Upgrading Doors for IKEA

If you have (or are planning on purchasing) kitchen cabinet boxes and hardware from IKEA, but want a look and feel that IKEA doesn't offer—you've come to the right place.

Scherr's Shaker Doors on IKEA Cabinet Boxes

Although we make high quality custom cabinets, we understand that custom cabinetry often doesn't fit into many people's budgets or schedules. For years we've made doors to function with existing cabinetry as well—you could say it's a way of meeting our Customers halfway. Our shop and our sales team are fully equipped to handle making doors, drawer fronts, trim, and other components to work with IKEA's AKURUM and SEKTION lines of cabinetry. We can also do the same for some PAX wardrobes and GODMORGON bathroom vanities. As an alternative to having us build your cabinets, you can purchase IKEA cabinets and have us make your doors. We trust you to make the best decision for YOU. 

How do I order Doors and Drawer Fronts to fit IKEA cabinets?

IKEA has some great online resources, such as their online planner which allows you to create a 3d model to place and configure your cabinets. If you've taken this route you will be given the option to share a link to or create a pdf of the project (keep in mind this may change over time.) You can send us the link to your project or send us the pdf to sales@scherrs.com. We are very familiar with most all the configurations IKEA has for the AKURUM and SEKTION lines and can work from the "item list" generated from the IKEA planner. You will need to build your kitchen or project in the planner with the doors and drawer fronts on. It would normally make sense to build your cabinets in the planner without the fronts since you wouldn't be ordering them from IKEA, however; cabinets made by IKEA can have many different configurations for each cabinet model and it's necessary for us to see how you plan on having your cabinets configured.

There is another great resource for designing and planning an IKEA kitchen cabinets and that's over at IKD - https://inspiredkitchendesign.com/. We can work with their plans as well, just be sure to have an IKEA "item list" to accompany the plans they create with you.

Modifications

If you plan on modifying the height or width of their cabinets, you will need to specify which model of cabinet you are modifying as well as the before and after dimensions. (e.g. "we'll be modifying cabinet #12, SE W1D 18"x15"x40" to be 5" shorter or 18"x15"x35".") If you are modifying the depth, you don't need to worry about giving us any more information. If you modify a cabinet on your own, you will need to supply the measurements of any custom door or drawer fronts needed for them. We do not take responsibility for incorrect measurements on doors and drawer fronts made for modified IKEA cabinetry.

Other components

If you want any of the following things made to match the doors and drawer fronts you'll be ordering from us, you need to include some information in your email to us:

Cover Panels: Other names of cover panels are "End Panels", "Filler Panels", or "Applied Ends" and are meant to give a finished appearance over a broad area. Common applications include the covering of: a) the (lateral side or back , b) to divide cabinets of different heights or elevations, c) for the back of peninsulas or islands, or d) other purposes (false doors, range hood components, custom applications, etc.) Flat panels are made standard from MDF, upgrades available to ply material for grain matching or wainscot panels (panels to match style of doors.) Sometimes IKEA will send an over-sized panel that would get cut down by the customer. In order to save on shipping costs, it is advised to give us the final dimensions and have us make them to size. If your panel spans the width of multiple cabinets you will need to give us the measurements either by physically taking it with a tape measure or by calculating it.

  • Width x Height
  • Style:
    • Flat Slab (Most simple, least expensive. Recommended when using to divide cabinets of different height/depth/elevation or between some appliances and cabinetry.)
    • Style made to match door style (e.g. Shaker)

Custom appliance panels

  • Appliance model
Toekicks, crown molding, light rail, fillers, deco-strips, etc.

  • Toekicks = total length in feet
  • Crown Molding, Deco Strips, & Light Rail = Style and total length in feet
  • Fillers = Width x Height for each filler

Custom cabinets

  • Width x Height x Depth, Door/Drawer configuration and sizes, hardware needed, drawer boxes, other notes. Ask if you need help.

Specialty hardware kits

  • Brand & Model, or ask and we'll help

If you are ordering your toekick material from us, and depending on your strategy, it may be necessary to order our universal cabinet legs instead of IKEA's which function as both the feet for the base cabinets and the means by which the toekick components attach to the cabinets. We aren't able to match the same groove that IKEA puts in the back of their toekicks and therefore ours sometimes require different hardware. One strategy many people employ is to use IKEA's legs, then buy only a few lengths of IKEA toekick, cut them into 6" lengths, and attach the small lengths to the back of our toekicks so that you can still utilize IKEA's toekick connection system.

A few technical details

For normal cabinet doors built for IKEA cabinets, we automatically assume they will need bored holes for the European style concealed hinges that IKEA provides to you. If you are getting grain matched doors or you are cutting the cabinet to a custom height then you will need to specify if doors are lefts or rights, otherwise most IKEA cabinet doors are already reversible. Drawer fronts are pre-drilled to attach to IKEA's drawer slide hardware. Pull-out doors will need to be drilled by the person installing the cabinets on site. (Pull-out doors are cabinets that have a door that functions as a drawer.) All doors and drawer fronts are under-sized 1/8" (1/16" on the left and right—this is called the "reveal.") In the end this creates a 1/8" gap between all cabinet doors and drawer fronts. This clearance is needed to allow doors and drawers to open and close without running into one another.

All cover panels are either the dimensions you specify or are made to match the full size of what they are covering, they can be made to overlap around a corner (so that one would bump into the back of the other), though you will need to specify when that is the case and how you would like them "wrapped". We will inquire where we suspect that may be the case (normally around peninsulas and islands.)

Lead-Time

When you receive a quote from us we will annotate each door and drawer front to correspond to the numbers assigned to the cabinets in your item list from IKEA. Please allow at least one to two business days before expecting a quote as our expert combs through every detail of every customers' project plans. We move fast but we don't like to rush the planning and measuring of something as important as your kitchen. "Measure twice, cut once!"

We can send you your doors, drawer fronts, and other components unfinished, clear-coated, primed, or painted any color available from Sherwin Williams. Choosing to order unfinished or engineered doors will drastically improve how quickly we can send your order out. Engineered door lead time is around 3-4 weeks, unfinished door lead time is 5-7 weeks, and projects with finish work can be out 2-4 months. All of this depends on how busy we are. Sometimes we are too busy to rush any orders, if this is the case we can usually work out some sort of deal over the phone at the time you place your order. All normal orders, finished and unfinished, are completed on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Checklist

So, your checklist of information to include when you are requesting a quote is as follows:

  1. Your Kitchen/Project Plans with the "item list" (if you have an Akurum kitchen, just make a list of the components you need however you are able with quantities, type, and size - NOTE: it is not necessary to perfectly accurate with your measurements, we will be matching your list up with our database of standard sizes.)
  2. The Style#, Finishing Choice, Wood Choice, and any other style choices of the doors/drawer fronts
  3. Extras to be included (end panels, toekicks, molding, etc.)
  4. A shipping address so that we can included the shipping costs in your quote
  5. Contact information so that we can get a hold of you if we have any questions for you

 

Once you believe you have all of your information together, please send it to sales@scherrs.com. Please know that sometimes our quote for your project will come from a different email address than the one you are sending your request to and may be filtered into your spam or junk folder! If you haven't heard from us in a week, check there first - then send us a follow up. We always try to respond promptly and thoughtfully to every email we receive.

 

Ok! Send your request on over! We can't wait to see what you're working on!