I’m going to combine a couple days here as I missed updating the Ikea Kitchen Blog yesterday. I’ll show you a little bit of the cabinet install process. Here’s our blank slate where we are going to be adding some cabinets.

Here’s Uncle Jerry and Al hanging the metal rail on to which the cabinets will be installed. Level it and screw it into the studs.

Here’s Jerry attaching the cabinet to the metal rail.

Here’s a shot of a couple cabinets installed on to the metal railing.

Here we’ve added another metal rail along the west wall and popped another cabinet on.

Here’s Al posing in front of the corner wall cabinets. Nice job!

We added some base cabinets as well. Jerry and Al are hard at work dealing with the old drain pipe. While taking it off, it just crumbled in their hands. This was the first big surprise we received in the Ikea Kitchen Install.

Check out all the gunk inside this pipe. Over half the diameter was filled with crud. No wonder it didn’t drain well.

Check out the new Tiffany light fixture. Much better than the old ceiling fan.

Here’s the new track lighting as well. Now we have some serious light to illuminate the kitchen.

Here’s a shot of the base cabinets installed today. Tomorrow we should have all the cabinets in place and installed.

I assembled a few cabinets to demonstrate how the process goes. After pulling out the directions and your cabinet’s pieces and parts, I like to arrange things as they appear in the instructions. So here I’ve got all the Ikea cabinet pieces and parts pretty much like they are displayed in the instructions. Notice that I’m also doing the Ikea cabinet assembly on a soft surface to avoid damaging my precious cabinets.

Here, I’ve laid out all the dowels, screws, nails, etc. To my great chagrin, Ikea only gave me 7 of the metal dowels at the very left. On a hunch, I went to the local hardware and found a very similar metal dowel for $1.27.

Here I’ve attached what I’ll call the rear mounting bracket. Notice that its placement is just below the corner.

Here’s the beginning of the metal dowel insertion. And this is when I figured out that I was one metal dowel short. I figured I had several extra of these from previous Ikea assembly projects. A search of the usual locations revealed no suspects however.

Here’s is the correct wooden dowel placement. The instructions will try to tell you otherwise but THEY ARE WRONG.

Ikea’s mistaken cabinet assembly instructions

Ace Hardware came through and gave me a pretty close match for my missing metal dowel. I heard them muttering to themselves as I left – “That’s one of those goofy furniture assembly things, tarnation!”

Here’s the sides assembled. Before you proceed with a step in the Ikea instructions, it’s a good idea to picture the finished product in your mind and consider what you are doing towards that end. A too rapid assembly often results in mistakes and if you complete some steps there may not be any going back to fix it.

For example, if you proceed to nail the back of the cabinet on with the 2 dozen or so nails, it’s really difficult to undo such a move. Questions to ask include – what side should be facing in and what side should be out and – am I nailing this to the correct side and – where do the holes line up? These are all really good questions to consider as well as what should my finished product look like?

Check for square here.

And here’s the almost finished cabinet. My installer likes to just take them to this point and then install them. After that, we will add the doors, shelves, etc.

And here’s a message a received from Ikea on the following day after emailing them:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We do apologize for any
inconvenience.

Generally, we do recommend returning to the store or contacting your
store directly in order to obtain spare parts, however, we will be
more than happy to assist you with obtaining the spare parts you
require.

Please respond back with the following information so that we may
submit your request.

-first and last name
-mailing address
-contact phone number
-8 digit article number (located above the name of the item on the
receipt, as well as on the packaging, and looks like this:
000.000.00)
-11 digit receipt number (located in the upper, right-hand corner of
the receipt, and looks like this: 0000 0000 000
-Date of purchase
-Detailed explanation of the parts needed, including all part numbers
(5/6 digit part numbers can be found on the assembly instructions)

We thank you for giving us the opportunity to assist you, and hope
this information has been helpful.

Best Regards,
Natalie
IKEA Customer Care Center

Natalie,

Don’t have time to screw around with going back and forth over a simple fastener. I just went to the local hardware store and got the part.

Thanks,

Andy

Ok, we did some painting today and added some more Ikea cabinets. We are coming along slowly but surely. Early next week should bring some more visible results.

Here’s the fridge wall with those Ikea cabinets fitting awfully snug against it. Looks like a tight fit but a good one.

This is the third coat of mud and hopefully the final one. Jerry is pointing out the gap that still remains to be filled with mud. The gap is caused by the mud shrinking as it dries.

Here’s Jerry working the Swiffer Wet Jet to clean up a lot of the dust from sanding the walls. He recommends the Swiffer Wet Jet Mop for Pergo floors.

We’ve got some cabinets up and finally have a hood/vent for our stove. We’ve never had one in this house before today.

In case you’ve forgotten, here’s the before shot of this wall from another angle.

Here’s the vent exhaust that still remains to be finished.

Finally, here’s the refrigerator wall after a third coat of mud and sanding.

Here’s the wall before we started the process.