This post was shaping up to be an odd one (even by our usual standards). We were trying to hang Ikea cabinets in our laundry room and re-hook the washer and dryer at the same time. By yesterday morning both projects were half-finished and our best progress photo looked like this:
Luckily, a few last-minute pieces fell into place over the next 24 hours. The appliances are now fully reinstalled (cue Sherry dancing for at least twenty minutes while holding an ecstatic baby) and all the cabinet doors are on (more dancing and some singing). I’ll cover the appliance hookup in detail next week—the overflow drain and washer pan took a bit of effort—but today I want to focus on the cabinets.
We wanted to try Ikea cabinets since we’re seriously considering them for a future kitchen remodel. They’ve become increasingly popular—even showing up in design magazines—yet we’ve tended to choose other approaches. In our first house we had custom cabinets made, and in our second house we refinished existing cabinets and used pieces from a Habitat ReStore. It’s funny that despite how much Ikea we have in our lives, we hadn’t experimented with their cabinet system until now. The laundry room felt like a low-risk place to learn the process and decide whether Ikea might be right for the kitchen down the line.
We began with Ikea’s online Kitchen Planner to map the space. We’ve used that tool before to envision other projects; it’s a free, easy way to experiment with layouts (I did have to substitute a dishwasher in the plan since there’s no dryer option). In short order we had a plan and a printable shopping list to bring to the store.
The photo above is the layout after an Ikea kitchen specialist helped us refine it. Coming in with an idea saved time, but consulting an employee before buying also prevented unnecessary purchases—the specialist pointed out a few items we didn’t need for this installation and suggested trim to conceal under-cabinet lighting. We decided to add under-cabinet lights at the last minute to help spot and treat stains more easily.
At the store we changed our mind about the door style. The Ramsjo looked closest online, but in person it had a whitewashed, slightly pink-toned grain. The Adel was labeled “off-white” yet appeared closer to the solid white we wanted. It wasn’t pure white, but Ikea tends to skew slightly creamy and we were prepared for that.
Everything we chose was in stock, so about an hour and roughly eight hundred dollars later we were on the road. Bad timing—this was a Friday afternoon and I-95 south near Ikea is not fun at that hour—but we had errands in the area so it wasn’t a pure Ikea run.
We slogged through the usual rush-hour traffic and then ran into a full highway closure when a truck spilled acid on the road. What should have been a two-hour trip turned into something much longer.
Back home, assembly started. People often dread putting an Ikea kitchen together, but we only had three upper cabinets and one lower cabinet to build, so it wasn’t too bad. We did the three uppers assembly-line style, which sped things up.
The most tedious step was nailing the back panels—each cabinet took about two dozen nails—but even that was manageable.
We were impressed with Ikea’s hanging system. Instead of screwing the upper cabinets directly to the wall like traditional cabinets, Ikea uses a metal rail that mounts to wall studs and the cabinets hang from it. That made alignment and installation much easier than methods we’ve used in the past.
The metal rail arrives as an 80″ piece, but we only needed space for three 24″ cabinets. The instructions suggested a hacksaw, but a Dremel cut it much faster.
Figuring out the correct height for the rail took some measuring. We plan to finish the cabinets with crown molding to match the rest of the house, so we accounted for the molding’s thickness and the fact that the cabinets hang a few inches below the top edge.
I marked the center of the back wall and drew a level line across the wall, but I quickly realized the line would be hidden behind the rail. So I made a second reference line a bit higher so I could see a visible guide while installing the rail.
We also marked the studs so the screws would anchor into solid wood. Our wall was flat, so we could screw the rail directly into the studs; if your wall is uneven you may need shims as the instructions suggest.
With the rail secure, we slid in the hanging bolts for each cabinet. The cabinet frames are fairly light before shelves and doors are added, so one person can lift each frame into place—Sherry did one herself without breaking a sweat. We hung the middle cabinet first, then the right, then the left.
Once each cabinet rests on the bolts, you add a metal clip and a nut, then tighten with a wrench. The clip allows small adjustments to level the cabinets. We kept a level on top to ensure everything stayed straight.
After all three were up, we clamped them together at the seams and drilled through the peg holes to bolt them into one solid unit, which eliminated gaps. Note: it’s best to drill through the top and bottom holes, since the middle ones are used later for door hardware; I learned that the hard way and had to redo one hole.
The final touch was snapping on plastic caps to conceal the hanging hardware on the backs of the cabinets.
Here are our three uppers mounted on the wall. Functionally, they’re already a big improvement for storage, though they still need wood filler on the sides, crown molding at the top, shelves, and doors to look finished.
Installing the doors was straightforward—the Ikea hardware clips on under pressure and the screws let you fine-tune alignment. Our first door fit nicely without touching the frame.
The frustrating part was color. The Adel door fronts we bought leaned creamier than expected and read noticeably warmer next to a sample of our home’s “Simply White” trim. After some research we discovered that Ikea offers a different door style that matches our trim color much more closely. We hadn’t caught that in the store because product photos don’t always reflect the true swatch colors.
We paused installing the remaining doors and planned a return trip. By a lucky coincidence my parents were passing through Ikea on their way home from a visit and picked up the alternate door style for us. The new doors are a clear improvement and we hung them last night after the kids were in bed. We even placed the base cabinet for a test fit—it still needs to be bolted to the wall, have trim added, get a countertop, hardware, and a toe kick before it’s complete.
There’s still a list of finish work to do, but those details are what make the space come together, and we’re excited to tackle them. We plan to introduce warmer wood tones too—most likely a butcher block countertop—to break up all the white and add texture to the room.
We still need to return the unneeded doors and drawer fronts from the first purchase, but we’ll be driving through the area again soon so it won’t be a major inconvenience. In the meantime, being able to do laundry at home again feels like a small, fantastic victory.