rent to retro appreciators. So far that has been a bit of a tough sell in Pittsburgh, but I am not giving up. In fact, I am looking at a second property to rehab in the same manner. Many of the resources I used to refurbish this ranch came directly from info I obtained through Retro Renovation.Actually, aside from the kitchen not much is new. The kitchen was gutted, everything is new except the doorbell cover (Nutone). The pattern for the floor tile came from Retro Renovation.Ikea cabinets, glass back splash and fixtures (new). Boomerang Formica counter top. The only color still in the line (gray). I have also attached an image of the kitchen (before). The old metal cabinets are still down in the garage, but I am afraid this kitchen endured a bad 70’s makeover.Bathroom does have new sink, toilet and medicine cabinet. The cabinet came from Retro Renovation. The sink in a house brand, but I thought it looked a lot like some of the Crane models you showcased.The black and white tile is original as are the chalk fish above the shower (attached). The floor tile was original. It was hard to believe that the whole first floor was covered in this sherbet green sculpted carpet, even the bathroom. When I pulled up the carpet in the bathroom there was this beautiful white tile with black and grey specks. It took a bunch of stripping and scrubbing to get the old wax and carpet residue off, but it came out really beautiful.The drapes either came from companies you listed on RR (living room) or from cloth purchased at a local thrift store, thanks to my wife Mary Jo. All the furniture is mid-century, mostly purchased from two local stores Mostly Mod (no longer in business) and Retro on 8th both in Homestead, PA right down the street.The Lane bedroom came from Craigslist. The hardwood floors were refinished. Oh, and the house numbers came from Home Depot through information from one of the blogs you link to. All the light fixtures are new except the swags and the side-table lamp in the living room.Jerry
More info and more photos on this rental house in West Mifflin, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania can be seen at:
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Thank you, Jerry — what a lovely remodel, and way to go for your love of the midcentury modest and your desire to preserve and restore these homes.
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I really love the way you rearranged the appliances in the kitchen — the refrigerator looks great at the back now. The floor is terrific, and I know that many readers will love how you incorporated the glass tile backsplash. You also finished out the bathroom perfectly, and omg, that original floor! I sure hope you find an appreciative renter for #4201 — and for a long series of fixer-uppers to come. P.S., Go Steelers!!!!
Resources for this remodel:
- Ikea Akurum kitchen cabinets – now discontinued but Ikea usually has similar cabinet systems available see ’em here.
- Patterns for 1950s vinyl tile floors
- Formica boomerang laminate countertop, Charcoal
- Nutone 455FL medicine cabinet with side lights
- Barkcloth for living room curtains from Tonic Living
Let’s talk about the long-term quality
of Ikea and other stock kitchen cabinets today
Okay, peoples, now on to Ikea. It is pretty amazing, the selection of cabinets this company offers, including the many door styles and colors. The basic white sink cabinet I showed above is: $58. My gosh, my family can spend that much on dinner at an inexpensive Italian restaurant.
Glossy red over MDF — sliders in the case of the wall cabinet, above.
Hey, the door above ain’t too far from Avocado, so Ikea gets props from that. There are many colors and woodgrains, glass-fronts, too….
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Honestly, I’ve never written about Ikea cabinets before, for two reasons. (1) Because I always felt like other blogs had that territory well covered, and I wanted to plow new ground. And (2) Because I have these qualms about the longterm quality of these cabinets. Hey: I have my qualms about the longterm quality of Almost All stock cabinets you’d buy today “at low prices” from Big Box stores… and even qualms about “not so low priced” cabinets from a variety of sources.
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I am not an expert on all the different kitchen cabinet manufacturers or even, exactly what to look for to ensure good long-term quality. When I was doing my aquamarine kitchen, I bought a Consumer Reports online subscription to see what they recommended. As I recall, key issues included looking for: Solidity of “the box” that that doors and drawers to screwed on to. Indeed, the doors and drawers on our 1975 cabinets were all falling off their cheap (clearly) particle board boxes.
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I have this expectation, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable: Kitchen cabinets should last virtually forever. Well-made 1950s wood cabinets did. My steel cabinets will. How long will these Ikeas — and other “affordable” kitchen cabinets made today — made today last?
