All true 5 pc doors will have join lines at the stiles and rails that will telegraph through the paint. That's completely unavoidable unless you want single MDF routed doors without sharp edges at the corners.

I am not particularly a fan of painting brand new doors so I think I'm going to outsource them. That way I get exactly what I want and I don't have to worry about screwing it up. Still curious on price though. I have been in contact with Allstyle but getting the IKEA Kitchen Planner to actually work (get to completion) to give them a list has literally taken me weeks.

Dana Matheson: Try the Firefox browser. The kitchen planner did not work well on the Chrome browser, once I switched to Mozilla Firefox the planner works exceptionally well. Good luck!

Thanks pippabean! I actually just ended up going into IKEA and doing it there. Took me like 20 minutes! Such a relief to finally have it done! (After months of frustration with that stupid planner haha!)

I have received a very reasonable quote from Allstyle so I have decided to go that route. IKEA frames, Allstyle doors. The best of both worlds! :)

Dana, please post pics when your kitchen is finished, and let us know the ballpark cost and timeframe for getting doors made by Allstyle. As a contractor who uses IKEA frames a lot - and would like to offer clients the option of aftermarket doors - I would appreciate any intelligence that you can convey!

Beware the Sektion Kitchen Cabinets: I just finished helping my son put
together the new Section Ikea Kitchen Cabinets. They look good on the
outside, but the the back panel is just a flimsy piece of plastic
laminate, less than 1/8 thick that slips into a groove and is nailed in
place not very securely. For the wider cabinets the backing panel is
folded in two and taped together with what looks like package tape. This
makes it very wobbly and doesn't connect in any way to anything but
those little nails at the edges. There is no bracing on the back and
because of how they are made and installed, they are not against the
wall. How long before a can of soup or a frying pan handle pops that
backing off? If it is a bookcase that can be easily fixed it is one
thing, but these are installed with countertops on them. It will be
impossible to fix them, so there will be a hole in the back of the
cabinet for things to fall through into the dark, unreachable space
between the cabinet and the wall. Don't buy them

@sehenryst: The cabinet backing material for the Sektion line is little different than that was used in the old Akurum line. To the uninitiated it may seem to be insubstantial, but it does a perfectly good job keeping the cabinet square once it's nailed in place (which is all it's basically there for anyway). I have installed scores of IKEA kitchen cabinets for clients and the last thing anyone ever complained about was the cabinet backing material. It's really a pretty minor affair in the context of the overall kitchen system.

Home Reborn:
Also, if you believe that the back panel is just there to keep the cabinet square, then you must never use kitchen cabinets. I would say that the back of a cabinet is pretty important for keeping the contents from falling down behind the cabinet, and it should resist moderate pressure from jostled cans and pots and pans, etc. Since this type of backing can pop off a bookshelf, I don't see it would have adequate resistance. Why didn't Ikea put some kind of brace in to make it more secure? They did a terrible design job.

Any update on the cost difference of ikea doors and All style doors? I'm in a similar process but not for ikea, I'm using Kitchen Craft base and looking at All Style doors. I've been given a $2000 credit for no doors with kitchen craft and hoping the All Style pricing won't be double.

Krista - Depends on the size of your kitchen and how many doors you need. I have a 12x12 kitchen with approximately 30 cabinet doors. My quote was around $4700 taxes in and includes doors, toe kicks and cover panels (in shaker as opposed to just a solid slab) Most of IKEA's doors are particleboard with a wood veneer or fiberboard with paint. Allstyle's doors are solid maple (well, the one I'm getting) so that's would explain the cost difference. That and they are custom made and custom painted. (Mine are white with a 25% sheen)

However, I have heard nothing but good things about IKEA kitchens in general so I think you would still be satisfied with their doors. I went with Allstyle because Bjorket didn't come in white.

Ex: IKEA Bjorket cabinet door in 18x30 is $78 while Allstyle's is $131. A significant cost difference but again, solid wood and painted in the colour I want.

Hope that helps!

Hi Dana, I am in the process of designing my ikea kitchen with all style doors in mind. Have you had your installed yet and are you happy with the craftsmanship? I am very interested in how this worked out for you. I would love to see some photos if you have any please!

