What to Expect When You're Expecting IKEA

You may have gathered from the title of this tutorial that it isn’t about my furniture. It’s quite the opposite, actually. Like I can’t think of furniture that is further away in every way imaginable than IKEA furniture.

So why am I doing this tutorial? Because I just installed an Ikea kitchen in my house. Why did I, a builder of custom furniture install a kitchen made of laminated particle-board in my own home? Well, there’s a lot of reasons. Mostly because this was a foreclosure we bought to flip and sell so we can someday get the house we really want. So I don’t really have any interest in putting THAT kind of time and money into it. IKEA is good enough. Plus, my wife really likes all the little gadgets and fancy arrangements.

You might get the impression from this video that I’m trying to knock on IKEA and discourage you from shopping there. I swear I’m not. I think IKEA is a great value and is a great option for people on a tighter budget – like we are. However, there are a lot of unforeseen frustrations and challenges that IKEA refuses to help you with. And it’s because of that lack of customer support that I decided a tutorial like this was badly needed.

Please understand that I am not contracted or endorsed by IKEA. I have no connection with them other than the fact that I am just simply a customer. My only motivation behind making this video is to help people – and let’s be honest, It will probably drive a lot of attention to my YouTube channel.

Let’s start at the beginning… IKEA has a pretty cool 3D modeling program that you have to use to design your kitchen. They have models of each of their cabinets on the database that you can fit into your kitchen model. It’s helpful when deciding what size cabinets you can purchase, working around windows and air vents, etc. You can also pick out which color wood you want, your countertops, you can add in specific IKEA appliances or your own existing appliances, kick boards, crown moulding, lighting, the list goes on. Then you can take a 3-D tour of your kitchen to make sure you like the way it looks.

Plan on devoting an entire day to this process and be sure to get extremely accurate measurements of your kitchen before you go – especially if you plan on having wall to wall cabinets. Your measurements should include obstacles such as windows, doors, vents, lights, partitions, and any other permanent structures that you won’t or can’t move. If you can’t finish your model in a single visit, they’ll have you create a login to save your model that they claim you can access from home. I was not able to access my model from my Mac or from my wife’s PC. So don’t count on that luxury. Plus, doing it in the store guarantees that a helpful associate is only a few feet away as are the displays in case you want to look at something in real life.

If you are able to access your model from home, they give you a customer support phone number that they encourage you to call if you have any trouble. I’m going to tell you right now that if that number was worth the time it takes to dial it in, I wouldn’t have made this tutorial. That number is worthless. IKEA does not have a call center. They do not have people dedicated to helping you over the phone. When you call the number, you will be asked to enter your zip code at which point it will direct you to your local store but before you get to talk to anyone, you’ll have to go through a very long web of numerical options. Ultimately, you’ll end up talking to a floor associate in your local store. If the store is closed, nobody will answer. They have a voicemail, but nobody will call you back. If the store is busy, they may or may not answer. I honestly can’t tell you if it’s helpful when they do actually answer because in the 6 or 7 times I called that number throughout the process, I only got a hold of someone once. And they were not able to help me with that particular question. So basically, I’m telling you right now, don’t bother with the phone. Either drive to the store, or sit through this tutorial.

I ended up purchasing 19 cabinets and two appliances. Ikea offers in-home installation for a rate starting at $99 per item plus a $65 delivery fee. That would have totaled $2,144 assuming all of my cabinets were charged the minimum $99 fee. They don’t advertise how high that price could get so I really don’t know how much more I would have had to pay. But even at just over two grand, it was enough incentive for me to say no thanks. Especially since my brother is formally educated in hanging cabinets. Plus, if there’s one word IKEA likes to implant in your head throughout your shopping experience, it’s the word, “easy!” So I elected to take the kitchen home in my own truck and do the installation myself.

The checkout process took me approximately 4 hours. This seems like a long time but there is a good reason. When you complete the model, a floor associate who is well-trained on the program will go through the model with you to make sure you’re not missing anything, that all of your colors match, and that you got the right accessories and accents. Then another floor associate double-checks everything. So that made me feel really good about handing them my credit card. As soon as the order is finalized, the list gets sent to the warehouse where a crew loads your order onto carts. Then before you are allowed to take your items to the loading area, someone at the pickup window double checks the warehouse guys to make sure everything is accounted for. Again, I was very impressed by that.

