Ikea flatpack kitchens are a good look

The kitchen in a 10-year-old house gets a complete makeover courtesy of a flatpack Ikea kitchen. It's hard to believe this glossy white kitchen came in a box!

If you're under the impression that flatpack kitchens lack style, think again. As Ikea kitchens prove, they can not only look great, but also come with all the features you'd expect to find in a much more expensive, custom kitchen plans.

"I think that did surprise us," says home owner David. "We bought this kitchen from Ikea and when we visited the showroom we were immediately impressed by how many great features their kitchens have - things like the storage options and soft-close functions on the drawers are what you expect to find in a top-of-the line kitchen."

With the original kitchen in their 10-year-old house looking a little worse for wear, David and partner Karen didn't have a huge budget for their renovation, but they still wanted to create a kitchen plan with a touch of luxury.

"That's one reason why we decided to go for the high-gloss finish in white - we felt it looked quite expensive and in the end would perhaps make the kitchen seem more expensive than it probably is," says Karen.

In fact, the couple say they couldn't be happier with their Ikea kitchen now it's installed. "The storage is fantastic and we love the look of it," says David. "There's no question that for the money we spent, we've got a kitchen that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford."

Apart from the benchtop (and appliances), everything came in flatpack form. "We decided to get the benchtop made by a kitchen company, mainly because Ikea doesn't offer the dark wenge wood finish that we were after. But we still installed it ourselves - right down to cutting the hole for the cooktop."

So was the Ikea flatpack kitchen experience all smooth sailing?

"To be honest, the actual construction of the cabinets was much easier than we'd anticipated, but the installation was probably harder and took a lot longer to get exactly right," says David. "I think that's where having some general building knowledge would be invaluable - in hindsight, we were pretty green in that respect. But we got there in the end and couldn't be happier. It's definitely lived up to expectations."

David and Karen, Home Owners & Designers

What's the biggest change from the old kitchen plan?

Two things - the bench space and the storage, both of which we now have so much more of. Apart from the fact that the old kitchen was pretty run down, getting more storage and bench space was always the priority, so on that count we're very happy.

What's your favourite feature of your new Ikea kitchen?

If we had to pick just one thing, we'd say the pantry. Compared with what we lived with before, this one is amazing. It was one of Ikea's standard designs and we chose it because we liked the configuration of the drawers and baskets in the top cabinet.

What's been you best investment?

Definitely the gas cooktop. The old kitchen had an electric cooktop, so we had to get gas installed, but it was worth it. We chose the 70cm model instead of the 60cm model, which fits into the same sized space but features five instead of four burners.

What advice do you have for people thinking of installing a flatpack kitchen from Ikea?

Take your time in the kitchen planning and layout stage and make sure your measurements are spot on. It also pays to talk to the Ikea kitchen consultants as much as you can, because they're your only source of expertise. And unless you're handy with a hammer, it can also be a good idea to employ a builder to help you install it.

Is there anything you'd do differently if you had your time over?

Probably not in terms of the finished room, but we'd have allowed more time for installation. We thought we'd knock it off in a couple of days, but in reality, because we were doing it ourselves with little experience, we were without a kitchen for about three weeks.

What was the biggest challenge about designing the new kitchen plan?

We kept the oven, sink and fridge in the same positions as in the old kitchen, so that was easy, but it was challenging working out how to make the standard-sized cabinetry fit into our U-shaped space, as well as getting the configuration of kitchen drawers and cupboards that we wanted.

Why did you choose the flatpack option?

Mainly to keep the cost down. We desperately needed a new kitchen, but weren't prepared to spend more than $20,000, including some new appliances. So the flatpack kitchen route seemed to be our best bet.

Why did you choose relatively expensive European appliances?

We had to replace the oven, the cooktop and the rangehood and because the kitchen cabinetry and benchtop were relatively inexpensive we had the budget to splash out a bit with the appliances, which we think helps take the kitchen up a notch from your typical flatpack kitchen.

Why did you choose the white high-gloss finish?

It was our pick of the finishes that were available from Ikea kitchens. But we also wanted a dark wenge-look benchtop and white cabinetry would suit that best, as well as making our relatively small kitchen look as large as possible.

What was the thinking behind the large sink?

We just fell in love with it and, much like the European appliances, felt it created a bit of a 'wow' factor and lifted the kitchen from a flatpack design to something with a bit more style. And it was the right choice - I think we'd struggle to go back to a normal-sized sink now.