@motok1w I am unfortunately not at that stage of my build yet but I will be sure to post pics once it is done. :) What is your timeline like? I probably won't have my kitchen in for at least another month (and that's being optimistic haha!) Had to change things up a bit so I need to submit a new quote request. I know Allstyle has a page here on Houzz but there isn't much on it. Worth looking at though, they have a few kitchens on there.

Dana, since you mentioned you liked the Bjorket door (but wanted a white door) I thought I'd post some pics of a recent kitchen of mine that used the Bjorket door custom sprayed in a light off-white colour for the wall cabinets (and gray on the island). Same cabinetry also used on the TV built-in shown below.

I really wish Ikea would just do a basic non-modern white door for the line. I don't want to have to custom order or custom spray to get what should be a fairly 'classic' door option, imo. I mean, they have grey, how many people really want grey kitchens long term?

john- your kitchen turned out really well. can you tell me the process of how you painted them? ie. did you prime first or put any finishing laquer on top of the paint?

While I have successfully painted kitchen doors myself in the past with a Titan airless sprayer, fine-spray tip, Zinsser primer and Benjamin Moore paint, for this project I had all the doors spray lacquered by an outside company.

I commend you for trying to be green. Local is good! Order cabinets that are made near you to save shipping, that's music to my ears.

thank you! did the ones you painted yourself turn out as well as these ones did which were presumably professionally done?

I would judge the quality of my own spraying to be "very good" - e.g. there is occasionally a little bit of "orange peel" in the spray finish. If you look at the various built-in cabinetry projects on my Houzz page, they were all sprayed on-site by me, so you can judge for yourself. But I would rate the professional sprayer's work as "Flawless."

@Home Reborn Very nice! It is actually the same cost for me to buy Bjorket and have them painted as it is to get custom doors. Obviously custom is the better option IMO. They are solid maple which I very much like!

Dana - Just wondering - in your own project, how are you dealing with the 'non-door,' fixed components of the kitchen that need to be finished the same way as the doors - e.g., wall and base cabinet side cover panels, refrigerator enclosure side panels, light valances, toekicks, crown moulding (if any) and miscellaneous filler pieces? Does Allstyle make duplicates of all these IKEA pieces?

FYI In my own projects I build the kitchen complete, without doors, and use my own airless sprayer to spray all the exposed/fixed pieces mentioned above, and get the doors custom sprayed by an outside firm.

Just trying to get a better handle on the overall economics of Allstyle vs working with stock IKEA doors.

Allstyle makes toe kicks and cover panels as well. Covers can either be slab or in the design of your cabinet doors. Slab is obviously the cheaper option. They have a specific paint which is "IKEA white" to match the cabinets. They also make side panels for the fridge but I have decided to go with IKEA'S for cost effectiveness. I don't think they do crown moulding or light valances but I'm not positive.

Any photos ready? I am thinking of redoing my kitchen with Ikea + allstyle as well, as I also live in Canada. :-)

I'd love to see any photos you have too! I'm planning a kitchen renovation and had been looking into semihandmade doors but with the performance of our Canadian dollar, I'd love to be able to find some local options.

efm270 and Catilin Weldon: Not yet! Here is a link to my Allstyle/IKEA thread. Floors are going down this week then we will be starting on the kitchen. I will update as I go along. :) Allstyle was absolutely wonderful to work with. I still have the odd question for them and they are always quick to answer and give great advice. I highly recommend them!

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3567726/ikea-sektion-and-allstyle-cabinet-doors 

I've just finished another kitchen with the "Bjorket" Birch shaker-style door, custom-lacquered to match the color and sheen of the stock IKEA "Forbattra White" (not the Forbattra "Off-White," which is too yellow) cover panels, deco strip and toekicks. This approach obviated the need to paint these particular pieces, which already come with a hard-wearing factory finish; it also allowed me to assemble the entire kitchen while the doors and drawer fronts were being painted.

The company that painted the doors, by the way, is Trends Wood Finishing in Oakville, Ontario. The cost was $1500 for all the doors and drawer fronts in this kitchen.

@ Home Reborn - that's a great installation! I really like how you've trimmed above the cabinets, between them and the ceiling - ime it's the finish by the HO or contractor that really makes or breaks Ikea (or any) kitchen cabinetry.

sydneyrichards - nice kitchen! What's the material and color of your countertop?