What I wasn’t impressed by was their policy for out of stock items. The guy at the pickup window informed me that they were out of the glass-panel doors and instructed me to meander on over to the returns department for a refund. I asked him if they could just put the doors on back-order and let me know when they come in. Nope. They aren’t set up to do that. I would have to get a refund, then check back periodically (using the worthless phone number) to see if they’ve received any into stock then come back to the store and repurchase them. Okay, fine. So I waited in line at the returns department and got my refund. Now, what I haven’t told you yet is that I purchased my kitchen during a promotional sale and got 20% off – but that discount is only good for a single purchase. So I asked the clerk if they would honor the 20% off when I re-purchase the doors. No, they won’t. So I got a little red and had a nice little chat with the guy until he gave me a note promising I get the 20% discount on the repurchase. Then I later found out from a girl who works in the kitchen department, that they can, in fact, put things on back-order and they will, in fact, call you when they come in. So I think the moral of the story here is to talk to the sales people about any problems you have, not the returns department and certainly not the dude at the pickup window.

My kitchen filled 7 carts and two vehicles. So if you’re getting a full room, you’ll want to bring help. Or just have them deliver for $65. I actually would have preferred that but I was on a tight schedule and delivery is scheduled about a week out. It’s also nice to have help because IKEA doesn’t have anyone to help you drag those seven carts to your vehicle and load them. You’re on your own as soon as they leave the pickup window – and it’s kind of a long trip back to the loading area.

Now we’ve arrived at a very critical moment in the process because it isn’t until you pick up your pieces that they tell you, you have only 2 days to make sure nothing is broken or missing from your order. So you either need to have lots of room to sift through all the boxes or lots of help to build your kitchen in that two days time. I recommend bringing your order home on a Monday through Wednesday because good luck getting anyone to answer the phone on the weekend. Did I mention they give you that same worthless phone number to report missing or broken items? Yeah, I just did. But I’ll get more into that process later on in the tutorial. The point is, you want that two days to be during the week when they aren’t so busy.

As you unload the pyramid of boxes from your truck, I recommend sorting them by part type. Make a pile of cabinet boxes, make a pile of door and drawer fronts and panels, make a pile of drawer part boxes, make a pile with all the little baggies of hardware and feet and finally, make a pile for the long skinny boxes which contain your crown molding, kick boards, and wall mount boards. Each completed cabinet will be constructed from a combination of these boxes and bags. Each box or bag is labeled with an 8 digit number that corresponds with the itemized list you were given. The list breaks up the kitchen by each cabinet. To sort everything out to make sure you’re not missing anything, use the list so make a small pile of boxes and bags for each cabinet, checking off each item as you find and move it. There will be a lot of identical items that are used on several cabinets so make sure you only count them once. Also, don’t open any boxes. The only reason you should open a box before you need to, is if the box is damaged and you want to make sure the item inside isn’t also damaged because now is the time to take it back for an exchange.

Once you’ve sorted through your inventory, hopefully you aren’t missing anything because it’s a real pain in the ass if you are. I happened to be missing a single pair of hinges. I called the worthless phone number and it took about 5 times to call the number before I finally navigated to the correct department through their extensive automated phone system. Since I was calling on a Saturday, the floor associates were too busy to answer the phone so I left a message and have yet to get a call back. So instead, I went to the store in person on the following Monday, was sent to four different departments and talked to five different people about the whole hinge situation before I finally got in front of the right person. However, because their list was checked and double checked, this person refused to give me the missing hinges. Basically, he didn’t believe me. Then he acted as though that was a good enough answer for me and I should just walk away with a smile on my face – but I didn’t. I argued with him. I pointed out to him that I followed all the rules: I called within the two days, I left a message with all the required information, and that this pair of hinges made up less than 1% of my total order so it REALLY shouldn’t be that big of a deal to do the right thing. So he said he’d call a manager and walked away. I stood there alone for about 15 minutes and decided this wasn’t worth it. So I purchased the damn hinges and left. The lesson here is to make the guy at the pickup window double check everything on the list with you watching. They’ll probably grumble about it but just tell them you know a guy who got screwed out of a set of hinges so if they don’t go over it with you, you’re getting your money back and walking out. That’s what I would say because you can’t be afraid to put your foot down.

Before you build and install your items, there are a few things I recommend doing to your kitchen. Make sure the ceiling is finished and painted, especially if you have a ceiling 8’ or lower and taller cabinets with crown molding. I also recommend finishing your floor. Usually cabinets go in before your flooring but IKEA cabinets sit on adjustable, plastic legs with kickboards that attach using plastic clips making them easily removable. That also means that moisture can easily find its way under there so having exposed subfloor could mean trouble in the future.

