Hanging an Ikea Cabinet is Easy (So Far)

Once I actually start the real installation work on my cabinets, I want it to be as easy as possible. I've never installed cabinets before and the last thing I want to do is get stuck half-way through because of missing parts.

I figured that I will take some time while waiting for the electrical and plumbing upgrades and hang the cabinet I assembled the other day.

The Ikea literature makes it look easy, but then again why would they possibly make it look hard to do?

Step one was to find the high spot on the floor and measure up from there. A couple of lines are made on the wall, and the track shown here leaning against the wall is then mounted. Normally this track would be cut to length, but since I'm just doing this as a mock-up, I'm leaving it full length.




The cabinets are held to the track with these sliding metal bolts/glides.




With these sliding bolts installed, the cabinets can be slid left/right as needed for aligning the cabinet. Minor adjustments can be made up/down as needed as well.




From the inside of the cabinet, you can see how the cabinet box is held to the track with a nut and clip on each side.




From the side, you can see how the cabinet box is designed to be held straight, while straddling the track. The top and bottom of the "box" extend back fully to the wall while the sides are open for the track, wiring, etc.




With the box mounted, the doors easily clip into place. Shown here is the recommended mounting height.




Covers for the mounting hardware are included, and they slide in place.




After about 60 seconds of tweaking the hinges, the bottom edges of the doors line up nicely.




Not so for the handles. I didn't do a good enough job in drilling the holes, so on each door the right handle hole is slightly higher than the left. It'll take about 3 minutes to fix, but when it comes time to do all the handles I'm going to build or buy a handle jig. This isn't noticeable, but I know it's not right and it bothers me.




From the recommended mounting height, I end up with about 3-1/2" between the top of the cabinet and the ceiling. While that works, I think it's a little too much. My plan is to move the cabinets up about 1 to 1-1/2" so I can use a smaller filler strip to cover the gap. This will also give me more clearance above the counter tops. Before I make this decision for sure though I'll build one of the larger cabinets and see how it lines up with our current cabinets.



At this point, the cabinet is pretty bare looking. There are no side-trim pieces installed and the trim along the bottom has not been installed.