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As I prepare for pictures to be taken of the kitchen, I started to think about how we got here. One of the best tools we used to plan our kitchen was the Ikea Home Planner. My husband is an engineer and was willing to do the drawings for our kitchen on CAD but once we decided to go with Ikea cabinets, I decided to do the design on my own. This way, I could (and did) rearrange as many times as I wanted without causing total frustration on his part.
The home planner tool is super easy to use and let me see what our kitchen would like before we even tore anything out. It was by far the best way for me to get Taylor and I on the same page design wise.
We tried a few different designs before landing on the one we have today. Here are some pro-tips to get the kitchen you've always dreamed of with Ikea!
1. Start early. Boy did I listen to this first rule. Taylor would have told you I start too early, but I am glad I did. While their software is great & we would never be where we are today without it, it does have some glitches and takes time to get used to. By the end, I pretty much know every style of cabinet and finish offered by Ikea. Starting a few months before we were ready to begin let me change my mind and really understand what we were getting with Ikea. It helped me feel more prepared and eased my mind that I was making the correct decision layout wise because I was able to try every possible configuration.
2. Read up. This is a tip for any project you are going to start. Read about others who have gone before you and learn from their mistakes! I follow a ton of great bloggers but the one who I drew a lot of inspiration from was Chris Loves Julia. They were the real turning point for us moving forward with Ikea. By reading about and seeing what they did, helped me to feel more comfortable in taking on this project and knowing that we were going to love our result.
I also looked at a ton of Ikea kitchens online to help me know what I liked and what I didn't like. Ikea has a ton of options for cabinets and drawers (sizes, number of drawers, etc.) so it can be overwhelming at first. Seeing a kitchen you like and being able to take aspects from that can help a ton!
3. Go to your local Ikea to order. While I truly believe anyone can utilize their software, the ordering process for Ikea is a lot for one person to handle. You have to order each individual piece, all the way down to the number of cabinet legs, toe kicks and filler pieces. Yikes. We did not want to miss anything in our order so we went in early one Saturday morning and ordered it in store. The staff was super helpful because even though I knew a whole lot about their cabinets, they still knew more. We actually ended up changing the pantry from one large 30" pantry to two 15" pantries casing in the fridge based on the staff's recommendation. It's now one of my favorite parts of our kitchen!
4. Look out for Ikea Kitchen Events! These are ahh-mazing. We ordered our kitchen early so that we could do it during a kitchen event and got 15% of our money back on Ikea gift cards (which helped pay for all of the extras in the kitchen, plus a few new chairs coming this fall)!
P.S there is a kitchen event at Ikea happening now where you can save 20% (March 1st-April 9th 2017)!
5. Go through your order soon after it arrives. They give you a short window (I believe 10 days) to go through your order to make sure everything is there, accounted for and correct. We did not have any issues with our order, but I have heard great things about their customer service and am sure if you missed this window, it would be okay. But better safe than sorry!
Also, this is no easy task...be prepared for dozens of boxes.
Ikea is a great place to go if you are looking for a beautifully designed and crazy functional kitchen (hello drawers that open all the way, no joke, & soft close). By following these pro-tips, you'll breeze your way through the process!