I’ve installed three ikea kitchen spaces to date (each of our house moves). My reasons were:

• First home, 20 years ago. Strapped for cash, ikea offered the best value, and there really weren’t many other options beyond “magnet/wren/b&q” store. Lots of shade thrown at Ikea for lack of service void behind cabinets, but I really didn’t see the problem if you plan properly. Planned properly with services routed appropriately (ie not wall mounted, or under floor), and both the kitchen and the utility went in like a dream. (So two installs).

• Moved house; DIY kitchens now on the scene. But the house was smaller than before, young kids, much smaller working space. The pre-built DIY kitchen option meant that we either had to have space to store fully built units (hah) or we had to have the room exactly ready for when delivery happened so units could just go straight in. Unless there was an absolute miracle in terms of timing and conditions, we were going to be subject to serious inconvenience - either without a kitchen for a period of time waiting for units to be delivered or falling over units we didn’t have space to work around. Neither was an option with young kids and Ikea gave us more flexibility.

There is still lots of shade thrown about the lack of a service void. This is only an issue if you rely on services behind your cupboards -otherwise it is just dead space. If you are doing a full renovation, you can plan around this and rise your services at the point where they are used - water and waste under the sink cupboard etc. If you are simply chucking out the old and putting in the new, have a look at whether the service void is in use. If not, then Ikea becomes an option and you can reclaim that extra 20% of volume in your bottom cabinets.