I’ve already shared how we designed our IKEA kitchen and today I’ll pick up where I left off a few days ago with the actual purchase of our kitchen.
Like I mentioned, we waited until IKEA had one of their 20% off kitchen sales. From what I can tell, IKEA usually offers this discount twice a year. There is a caveat. To score 20% off, you must buy three IKEA appliances {actually Whirlpool brand}. If you buy two, you get 15% off. If you buy one, you get 10% off. At least, that was the case when we purchased our kitchen a year ago. We ended up getting our refrigerator, dishwasher, range and hood from IKEA. {You can read more about those here.} We were surprised to learn that the exhaust hood counted as an appliance.
With four IKEA appliances on our list, we were eligible for the 20% discount. The original cost of our kitchen was ~$10,000. With the added savings, we were able to save $2,000 which brought the purchase price to ~$8,000. This price did not include a sink, faucet, microwave, countertops, pulls, lighting or flooring.
Once our design was complete and prices settled upon, we were ready to go through with the actual purchase. The kitchen specialist told us that their computer system would spit out a purchase order based on our design. That sounded pretty easy. And it was. But minutes after our order was printed, we realized that more was involved.
The kitchen specialist went over our printed order while looking at our design. There were little but important details that the computer hadn’t picked up on and the IKEA employee had to add some items to our order. For instance, the computer didn’t itemize plinth for the back of the island or a countertop support piece for in between the dishwasher and range. Luckily, the kitchen specialist we were working with caught these details and saved us a ton of time down the road during installation. Again, if you are thinking of buying an IKEA kitchen, I would highly recommend working closely with a knowledgeable kitchen salesperson to make sure you aren’t forgetting minor {or major!} details. Computers can only do so much.
With our final, FINAL order list in hand, we were now ready to actually shell out some money. We were happy to be able to complete our sales transaction in the kitchen department {we didn’t have to go all the way downstairs to the self-pay registers to make an $8,000 purchase} with the specialist who had helped us the entire time.
But, again, there was a small snafu. A few of the items {namely some plinth pieces and drawer fronts} on our list were out-of-stock and on backorder. Boo. The specialist tried searching other stores and warehouses to see if he would be able to find those items elsewhere…but no dice. Plus, we didn’t really want to drive to another state just for some plinth. Especially since we weren’t even close to the installation stage at that point. We ended up getting the majority of the kitchen {cabinet frames, cabinets, refrigerator, range, etc.} through a local IKEA warehouse and had it shipped directly to our house. Shipping cost us <$200 and we thought it was worth every last penny. Delivery was made within 3-4 weeks of our purchase. We checked the order in and signed for it…but later discovered we were missing one drawer. {More on that in the installation phase.}
{You can see the majority of our IKEA kitchen shipment in boxes under #4 in the pic above. It took up about a third of the two-car garage.}
The other items that weren’t readily available at the local warehouse had to be bought in-store. I actually drove back to the store the day after paying for the kitchen to pick up the dishwasher and hood in-store. {We didn’t have enough room in the car with both kids in tow the day of purchase.} IKEA let us pay for them the night before with the rest of our order and then pick them up within 24 hours. Luckily, we only lived ~15 minutes from our local store so it wasn’t a hassle.
A few other items {some plinth and drawer fronts} were on long-term backorder and there was no date of availability. We were given a printout of these items in shopping list form and were told we would have to call the kitchen department directly with the item numbers to see if they were available at a later date. The shopping list for the backordered items did have some sort of official stamp on it so that we would get the special 20% off discount when the items were in stock. I ended up calling probably five times over the next eight weeks until the items were available. Even then, the store couldn’t hold the items for me, so I had to go pick them up as soon as I found out they were in stock. First come, first serve.
Eventually, we rounded up all the items we needed for our kitchen. It did require a little more leg work on our part…calling frequently to see if the items we still needed were in stock and then making extra trips to go pick them up. Luckily, our IKEA isn’t too far of a drive but I could see this being a bigger problem for people who don’t live closer to their local store. Also, we weren’t in a huge hurry to install our kitchen {heck, our house didn’t even have finished walls when we bought our kitchen!} so the added time it took to get all necessary items in our hands didn’t affect our remodel timeline.
If you’re thinking of buying an IKEA kitchen, here are a few things to keep in mind when you go through with the actual purchase:
*IKEA frequently offers a discount when you buy a specified number of IKEA appliances at the same time. If possible, take advantage of one of these sales. UPDATE: Apparently, IKEA also offers special discounts when you spend a specified amount of money on a kitchen as well. No appliance purchase required!
*Meet with a kitchen specialist to go over your order in detail and check for items that the computer may have missed.
*Expect delays. It may take extra time {and trips to the store!} to acquire everything you need for your IKEA kitchen if some popular items are out-of-stock or on backorder.
*Plan ahead. Don’t set a remodel deadline until you have everything on site as your install may require pieces that aren’t readily available.
Even though rounding up all of our IKEA kitchen items wasn’t as quick and easy as we were expecting {we were thinking we’d just print out our purchase order, pay for everything, then have it all delivered in one shipment}, it was worth it. Having everything on hand before installation was essential to a smooth install.
Next up, the installation of our IKEA kitchen. You may be surprised to find out that it was the easiest step for us! Stay tuned…
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images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking
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