This summer, Dear Husband and I stayed at a place on vacation that had an Ikea Akurum kitchenette — I took photos, of course, there it is, above. I just asked DH what he remembered about the cabinets. I knew he would remember, because I was all interested in them at the time and tortured him to look at them with me. His recollection, verbatim: “They were nice, they were stylish… but they were chintzy… you know… thin.”
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I don’t want to make anyone feel bad if they have these cabinets in their home. I think they could work very well for many people. They may last a long time — much longer than my fears suggest. And oh my gosh, the price for the style sounds fantastic. But will they last long enough and provide the solid “thump” hand-feel that would it would take to satisfy hard-to-satisfy me? I don’t think so, not to live with for the rest of my life. But for a carefully used single-, couple- or family kitchen, a rental, a mother-in-law apartment, a vacation house? Yes, sounds like Ikea is worth checking out.
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Katie says
The thing that I really love about IKEA cabinets, is the variety of sizes and features that you can get. In our kitchen redo, we had an ‘extra’ twelve inches beside the oven cabinet. IKEA sells a twelve inch cabinet, so we were able to squeeze in a little bit of extra storage space. The boxes are MDF, but it is very heavy MDF, and the laminate that covers it is thick and well bonded. Is it going to last as long as wood or steel? Under ordinary use, maybe not, but on the other hand a freak water leak ruined the solid wood cabinets that had been installed in our kitchen the 1970s.
From a sustainability standpoint, MDF can also be made using ‘scrap’ wood, or wood that isn’t suitable for other uses, so using MDF where it doesn’t show can help cut down on waste in the manufacturing process.
I was also happy with the variety of style options for the doors. We went with a white slab front, because it seemed like the most timeless option, but we could have easily gone for a very traditional look as well. I should mention that we went with the Varde series for the cabinets, which included nice features like a stainless drainboard sink, and heavy solid birch legs, and then used the Akrum series with the Harlig doors (which matched the Varde doors) for the oven cabinet and the ‘bonus’ cabinet.
Cloud says
I am probably going to be going with IKEA for my kitchen. I read an article – wish I had kept it – from a professional decorator who essentially said, unless you go with custom-made cabinets, ALL new cabinets have the same basic box made out of the same basic materials. IKEA is no better or worse than anything you’d find in a newly constructed house. And in fact, the hardware is actually better than you’d find in new construction, with far more options, too. And, well, cheaper. Of course it would be great if it would last 50 years, too, but if you can’t afford that, IKEA is the best quality for the best price.
Renee says
This has been a great discussion! I too have come out of lurkedom to offer up what I know about ikea cabinets. My mother has these in her house that she bought nearly ten years ago. She measured, picked them out, and assembled them herself, and hired a general carpenter to hang them ( she was 73 at the time and has always been a ‘can-do’ sort! ) They’ve seen a lot of use, and are still in fantastic shape.
This leads me to thinking I may just look into buying doors for my 70’s plywood box cabinets with their raised panel doors. If anyone out there has done door replacements from ikea, I’d love to hear about it.
Ann V says
You typically cannot put Ikea doors on older cabinets. Older cabinets usually have partial overlay doors, where you see a little bit of the cabinet frame between the doors. Ikea cabinets have full overlay doors, where there’s just a tiny gap between the doors and you don’t see any of the cabinet frame. The Ikea cabinets are just boxes with doors on the front, and older cabinets have face frames. Does that make sense?
lexavline says
I’ve got to say that IKEA cabinets are not bad. The previous tenant had them installed in my apartment in 2003 (maybe 2004?) and they are still holding up quite strong and still look very nice. It’s a tiny, tiny kitchen with a shower and a seperate “bathroom sink”(old NY tenement building) Luckily, the toilet is in it’s own little closet near the entry door! It looks like only three upper cabinets were used with the sink base cabinet painted white to match. Two of the cabinets have flat-front white laminate doors and one has a frosted glass panel. They are incredibly easy to clean and they do look very mid-century, even in a hundread year old building. I’m sure I’ll need new cabinets when I finally buy a home and begin a retro-renovation. I will certainly consider IKEA if knotty pine base cabinets with yellow metal uppers doesn’t materialize. One can dream… :- )
Emily says
We did our old kitchen in Ikea and I miss their roominess and the drawer dampeners everyday! Sure, they aren’t handcrafted and may show some slight signs of wear after some years but the cost effectiveness makes them totally worth it. They are especially great for odd and awkward spaces.
