5/6/2010
"I know someone who purchased a customizable wardrobe, & when they configured it the way that they wanted, the doors wouldn't fit so they choose to keep the configuration & loose the doors"
we bought a customizable wardrobe last year and had a similar problem. the pull out drawers do not allow you to have a hinge adjacent to them. so if you configured your wardrobe to have a lot of pull out drawers (the wooden box ones, not the mesh ones), you'd have to lose a hinge. our cabinet is the tallest they make, and we configured it to have 3 or 4 pullout drawers on the bottom, so the middle hinge does not install. there are 4 hinges though and 3 of the hinges fit fine. we weight our options of returning it, but it seems like 3 hinges is adequate anyhow. i can see how this would be super annoying though. none of their display models have this problem because they've specifically configured them differently (it's actually very easy to shift around where things are) and it's not obvious when buying that you may face this problem.
you would not have these types of problems with IKEA cabinets though, because they have a computerized software program you download to configure your options, and it catches anything odd like that and the cabinets have to be ordered so the person ordering them would catch any oddities as well.
"They were installed the same way that most normal cabinets are installed, & are falling off his wall. They have a special (different?) installation system that"
actually the way they install the top cabinets is very different from nearly any other cabinetry. they basically use a system similar to the ELFA, where you hang a topbar and then everything hangs off of that. because of that, it's very DIY friendly. but if you don't anchor the top bar correctly your cabinets will probably not hold up too well. (if you just screw it into the drywall without proper anchors, of course they will fall).
"If you install IKEA cabinetry now and they don't hold up over 5-10 years you'll end up replacing them."
this sounds like misinformation from someone who knows nothing about IKEA cabinets. they come with a 25 year warranty that's better than nearly any other cabinet manufacturer's warranty, so if they fell apart after even 10 years you'd get them fixed for free or replaced. the warranty covers everything from the frames, the hinges, etc. the only thing they don't cover is the handles, which you buy and install separately anyhow. their warranty is actually one of the reasons they rank so high with Consumer Reports.
directbuy is NOT going to be just 10% more, that i can guarantee you. you can buy an entire kitchen full of cabinets at IKEA for the cost of the membership alone at direct buy.
btw the link to the T2 place i mentioned above is t2cabinet.com/quote they have their prices and their options right online. they are made locally by two chinese guys, high quality (dovetail joints, no pressboard, etc), not a lot of variety though
Travelling is my life
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