There’s two parts to this – one is building the cabinets. The other is installing them.
I have done both – making a built-in entertainment center and also installed my own kitchen cabinets that were made by a carpenter in Tijuana, which was a third the price of custom cabinets and less than half of Home Depot. THey were all plywood, too – not particle board. I wouldn’t recommend it, though. It was not easy. I was young, had time, and was on a budget so I could make it happen.
I like the Home Depot process alot, actually. Would recommend it if you aren’t handy. We also had some tricky custom corners that the “standard” Home Depot design process was not able to deal with for our kitchen. Used Home Depot for bath cabinets, though and installed those myself. Looks great.
I don’t know if IKEA has plywood cabinets or not but if they don’t, I would avoid it. Using any kind of particle-board cabinets in a kitchen near the sink is bad news. The water makes it swell. Same with Laminate flooring near a kitchen sink.
The key to getting the wall cabinets right is a cleat – just put the cleat ( I use a 1″ x 2″ pine strip ) on the wall nice and level. Then, attach another one to the cabinets. The cleat will hold the cabinet up while you secure it.
If you want to get real fancy, use a french cleat, but I have never need to do this.
CDMA is right that getting things level and square is the key. You have to make the cabinets an inch or two short just in case the room isn’t square, then order some extra filler and moulding to match the cabinets to hide the gaps.
The other thing to not underestimate is the amount of moulding work you have to do to make it look truly finished.
Many people can hang the wall cabinets and get them level and square but don’t know how to cover all the errors, corners, gaps, etc. If your website doesn’t show you how to do this, it is leading you on.
Also, if you don’t have a level floor, you have to shim them or you are in for a disaster.
I’d recommend getting a laser level – they help alot – and don’t settle for anything that isn’t level and square. Really. You’ll regret it if you think the first one is “close enough”
Walls that come together at near-90 degree angles will drive you mad. If the angle is > 90 degrees, you either have to live with a gap behind the cabinets that grows and grows, or you have to butt the wall-side of the cabinets together an leave a gap in the front and fix it will a filler strip and/or moulding. Like I said, this is the tricky part of cabinets that alot of videos don’t show you.
