Flat-pack kitchens have a reputation problem. Say the words “flat-pack” to most homeowners and they picture a weekend spent swearing at an Allen key, a wobbly cabinet door, and a worktop join that never quite lines up. It’s not entirely fair. Brands like IKEA and DIY Kitchens produce genuinely well-engineered carcasses at prices that proper showroom kitchens simply can’t match. The problem was never the units. It’s what happens between the boxes arriving and the kitchen actually working.
Here are seven things that only become obvious once you’ve done a few dozen of these installs.
None of this is meant to put anyone off. It’s meant to close the gap between what the brochure implies and what actually happens on installation day, so the decision to go flat-pack is made with clear eyes rather than assumptions borrowed from a YouTube video.
1. The boxes are the easy part
Ordering a flat-pack kitchen is the simple bit. Planning software, a helpful showroom assistant, a few clicks, and a delivery date – none of that tells you whether your walls are actually straight, whether your floor has a slope nobody mentioned, or whether the plumbing is where the plan assumes it is. Older London properties in particular rarely play by the rules. A kitchen that looks perfect on a plan can still need real problem-solving on site before a single cabinet goes up.
2. Precision matters more with flat-pack, not less
There’s a common assumption that flat-pack means forgiving. It’s the opposite. Systems like IKEA’s METOD range require precise wall drilling and exact cabinet sequencing, because every unit is designed to lock into the next one at fixed tolerances. Get the first cabinet a few millimetres out and that error compounds down the whole run. By the time you reach the end wall, doors won’t hang straight and drawers start binding. With bespoke units, a fitter can sometimes plane or pack around small discrepancies. With flat-pack, the system doesn’t really allow for that – which is exactly why hundreds of London installs later, the sequence and the levelling are still where most of the actual skill goes.
3. Ordering and fitting are two different jobs
It’s worth being honest about who does what. IKEA sells kitchens; it doesn’t employ the people fitting them. Home Services work is subcontracted out to a network of independent installers, and the fitter you get isn’t chosen by you. Lead times commonly run four to eight weeks from purchase, tied to IKEA’s own booking system rather than your schedule. If something needs revisiting afterwards – a misaligned door, a late delivery, a panel cut wrong – the coordination runs back through a customer service chain, which can add weeks. None of that is a criticism of the product. It’s just worth knowing before you assume “installation” is included in the price you paid.
Homeowners who go with independent IKEA kitchen fitters tend to do it for exactly this reason: a fitter you can actually message directly, on a schedule built around your delivery rather than a national booking system.
4. Ready-made carcasses still need real trades behind them
A dishwasher needs a plumbed connection and an isolation valve, not just a gap under the counter. A gas hob needs a Gas Safe registered engineer, full stop – no exceptions, regardless of how straightforward the brand’s assembly instructions make everything else look. Lighting circuits, hob and oven wiring need to be done to Part P standard and be ready for inspection. None of this is covered by the flat-pack box itself, and it’s the step where a lot of DIY attempts either stall completely or end up needing a second visit from a professional to sort out.
5. The brand you order from isn’t always the brand that turns up on delivery day
DIY Kitchens is a genuinely well-regarded supplier, and their carcasses are solid. But they’re an online-only operation – no showroom, no local support network, no installation team of their own. That keeps their prices competitive, but it also means the responsibility for finding a competent installer sits entirely with the buyer. The carcasses arrive well made; what happens next is down to whoever you hire.
Careful DIY Kitchens fitting matters more than people expect here, because cabinets need to be level before worktops are even measured, and plumbing has to be roughed in before units go anywhere near the wall – get that sequence wrong and you’re taking cabinets back off the wall to fix it.
6. Assembling the cabinets yourself before the fitter arrives usually backfires
It sounds efficient – get a head start, assemble the boxes over the weekend, save some time. In practice, pre-assembled cabinets are frequently built slightly out of square or damaged in the process, and a fitter then has to decide whether to work around that or start again. Flat-pack boxes left exactly as they are until the fitting team arrives is, counterintuitively, the faster route to a kitchen that actually goes together properly.
7. Snagging is not optional, whoever fits it
Doors that don’t sit flush, drawers that need adjusting, a plinth with a visible gap – these are normal on day one of almost any kitchen fit, flat-pack or otherwise. The difference between a good installation and a poor one usually isn’t whether snags appear. It’s whether anyone comes back to sort them without a fight. A proper walkthrough before handover, with everything tested and adjusted on the spot, is what actually separates a kitchen that looks flat-pack from one that doesn’t.
The bottom line
Flat-pack kitchens, whether from IKEA or DIY Kitchens, are a genuinely sound way to get a well-built kitchen without showroom pricing. The units were never really the issue. It’s the sequencing, the trades, and the finishing that decide whether the result looks like a bargain or looks expensive – and that part has very little to do with which flat-pack brand’s name is on the box.
Order the kitchen with confidence. Just go into it knowing that the box arriving on your doorstep is the start of the project, not the end of it – and that the gap between the two is exactly where a decent installer earns their fee.