As others have mentioned, the hinges and fasteners are super durable and are top-notch. I would probably not get a sink, fixture or appliance there either. We did get the counter-top there and it did show very minor scratching fairly quickly.
Once you are used to the funny graphic instruction, assembly is a breeze and we didn’t have a problem with installation either and we were putting them into a structure built in the 1890’s – plaster and lathe!
Our current kitchen is a 1951 ranch in S FL with the original (tiny) cabinets and I an currently working on a way to keep some of them while incorporating some new Ikea cabinets to make better use of the space.
Sam says
I know there are mixed reviews for IKEA but I will say I love the final product. For the cost and quality, they cannot be beat. They hold up well too and come with a 25 yr warranty which most companies don’t even compete with. Think about how many people open and close those drawers in the stores and they stand up. Blum is really great hardware – used by a variety of higher end companies that has truly stood up to the test.
The cabinet boxes are strong and the cool part is since it’s all standard sizes, if you ever want to update, you just switch out the cabinet faces and you can keep the boxes. The hardware snaps right out, no screwdrivers required.
I had less than $10,000 for a full kitchen gut and remodel. I had over 60 sqft of counterspace and lots of cabinets were needed. I would’ve spent close to $20,000 even on big box cabinets, custom cabinets were running over $25,000 and I had given up on renovating my kitchen. It was a DIY project, with the exception of the countertops. I opted for white quartz so I could have an undermount sink but snagged a deal which cost me about $30 a sqft.
Deals are out there and IKEA is a GREAT option for the budget conscious. Apartment Therapy recommends them even for budget cabinets. Give them a shot, plus the soft close doors and drawers are a GODSEND with kids 🙂
JohnArmstrong says
I can’t find those house numbers at HomeDepot. Just finishing the restoration on a 1963 MCM ‘west coast modern’ built into a hillside here in BC
those are just what I’m looking for with the last pennies of my budget
Jerry Coltin says
Atlas Homewares
Avalon Collection Aged Bronze 4.5 in. #4-Home Depot
Jerry Coltin says
Hillman 5 in. Elevated Number-Home Depot
Wink says
Jerry, I think you’ve done a swell job and I would rent from you in a heartbeat! You clearly care about your property, and want to provide your tenants with a good experience.
Jerry Coltin says
Thanks for the kind words Wink. It warms my heart.
retroinhouston says
We used Ikea cabinets in our kitchen remodel after pricing an Italian thermofoil cabinet brand at a high end kitchen renovation company. We found out that the base materials under the thermofoil wrap were the same (MDF) in both the Ikea and the Italian cabinets. We also learned that the soft drawer closures etc… that are standard on Ikea cabinets were all considered to be upgrades in Italian line. We paid at Ikea about 1/3 the cost of the Italian cabinets. When we used the Ikea recommended installer, we spent about 1/2 of the cost of the Italian cabinets. But we were going for a very sleek, monochrome look. And, I knew I wanted grey as the overall color and I wanted a quartz countertop. I think it really depends on the look you are going for and whether the Ikea cabinets can meet your design expectations.
pam kueber says
Thanks for this feedback, retro. Yes: I think the answer is good research/sleuthing to identify the exact materials used by each manufacturer, then to compare. I think I am hearing today, overall: Boxes, door and drawer attachment hardware, and materials used in making door and drawer fronts…
chris says
I just created a monster.
After reading all these posts and getting frustrated that I can’t afford to do anything to the kitchen, I thought the following:
(In a perky voice in my head)
“Hey! What can I do for free that would improve the look of this kitchen?”
The answer was easy. In the 70s, someone stuck a range hood that vents to nowhere. It has never, ever worked at all. It just fills in a hole under the cabinet.
I thought (still in my cheerleader voice) “well, if I take that down, I can just cut a strip of wood to fill in the uneven cut out — a little putty and paint, and I’ll be good!”
Took it down. THere is very rough particle board under it (not even MDF -the rough give-you-splinters stuff). Husband says now the steam from the stove will make it disintegrate.
Grrrrrrrr.
pam kueber says
Yes, it always starts this way… “I’ll just peel back one little itty bit…”