Hi Pippabean, the countertop is Caesarstone - Frosty Carrina.

This is perfect, this was the exact debate I was having regarding an Ikea kitchen system with either painting Bjorket doors or having them made, which I will look into Allstyle fronts. I want a white shaker for the kitchen cabinets and a dark gray shaker for the island. Which route would you recommend, painting or Allstyle? Thx. I live just north of Toronto.

@andreahasler - From a cost standpoint, painting the Bjorket door will be cheaper, plus if you damage a standard IKEA door, you can always buy another one and get it painted to match (I don't know if Allstyle would replace a single door).

@andreahasler - It really comes down to cost I guess?! While Home Reborn has a point, my doors are solid maple. I would assume that Allstyle would make just one door. They have been amazing thus far and I simply cannot imagine them saying no if I were to only request one. My shaker rails aren't as thin as Bjorket and the beveled (not sure if that's the right word?) edge is a bit different as well. It leans more towards traditional than modern as it is on a slant rather than a straight edge. I'd say it's down to cost and personal preference. I love my Allstyle doors. If cost was a bigger factor, I probably would have gone with the Bjorket painted. However, I built a house and the cost to do it the way I did was in the budget. The doors are solid and I can see them lasting a long time. They are also insanely easy to clean which is very nice when you have a white kitchen! Here is the link to my Ikea/Allstyle thread.
http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3567726/ikea-sektion-and-allstyle-cabinet-doors

Thank you both @Home Reborn and @Dana Matheson for your advice, will look into both routes and go from there. @Home Reborn do you know of any good custom cabinet painters north of Toronto? Or do you always use the company in Oakville?

@andreahasler - to date I have only used Trends Wood Finishing in Oakville. Incidentally, I get IKEA to do a separate delivery of just the doors and drawerfronts (it will confuse the heck out of the IKEA staff, but oh well) to Trends, which paint them delivers them wherever I want. So you don't actually need to go there.

@sydneyrichards- Are your doors wood or mdf? I just got a quote for mdf doors from Allstyle but they said the wood doors would cost 15-20% more. Also, what color did you paint your cabinets? Love your kitchen!

Hi @whitneyfili, the doors are both - wood frame with an MDF centre panel. If you want to put your kitchen pulls in the middle of the drawer, you will want that to be wood as well because the MDF will not be strong enough to support it. Just something to keep in mind.

And thank you! The colour is OC-17 White Dove.

Home Reborn - planning to paint bjorket for our upcoming kitchen Reno. I don't notice the seam between the stile and rail on the doors, do you have this filled in before painting or is it just not noticeable in the photos? Also, in the smaller kitchen with the peninsula are those doors mounted to the end of the penninsula to make it look custom?

Any advice you can give would be much appreciated! Wish you were in Vancouver so we could just go with you!

sarah

Hi - I don't fill the seam between the rail and stile on the Bjorket door, I actually prefer the look of this detail. And yes, I always use doors to "panel out" the ends and backs of islands and peninsulas.

Thank you Home Reborn! If you don't mind me asking another question, I have found a paint shop who sprays cabinets. They use "acid-cured, post catalyzed enamel" is that an appropriate type of paint that will be durable? Not really sure what to be looking for as I search for a company to have the doors sprayed?

@smaloney - I'm not an expert on paints so I would defer to someone with expertise in that area.

This was exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!!

@ Home Reborn - Beautiful work! Do you mind sharing the colour used on the door/drawer fronts to match IKEA Forbattra White?

@ks30 - The custom spraying company matched a sample piece of a Forbattra White cover panel that I gave them - so it was a one-off custom colour.

Thanks!

@ Home Reborn I really like the idea of custom spraying the Forbattra - is it a semi-gloss finish? Just wondering if the spraying company can match the sheen?

@Ronda McDiarmid - To my eye, the sheen on the Forbattra panel is maybe somewhere between satin and semi-gloss. Most furniture refinishers who use lacquer seem to use a satin sheen as the standard offering.

@ Home Reborn - thanks for the reply! Cheers

Hey Folks who has used All Style - I'm curious about how it went for you. What was the price comparison from Ikea doors? What was the lead time like?

check out our custom build solid wood door & drawer panels for IKEA cabinets ( www.inde-art.com)