Kitchen Cabinet Brand Affecting Resale?

I know some very high-end carpenters who swear that Ikea boxes are better than anything else out there (except custom). The key is getting them installed and finished by a quality carpenter, and someone who can seamlessly upgrade the hardware to Blum or something equivalent.

I think it’s a bit difficult to know whether or not your cabinet choice would effect resale value without knowing what kind of apartment you have. If you have a larger apartment at in a higher price range, I think the kind of cabinet you choose could potentially effect resale value. A high quality cabinet, or a custom cabinet I think does become a factor, just as upscale appliances do. It also depends on when you are planning to sell-in the next 2 years, or in 15 or 20. If the latter, I say get what you really want and forget about resale-you will be living with it and enjoying it for a long time.

That said, I would avoid Home Depot. Ikea has great design and is easily installed. But I think its a stretch to compare their quality over the long term to a Kraftmaid, or better quality cabinet.

I second most of what is above, with a few caveats noted below.

I bought a place with Ikea cabinets (with Ikea solid wood doors – very few of the door styles are solid wood – I think there’s one in solid pine and one in solid oak, but the offerings change every few years) that had been installed a few years earlier. I agree the cabinets were great. Much better than the brand new Home Depot style cabinets I had in a rental previously (don’t know how Thomasville quality compares to the ones my landlord installed when he renovated – T-ville are probably better than what he had installed.)

So I am a buyer who would not be bothered by Ikea cabinets, as I’ve lived with them and liked them. The many eager offerers when I sold 8 years later were also not bothered by them. But I think there are those who have not ever used them anywhere (fewer every year, though, as they are getting to be ubiquitous) who may have a prejudice against them.

That said, I’m sure there are buyers out there who would prefer nice wood boxes, as long as they aren’t cheap looking ones that scream Home-Depot-cheap style – and not all of the Home Depot ones look cheap – some look good. I myself have a preference for wood boxes in a tone and finish I like. But as between a wood tone I didn’t like (and there are many I don’t like that seem popular), and Ikea, I’d prefer my old plain white Ikea boxes. At least the wood tone is not “wrong” with ikea boxes, as they are white (or pale birch-colored, which is not a color I hate, though I might hate it in some installations).

Despite my preference for wood, the presence of Ikea cabinets in good condition would never stop me from buying a place. Even if the doors were worn or a style I didn’t like, I’d know I could easily replace them with Ikea doors or something better. Whereas even expensive wood cabinets in a wood tone I hated might prevent me from making an offer (actually, nice overly-renovated kitchens I didn’t like did keep me from making many offers – they just weren’t my style. The simple Ikea style worked better for me, and goes better with the 100 year old apartments in brownstone-style buildings, and apartments in older larger buildings, that I was looking at, in my opinion. They are plain, and thus have a harder time offending anyone or clashing with the apartment.)

If I were doing a renovation now, and cost was an issue, I’d install Ikea cabinets and get a different brand solid wood door and drawer fronts (or have them made for me). The only exception I’d do to this is to possibly get one of the Ikea door styles that is all wood – there are only about 2 of them. I do not believe the shaker Ikea door cabinets referred to above are all wood – I think they are wood around the 4 edges, but particle and veneer in the middle, as most Ikea doors, including those with wood stiles are. I don’t think the partial particle board ones hold up as well as solid wood. I would do only solid wood doors, either Ikea or others, no particle board and no veneer. I think my doors being solid wood was key to them holding up as well as they did.

I also wouldn’t paint whatever wood doors I got – be they solid wood or not. Yeah, sure, they look great, but not forever. I’ve lived with painted cabinets that were peeling their paint off. I’m not sure if they were painted, or if that was the original finish. Either way, I’d have preferred solid wood, as there’s no finish to come off. Solid wood can be cleaned and renewed, scratches even sanded and finished – but the finish never comes off.

Also, the other caveat is that if a place is totally high end, and asking way over a million dollars, or a gorgeous hosue, the presence of Ikea cabinet boxes can seem to be out of line with the rest of the place. But even for your nice two or three bedroom apartment in a brownstone-type building, and most in larger apartment buildings, which can get quite pricy, Ikea boxes are fine, I think. It is only in unusually fancy places that they look out of place.

The way you intend to do it, as long as you face the outsides with wood, you won’t see them anyway, except when in use. It isn’t the cabinets behind the doors where you notice the Ikea-ness anyway, it is in the drawers when you open them – the drawer boxes have a distinct look. (They function well, but I’m not crazy about the look of them v. wood drawer boxes.) Make sure you like the Ikea drawer box look. You could also have drawers made differently, but that might defeat the cost savings purpose of getting the cheap Ikea boxes, I think, if you replace the drawer boxes with custom as well as the drawer fronts.

So, well-done wood is better, even if not expensive custon, but people have very different opinions as to wood color. To appeal to the most people, Ikea would work.