The Importance of Having a Professional IKEA Kitchen Designer

Kitchen remodeling is a long process, can be expensive, and often leaves the homeowner overwhelmed and stressed. When you finally decide to undertake that IKEA kitchen remodel you have been wanting, do yourself a big favor and hire a professional kitchen designer. This is the very first step in the renovation, and you want it done right. Many homeowners and DIY-ers underestimate the importance of IKEA kitchen design and later pay a heavy price during the installation process.

With technological advancements, the online-based IKEA 3D planning tool is getting better and more user-friendly with each version. In it, you can easily recreate the shape of the room, floors, colors of the walls, windows, doors, etc. Drag-and-drop cabinets and appliances are easy enough, too. But what really matters are details such as:

• Where exactly to position the appliances?
• How much space do you need to operate the appliances?
• How much space do you need to leave for fillers (if any)?
• Do you need base cabinets with doors or drawers?
• How big, wide, or tall should the cabinets and drawers be?
• Can you keep the old floors for your new IKEA kitchen? And so on…

A professional IKEA designer will know the answers to all these questions and can factor in other details in the kitchen plan that will be critical during the installation process. Sometimes, the positioning of the appliances is kind of decided for you because you will be removing the old kitchen cabinets and appliances and putting the new ones in about the same spot. But in some cases, the homeowner is not happy with the old kitchen layout and is looking for changes or needs to remove a wall. For projects like this, it is essential to work with a professional kitchen designer. This person will also help you determine where the power supply and water lines need to be moved and what the cost might be. Some walls are load-bearing, and you cannot just remove them; a beam or post may need to be installed.

We are Professional IKEA Kitchen Designers in Virginia Beach

One big mistake that many IKEA fans make during the planning phase is not factoring in cover panels and only looking at the cabinet size. For example, if a wall is 72 inches wide, they might put either two 36-inch cabinets or three 24-inch cabinets. Later, they discover that the cabinets also have cover panels on each side, which take an additional ½ inch each, and now they need ½ + 36 + 36 + ½ = 73 inches, and the two 36-inch cabinets do not fit anymore. A much better solution that actually works would have been: 3-inch filler + 15 + 36 + 15 + 3-inch filler, totalling 72 inches. Walls are often not level and plumb, and a good kitchen designer will consider this and leave some wiggle room. Even if the available space was 73 inches, fitting in the two 36-inch cabinets with cover panels is still very difficult. Not to mention that some cover panels are 5/8 inches, not even ½ inch, and so on.

Another pitfall for DIY-ers is that they often start with incorrect room measurements or wrong room setup in the IKEA 3D planning tool, leading to many problems that are very hard and expensive to fix. Many people assume that the default room height in the kitchen plan is the height in their kitchen, but it is not. In the IKEA 3D planning tool, the height is set at 98 inches, which is very rare and usually seen only in older homes (before the 1960s). Most homes have ceilings that are 96 inches, but a real pickle is that in some houses, due to multiple layers of floors (vinyl, then tiles, etc.) or other reasons, the ceiling is only 95 inches or 94 inches or even less. All of a sudden, that tall pantry-size cabinet does not fit anymore.

The design is the first and most important step. This first step should not be in the wrong direction, or else you are setting yourself up for failure or an expensive redesign right in the middle of your project. Trust the experience and knowledge that professional IKEA designers have, talk to them, set up meetings, take time to review the plans, and once you approve them, stick to them. Another big mistake that some customers make is changing the plan in the middle of the project for some small detail that ends up exploding into a huge problem. Customers with experience renovating multiple homes can definitely try to tackle the design and planning phase on their own, but first-time homeowners and people who have never done this before and plan to install on their own should definitely seek the help of a professional IKEA kitchen designer. Whatever the design fee, it will go a very long way and help you transform your old kitchen from “meh” to “wow.”

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The professional IKEA kitchen installer for Hampton Roads, VA – European Kitchens