Do IKEA kitchen planners have your best interests at heart?

IKEA offers free planning services to customers who want to redesign their kitchen, bathroom, closet, or home office. We often say you get what you pay for (because it’s true), but there is another issue with using IKEA’s free planning service. It may be an even bigger issue than the fact that IKEA planners aren’t professional designers.

IKEA planners have a parent company breathing down their necks.

IKEA makes the free planning service seem easy and convenient, and in many ways, it is. You view IKEA’s showrooms, decide which look you like for your new kitchen or bathroom, and step right up to the showman that can make it happen.

From the start, however, your IKEA planner isn’t totally focused on your needs. If you’ve ever been to IKEA on a Saturday afternoon, you’ll know you’re one of dozens of people there for the same reason. When it’s thirty people vs. five in-store planners, the person you talk to is likely to be a little distracted.

The in-store associate is focused on keeping the line of customers happy, which means keeping them moving (quickly). They’ll recommend an in-person or online planning appointment, limited to 90 minutes, or send you to the online home planner and recommend setting up a 30-minute online review session.

IKEA associates are concerned with what concerns IKEA: turnover. The more they plan, the more they sell, and the better their job security.

Who does your free IKEA planner work for?

You already know the answer: Your IKEA planner works for IKEA. This fact significantly affects the outcome of your room design.

Your IKEA planner cannot recommend products that detract from IKEA’s profit margin. If you show an associate an inspiration photo of, say, a modern white kitchen with custom cabinet fronts, bespoke hardware, and concrete countertops, they can only offer the closest items IKEA has in stock.

A professional designer can design using products from multiple sources. We don’t care how much money you spend at IKEA because we don’t work for them.

Professional designers have only one goal.

A paid, professional designer has a single goal: to make their customers happy.

We create beautiful, affordable designs using IKEA products, but our income stems from the design fee, not product sales. That’s why we can recommend custom cabinet and drawer fronts that may match your design aesthetic more closely. We can show interior cabinet organizers like the Rev-A-Shelf corner cabinet optimizer instead of the UTRUSTA corner cabinet carousel not because we get a commission, but because it’s a better product.

Did we mention you get to see the inside of our cabinets in your IKD design?

Because we aim to ensure you’re happy with your IKEA room design, we spend more time, well, designing. Your complete design package from IKD includes full-color 3-D renderings, floorplans, elevation drawings, hack diagrams, and an IKEA shopping list that includes extra items for installation.

In short, there is no replacement for a designer’s eye or their commitment to your project.