Can’t speak to the design and process but we bought a house with a newly remodeled IKEA kitchen. We liked the aesthetic but were hesitant because we had heard that IKEA was of lesser quality. We have been in the house four years now and honestly if we were ever to buy a new house or remodel this one again, we would consider IKEA as an option. Everything has held up nicely and the previous owners left us the folder from the design/consultation with all information making the couple pieces we have had to replace or upgrade very easy to find. The receipt was included as well and the whole remodel with cabinets, counters, sink, faucets, appliances (fridge, oven, dishwasher, range, and microwave) was less than $10k. Also there is a company that retrofits IKEA hardware with higher end carpentry. So if you’re ballin on a budget right now, go with the IKEA and then you can upgrade the cabinets later. https://www.semihandmade.com/ More on reddit.com

To be honest, based on the other posts, I was expecting to see a gutted kitchen void of any cabinets.

Congrats on getting all the pieces you needed!

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Pay someone else to come put a stone top on, it will make any cheap kitchen look 100 times better. Get a local kitchen guy (not a huge company) to come give you a design and quote. Sometimes it's about the same cost or maybe only a grand over, if so I'd go with the custom build (a couple of grand extra on a kitchen may hurt your wallet a little now, but the trade off is worth it) Just my experience and what I've heard from heaps of customers (So many regret not spending that little bit extra right at the start) More on reddit.com

We did a full kitchen I think in 2015. It was so much simpler and about a fourth of the cost of what Ikea is charging now. We sold that house and built a cool storage center using three tall Sektion cabs with Grimslov (shaker) doors and drawers in a tiny apartment we rented in 2018. We left the centers of each tall cab open and put butcher block at counter height because we were desperate for counter space. I would say the price then was double what we paid for our original kitchen. We've now purchased a condo. We took the three tall cabs with us. (Surprisingly they left only a few small screw holes when they were taken down. We paid someone $60. to fill the holes and other holes from Ikea things around the apartment.) We are now scurrying to purchase all of the Grimslov doors and drawers we need before they are out of stock because they are being discontinued. Maybe you can tell from how many times We've purchased Ikea cabs that I LOVE them. I had never seen drawers that glide open and don't stick before, or doors that close so softly. We moved the tall cabs (with professional movers) into our condo. They have one tiny ding on the corner of a drawer that will be easy to fix with touch up paint. We'll be using the tall cabs in our new kitchen. In our house we had a company that Ikea recommended install the cabs. I would highly recommend you have a professional install them unless you are super good at DIYing. I would go in and sit down with the Ikea kitchen staff to make your layout. They can come and do the measurements but with our condo we waited all day, and no one showed up. If you think they would show up I would also have them come out to do the measurements. It's worth the fee you pay them. (I think it was under $100.) I would have them deliver everything unless you have a strong back! In Oregon they will deliver to a room for $119. Try to get everything at once cause if you don't you'll have to keep paying that $119. fee (like we are) because nothing is "sold" or "in-stock" in Portland and we can only get it by having it delivered. Some people don't like IKEA's laminate countertops. In our home we got Saljan laminate counter tops in White Stone and we LOVED them. They held up very well. (Not sure what we will use yet in our condo but we got the Ekbacken in light gray concrete to make a desk in our computer room. We'll have to see how that holds up.) We have purchased several lengths of Karlby butcher block countertop. It is beautiful and has held up beautifully although I would NOT use it near water. We used it in kind of specialty places to set hot things on and will be using it on the counter by our stove in our new condo. Also, we may buy our butcher block at Home Depot this time because the Karlby is now pretty expensive. The two things I did not like about Ikea kitchens are: I can't remember the style we got the first time around and fortunately it is not sold anymore but it was white and the area around the stove did yellow after only maybe 3 to 5 years. Our new Grislov cabs are white and we have had them for 4 years with absolutely NO yellowing. The second thing is that the cabinet styles are often discontinued (as our first one was, and now Grislov has been discontinued. When you get the brilliant idea like we did, to add matching cabs around our family fireplace, IKEA no longer sold what we had used in the adjacent kitchen. That can be a real bummer. And my final piece of advice is do everything before you want your kitchen installed and then wait for IKEA's twice yearly kitchen sale to buy everything. Go on the morning of the first day of the sale so your things will/might be (during the pandemic) in stock. I have heard that people are waiting months for things they need to complete their kitchen. We didn't have that problem pre-pandemic. Oh, and become an IKEA family member if you aren't already! We got perks when we did our big kitchen remodel because of that. Good luck! More on reddit.com