Now we’re ready to build the kitchen. IKEA provides a DVD that they claim teaches you how to build your kitchen. You can tell right away that it’s bull shit because the actor and actress in the video walk into a perfectly constructed room made of particle-board walls carrying a box under one arm and a baby under the other. They lay down five little boxes and the video says, “Constructing your IKEA kitchen is easier than you may think!” There’s that word again, “easy”. I promise your kitchen won’t come in five little boxes. I had so many boxes piled into my living room you couldn’t even see my furniture. The couple proceeds to build their cabinets on their perfect walls with pressed denim shirts and no mess. We all know that walls aren’t perfect. No wall is perfectly flat, straight, square, or level. The DVD recommends you have a professional contractor make your walls perfect but that could seriously cost a fortune and take a lot of time. Your installation will not be as easy as the Swedes in the video make it look. You will also need more tools than they claim you will. I’ll show you those tools later in the video.

Because parts are interchangeable and used in various styles of cabinets, you won’t get instructions that are specific to your cabinet. For example, if you have a base cabinet with drawers, you won’t get instructions for a cabinet with drawers. Instead, you’ll get a separate sheet of instructions on how to build the cabinet box, a sheet on how to assemble and install drawers, a sheet on how to install hinges, a sheet on how to install the feet, and a sheet on how to install the drawer fronts. Each of these sheets is generic and does not offer instruction that is specific to your complete cabinet. How to make all these different parts go together to complete your cabinet is up to you to figure out. The only time this gets really challenging though is when you’re trying to figure out drawer elevations.

Along with the itemized list of every box, you should have received prints of your model. The aerial view of your kitchen will serve as your best friend. Each cabinet on the aerial view will be numbered. That number will correspond with the cabinets on the itemized list. So for example, if a cabinet has a “5” next to it on the aerial view, you’ll want to find “Cabinet 5” on the itemized list. For whatever reason, my numbers did not correspond. The sales rep that printed them pointed it out to me but did nothing to correct it. I should have made them correct it because it became rather confusing later on down the road.

The DVD suggests you build the hanging cabinets first. I agree. The bottom cabinets stick out from the wall much further and will get in your way if they go in first. For hanging cabinets, you should have gotten steel tracks to hang them on. Follow the instructions given in the DVD or on the posters to hang those tracks. The tracks don’t come with screws to hang them so I recommend using 2” wood screws on all studs and if you want, toggle bolts where there are no studs to screw to. The mounting hardware that holds the cabinets to the track comes with the hardware in the box containing the cabinet.

The DVD also suggests you install the drawer glides and hinges before you assemble the entire cabinet box. I would say only do this if you can keep things well organized because getting to that hardware requires opening boxes that don’t otherwise need to be opened yet and removing only a small portion of the parts within each box. So you run the risk of losing or misplacing these items. I think the glides and hinges are easy enough to install after the cabinets are hung. So I recommend waiting on those.

First, you’ll unpack and assemble the cabinet only. Use the mounting hardware to hang it on the track. If you have a corner cabinet, start with that first and work your way out. The video says to leave the cabinets loose for adjustment later but I found it was easier to level and tighten each cabinet as I put them up. That way each cabinet can help guide the positioning of the next cabinet. Trying to level all of them at once can be a real challenge. And if you do need to readjust a previous cabinet, it’s not like it isn’t hard to loosen it up real quick.

When deciding on the elevation of your hanging cabinets, be aware that it is impossible to install the crown molding if you butt the cabinets up against the ceiling. Unless… with extensive layout, you could attach the crown molding to the ceiling first, then butt the cabinets to the bottom of the crown. Before you consider this though, make sure your ceiling is at least close to being level and flat. If it isn’t, it requires professional carpentry skills to alter the crown molding to fit the imperfect ceiling.

I recommend leaving just enough space between the crown molding and the ceiling that you can squeeze your hand in there to fasten the screws. I’ll get into more detail about installing the crown molding later in the video. But as for height, I would just use the elevation measurements they give you in the DVD.

If you have tall, floor to ceiling cabinets with a hanging cabinet between them (like around a refrigerator), install the tall cabinets first starting from the corner of the room. If you don’t have them starting from a corner, use your prints or your own decision making process to decide where to start. The tall cabinets do not attach to the steel track. So a hanging cabinet positioned next to or between tall cabinets will require a steel track cut just for it.

