Ikea Kitchen Planner - need help!

deedee80

Registered User
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441
Hi guys,

well I downloaded the ikea kitchen planner last week and input all my kitchen measurements. Then the fun started, picking the units and all that malarky. Myself and himself were totally confused by all the choice, shape, sizes and hadn't a breeze where to start. If we brought our measurements to the shop would they do it for us? Or are they so reasonably priced cos you've to do it yourself?
 
Friends of mine found a veyr helpful guy in the Belfast store who made sure everything tied in together and they had all the bits and pieces, from what I understand they do provide assistance.
 
deedee - tis fairly simple. Have some experience in interior design so makes more sense to me I guess.
All kitchen units whether ikea or not come in standard sizes. 60cm/600MM is the standard cupboard size, also size of fridge freezer, oven, hob, cooker hood or chimney etc.
a large cooker would be 90cm/ 900MM.
Smaller cupboards such as those overhead are usually 30-60cm. A pull-out larder would be 15-30cm.
You may also find cupboards that are 45cm.
But thats it and all kitchens are manufactured to this standard. So should be easy enough once you have measured your kitchen to figure out how many cupboards you can fit in.
I find the ikea kitchen planner fantastic - then again I had to draw the plans by hand for my course!
 
Yes, they will do it for you in-store but you have to make an appointment in advance (and I think they only have a few appointments a day).

In fact you should really make the appointment even if you have made up your own plan on the planner, because they can run an eye over it for you. In my case I did have the plan done up on the planner and they pointed out that I needed an extra upright support for a length of countertop on top of a row of appliances. They also knew what I needed to make backing panels for a peninsula unit, which I wasn't able to do on the planner. And they took care of ordering the countertop for me, which was cut for me and which I then collected from a different part of the store.

However I would recommend you persevere for a while with the planner, don't worry so much about the finishes (doors and handles), just get the layout fixed and then you can play around with finishes. After doing it myself I couldn't imagine having to make all the decisions in only an hour or two and then having to live with them for years. This is especially true if you're going all the way up to Belfast for it.
 
If you just mess about with the planner the first time...then start again with you empty room...I found it much easier the second time. I found it helpful to think of how you would use the kitchen...first obviously where do you want you sink, cooker and fridge but also, what items do you want to store and where would you like to store them. Once you get your basic building blocks in place then you can mess around with different handles, worktops, trims, cover panels, etc.

It may seem daunting at first but once you start thinking about what you actually want in the kitchen, it does get a lot easier.

Regarding appointments, you have to ring Ikea and book...when I went up they were only doing midweek appointments but if you have your design completely put together on the planner then they will probably look through it quickly with you at weekends.

If you take extra care to include all the extras: coverpanels, legs, plinth, trims (if necessary), worktop, sink, taps, etc - then you won't really need a full appointment. I had an appointment booked but I knew exactly what I wanted and had spent ages making sure I had included all the extras, so the guy just looked over it, said it was fine and printed out the list of stuff we need to collect in the warehouse, while Ikea staff put together one half of the order (door fronts, etc)

Before I went up to Belfast for the appointment, I went online to their website with the itemised list from the planner and checked the stock of each item in the Belfast store as I had read on a forum beforehand that some people have to make a few trips up to get all the parts they need. The only thing that was out of stock for me was a black plinth so instead of going back up for that, I am planning on getting a sheet of MDF, cutting it to size and spraying it black....the cover panels I got were made of MDF anyway so I don't think it will make much of a difference.

Best of luck with it....the kitchens are really easy to put together and you will save a fortune.
 
I just downloaded and installed the Ikea Planner and it won't open.

I keep getting an error message and a request to send Microsoft a report. It then closes.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

D.
 
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