Alternative sliding doors to be used with ikea wardrobes

[Adsibob]

At the outset of our project we thought we would treat ourselves to bespoke wardrobes, as well as a few other bespoke pieces of furniture and cladding. With our architect's advice, we set aside £25k for all joinery items, including bespoke kitchen doors, but excluding door sets for actual rooms. This was more than a year ago.

We've now started to get quotes back and I'm simply astonished at how far out we were. It's all a bit bonkers as we're not using any fancy woods, it's all vinyl wrapped MDF, oak veneer MDF or the occasional sheet of solid full stave oak panel.

 

One joinery has told us that sheet material has gone up in price in the last 12 months by 150%; I know inflation is high, particularly in timber products, but that seems excessive.

 

We are considering using joineries abroad (currently considering one in Portugal and one in Romania) but not sure how we would transport it back here.

 

The obvious way to reduce costs is to cut down on the number of bespoke items and see if there are any off the shelf products we could use. I'm familiar with the IKEA range of wardrobes, and wondered whether anyone had used their carcasses, but got some nicer sliding doors from a third party manufacturer. (We need sliding as don't have room for hinged doors). Ikea's range of sliding door wardrobes is not going to work with our scheme, as although our scheme is contemporary, we want natural materials on show, and the ikea range uses vinyl wrapped mdf for almost all their doors. (We only had vinyl wrapped MDF for the internals.

 

 

[Pocster]

You can try fittingly 

They are making us ‘custom’ IKEA units - they might do doors . Some material cost increases are insane !

I also seem to remember I contacted a company in Sweden who deliberately produce custom versions of IKEA stuff - their name escapes me though .

[Makeitstop]

The idea of using EU based suppliers is (or was) great prior to Brexit.

 

Now it's a ballache.

 

Regarding making "custom" for ikea though, I can't see any issue with it, as it's using such a workable material, being either timber or wood panels. You'll only need to swap out fittings I'd imagine. 

[Adsibob]

28 minutes ago, pocster said:

You can try fittingly 

They are making us ‘custom’ IKEA units - they might do doors . Some material cost increases are insane !

I also seem to remember I contacted a company in Sweden who deliberately produce custom versions of IKEA stuff - their name escapes me though .

I will try fittingly. If you happen to remember the name of the Swedish company, please let me know.

[Iceverge]

I've always liked this idea.

 

https://www.plykea.com/

[Adsibob]

1 hour ago, Iceverge said:

I've always liked this idea.

 

https://www.plykea.com/

looks very nice. Unfortunately not sure they do wardrobes.

[gaz_moose]

I put Ikea Pax units behind Slide Pro sliding doors when i was faced with a similar issue,i did cut the pax units to get them to fit the space better, i thought it was a neat trick. 

[craig]

On 03/11/2021 at 10:01, Adsibob said:

I know inflation is high, particularly in timber products, but that seems excessive.

 

It is bonkers and I say that as a supplier. There's no end in sight either, that's our manufacturers raw material prices been increased again and that will be the 7th price increase this year alone. Back in July, the timber supplier increased costs by 75%.

Edited December 3, 2021 by craig

[ToughButterCup]

On 03/11/2021 at 11:32, Iceverge said:

I've always liked this idea.

 

https://www.plykea.com/

 

C'est magnifique ca, non? 

For me the trouble with IKEA is the corner cutting in terms of specification.  The look is fine - until you touch it, listen to a door close, watch a drawer stick, see a screw point poking through the laminate. 

[Dave Jones]

https://www.cutwrights.com/new/home

 

https://www.online-bedrooms.co.uk/