Fastening tall cabinets to the wall is important so they don’t fall over. The holes at the top corners of the cabinets probably won’t line up with a stud so use a molly (toggle) bolt with wood screws to fasten them. If you do hit a stud, a 2” wood screw is all you need. Be sure to use the square washer provided in the hardware pack.

Tall cabinets and base cabinets can stand two different ways: You can use four adjustable legs or you can mount a 1x3 board to the wall at a height specified in the instructions. The boards come in the long skinny boxes with the toe-kicks. I highly recommend taking the time to mount these boards per the instructions because it’ll help you level the entire row of cabinets much faster and easier than having to adjust each individual leg. If you use the board, you only need legs on the front of the cabinets, which means you can return unused (unopened) bags of legs for a refund. Do make sure to take the time necessary to perfectly level the board, as any imperfection will throw off the whole section.

The base cabinets fasten to the wall the same way as the tall cabinets. Simply drive a molly bolt or wood screw through the provided holes into the wall. As with the hanging cabinets, you’ll want to start with the corner cabinet – if you have one. The problem with the corner base cabinets is that they don’t have a 45-degree angled back like the hanging cabinets do. Instead, they have a 90-degree back corner. The problem with this is that most drywall corners are going to have an excess of plaster in the corner, which keeps the cabinet from sitting flush against both perpendicular walls. This is a major design flaw in these pieces. My suggestion is to use a surform plane to shave down the back edge of the cabinet corner. This may only give you an eighth of an inch or so but it’ll help. After you get the rest of the cabinets in that section straight and level, you’ll probably still have a little bit of a gap between the wall and the cabinets because of this design flaw. Use shims to maintain that gap when you fasten the cabinets to the wall. The gap on top will be covered by the countertops and side panels can cover the gaps on the sides.

Now that all of your cabinet boxes are installed, you can begin filling in the other parts. Start with the drawers. There are only a few drawer widths and only two drawer depths available. Use your aerial view and parts list to pick out drawers for one cabinet at a time. The drawers are pretty simple to assemble. However, the directions instruct you to drive screws in the back to hold the back panel onto the bottom board. Those screws are not provided so you’ll have to buy your own. I recommend using #6 or thinner pan-head screws maybe 1” in length. If you use fat screws, you’ll need to drill pilot holes so you don’t crack the board.

Installing the glides is pretty simple. The holes on the glides line up with the column of holes inside the cabinet. Make sure to follow the provided instructions to see which holes on the glides to use and which screws to use. Finding the drawer elevations is a little more difficult. If you have a cabinet with wooden drawer fronts, the top drawer is always a shallow drawer. The glide is always screwed into the fourth hole down inside the cabinet. The bottom drawer glides are always installed as low as possible. The drawers in between are a little trickier. You can use the wooden drawer fronts (before you attach them to the drawers) to see where the glides need to go. If you do put glides in the wrong place, don’t worry, they come off really easy so you can move them as many times as needed. Make sure you’re using the right screws to attach the drawer glides.

There are two options for drawer fronts. If your drawer is going to be concealed behind a door, you’ll have a plastic drawer front that looks similar to the drawer back. Those drawer fronts are packed separately from the rest of the drawer but the directions to install them are pretty clear. If your drawer attaches to a wooden drawer front, the wooden drawer front will also be packaged separately.

For deep drawers with sidebars, it gets a little more complicated. If you have a wooden drawer front, the bar comes pre-assembled with the correct piece to attach it to the wooden drawer front. With the attachment piece at a 90-degree angle, stab the piece into the provided hole in the wood, then when you straighten it, it’ll expand inside the hole, locking itself into place. Then clip the other end of the bar onto the back of the drawer. You can twist the bar to expand or shrink it, which adjusts the drawer front to fit flush to the face frame.

If your deep drawer has a plastic drawer front, you’ll need to remove the attachment piece (turning it to the right because it’s threaded backwards) and replace it with a similar part (included in your hardware bag) that is meant to clip to the plastic drawer front instead of the wood. The back clip is the same as before.

When you attach the drawer fronts, they’ll violently suck together so watch your fingers. If you need to remove the drawer front for any reason, there’s a metal Phillips head inside the mechanism that you turn to release it. Not to be confused with the plastic Phillips head that adjusts the orientation of the drawer-front back and forth to get it perfectly centered.

The drawer glides have built-in springs and stoppers for smooth closing of drawers, not allowing them to slam shut. I love how these work. This is one thing about IKEA products I’m really impressed with.

Hinged doors are much simpler to install. The hinge half that goes on the door goes on similar to the side-rails of the deep drawers. Simply insert the hinge into the provided hole. Make sure it’s facing the correct direction and that it’s straight. You can use the predrilled screw holes to make sure it’s positioned just right. Oddly enough, there aren’t any screws that go in those holes. You can buy #8 ½” pan-head screws to drive in there if you want, but they aren’t necessary. When you close the “hood”, the hinge expands inside the hole and locks itself in.

The hinge half that goes in the cabinet is also very simple. Hinges are hung at the top and bottom of the cabinet. Use the second and third hole from the top or bottom of the cabinet for the hinge. Make sure the long part of the hinge is pointed to the back of the cabinet. Simply push or tap the hinge parts into the holes then use a drill or screwdriver to tighten the screws. If you mess up, they come off pretty easy, however the plastic plugs don’t come out quite so easy so it’s best to make sure you do it right the first time.

Once the hinges are attached to both parts, simply clip them together. Hinges do not come with built-in anti-slamming mechanisms so you need to add them. The anti-slam mechanisms come in separate bags. You need one per door. I put them on the top hinge on each door but you can put them on any hinge you want. Simply push them on and watch them work. Very nice!

Next we have these goofy slide-out doors. You’re going to apply the same method to attach this door as you did for the deep drawer fronts except that this time the top and bottom drawer will both be attaching to the same door. The other drawers in this cabinet will have the plastic drawer fronts. I kinda like the functionality of this whole setup, but I hate the way they give you this door. Because this door is also used on cabinets with shelves, it’s predrilled with the holes required for hinges. Since there are no hinges in this arrangement, they have plastic plugs. Unfortunately they didn’t pre drill the holes you need to attach the drawers so you’ll have to drill those holes yourself using a paper pattern they give you. I wish they would just have two different types of doors but that would add to their on-hand inventory, so they make you do a little work.

It’s very easy to accidently drill all the way through the cabinet so I recommend using a drill press equipped with a depth stop or a drill press jig on your drill that also controls the depth at which you drill the hole. It also insures you drill the hole straight and on point. The other problem with drilling these holes is that some of the holes need to be drilled into the plastic plugs they give you to fill the existing holes.  But the plugs aren’t solid and the screw just happens to not quite line up with this groove in the plug. So good luck getting this part on here straight. Fortunately, if the part is a little crooked, it’ll still go together just fine. They definitely didn’t tell me I’d be drilling my own holes in the store.

Speaking of drilling your own holes, none of the doors or drawer fronts is predrilled for handles because there’s such a wide variety of handle styles. This is actually a pretty typical occurrence for cabinets you buy anywhere unless you have the cabinet shop install the handles for you. I don’t know if IKEA’s installation price includes handles so you may want to ask them about that if you go that route. When you buy handles, either at IKEA or anywhere else, make sure they come with instructions and a pattern to help you with perfect hole placement. IKEA handles do come with patterns.

Installing side panels on end cabinets is another step that requires some carpentry skills. Panels aren’t necessarily sized exactly right, it depends on where you’re putting them and how you want them to fit with crown molding or trim. Needless to say, I hope you know someone with a table saw. If you don’t have a table saw, I recommend using a circular (or Skil) saw along with a straight-edge. IKEA tells you to use a reciprocating saw. That’s a joke. Don’t do that. Even with a straight edge, a reciprocating saw isn’t designed for cutting perfectly straight lines. If you do decide to use one, just take it slow, real slow. And no matter what saw you use, make sure the blade is a finishing blade. This will minimize the damage that is done to the veneer – like chipping.

IKEA gives you a few strips of veneer to cover cut edges of kick boards but they don’t give you any longer ones for the panels so be careful about which edges you cut. Make sure all cut edges will be against the wall or facing the ceiling where it won’t be seen. I have to custom cut a side panel for the side of my dishwasher that also happens to be the end-cap of my bar. I can put one cut edge to the floor but I’m going to have a vertical cut edge exposed so I’ll probably need to go back to IKEA and purchase a longer piece of veneer… if they have it. That’s another thing they didn’t tell me in the store. There also doesn’t appear to be any way to attach the panel to the side of the dishwasher so I’m going to have to use brackets that I’m going to buy myself to secure it to the floor and underside of the countertop. Had I known this, I wouldn’t have put the dishwasher on the end. I recommend you put yours between two cabinets.

The crown molding is another step that you’re going to hate. If you have tall hanging cabinets like me, I already told you not to butt them against the ceiling if you’re installing crown molding. The molding is held on by brackets that screw into the top of the cabinet and into the back of the molding. The only way to install them is to install the brackets on the tops of the cabinets BEFORE you hang them on the wall. Once you’re ready to install the molding, you’ll cut them to length and set them in place. Use a sharpie to trace the hole in the bracket onto the back of the molding. Then remove the molding and remove the brackets by loosening the screw with a stubby screwdriver. Then screw the bracket to the back of the molding where you made your marks and put the molding back in place, re-tightening the screws to hold it firm.

Cutting your molding to length is a bit of a challenge because it depends on how far forward you want to set it. I recommend cutting them a little longer than you think you need them, then gradually cutting them down until they fit. Do this on the first couple boards and soon you’ll kina learn where you should be measuring to. This plan is particularly helpful on corner cabinets where you have 22.5 degree miter cuts.

If you’re installing the molding on the bottom of the cabinets as well, it’s much easier because at least you can see what you’re doing from all angles and it’s much more accessible. It’s probably easier to install all hanging cabinet molding before you put in the base cabinets so you can get your ladder as close as possible.

Toe-boards are pretty easy and straightforward. To cut the lengths of your boards, measure to the outside of the plastic feet on the cabinet to get the length of the back of the toe-board. IKEA shows the people in the DVD ripping toe-boards to height using a reciprocating saw. Don’t do that. You can easily damage the veneered finish and it’s really hard to get a straight, clean cut. I recommend using a table saw. If you don’t have a table saw, find someone who does or buy a portable table saw on Craig’s List and then resell it when the job is done. Make sure it has a fence. You spent a lot of money and time on this project, don’t go ruining it with a reciprocating saw! Do it right, use a table saw.

Under cabinet lights are the last item I’m going to tell you about. If you’re planning on installing them, you need to alter your installation of the cabinets just a little bit. The hanging cabinets do have little gaps on the backside where they meet one another. You can use this gap as a raceway for wires. The problem is that the track you used to hang the cabinets blocks this raceway at the top. So when you hang your track, you’ll want to cut notches where you plan on running wires through. If you have a corner cabinet, there is just barely enough room in the corner to run about 8 wires. This is the option I went with since nobody told me how all this goes together before I started. This gap is not big enough for the switches on the power cords though so I recommend putting the power outlet that will be feeding the lights above the cabinets, not below. To fish your wires through, after the cabinets are up already, tie a weight to a string and drop it down the raceway from the top. Use the string to pull all the wires up through the raceway. Mount your light fixtures in their desired locations and use separately purchased clips to tie your wires up and out of site. Pull as much slack as you can to the top of the cabinets. The lighting kits do not come with screws to mount the lights and they do not come with clips to hold up the wires. So you’ll need to get those at the hardware store.

Depending on which light kit you get, you may face a slightly different process than what I’m telling you here. I recommend looking real close at the display kitchens to see how they have them wired. If you can’t tell, then ask someone to explain it to you. There are no instructions anywhere that tell you how to run wires so make sure you know how it needs to be done before you hang your cabinets.

Okay, guys! That is it! I have shared the full extent of my knowledge on this particular topic. If you have questions, please don’t ask me. I have a feeling that there are going to be a lot of questions out there and IKEA isn’t paying me to provide live support so I’m sorry, but I have to decline taking questions. If you have a comment for me, a useful suggestion for other readers, or perhaps an “open forum” question that you’d like to ask other readers, feel free to put those below the vidoes on YouTube!

Now before I go, I feel the need for full disclosure. Again, I am not associated or bound to IKEA in any way. The views and opinions I have expressed in these videos are 100% my own, based 100% on my own personal experience. Other people’s experiences may vary. That being said, I do not claim that the statements I’ve made in these videos represent actual IKEA policies regarding customer service, product information, product designs, or suggested installation techniques. I recognize that customer service can vary from one individual to another and does not necessarily represent the true intentions of a company. I recognize I may have made mistakes in this process that lead to additional frustrations. And I recognize the fact that there is risk in doing something yourself, instead of hiring a professional. So I hope that all of you recognize these same things and that you do not negatively judge IKEA based solely on my accounts. However, I do hope that I have been of help to you as you move forward with your decision to purchase an IKEA room.

Thanks so much for reading guys! Good luck with your IKEA installation!

- Scott Shaeffer, Owner

  San Juan Carpentry