Tips and Tricks to get you going on your plans in the IKEA Kitchen Planner.  Put together by the experts at IKEAFANS Kitchen Planning forums. 

 The IKEA Kitchen Planner software is fabulous for helping to create an IKEA Kitchen, but it does have it's little quirks and idiosyncracies. Here's a running list of tips and tricks that might help you bend the planner to your will!

EATING BAR OR OVERHANG

You want to choose "Worktops" then "Extra Worktop". That will give you a 20" long piece of countertop that you can move with the arrow keys to where you'd like it to be, and you can change the length to whatever you want it to be (up to 96" max) at the left of the screen. If you move the countertop with the mouse it will snap next to the cabinets instead of off the back of them where you want it, so make sure to use the arrow keys. The countertop defaults to a height of 36" only, so if you're planning a bar-height (42") bar or are using 39" high base cabinets, you'll find the overhang protruding from the middle of the cabinets rather than sitting on top of them. You'll have to use your imagination here!

APPLIANCES

Under the Appliances tab in the planner, there is a choice of "Your Own Appliances". These appliances act as placeholders in your plan but don't add anything to your bottom line total. Each appliance has a little icon. Make sure you have the icon facing the right way in your 3D view or you'll get warnings that you can't open doors.

Every "your own" appliance can have their dimensions changed to what you want them to be. If you want to indicate a stacked washer and dryer, for example, choose the washer and change the height to 72 inches. If you have a trash compactor or other undercounter appliance that isn't available, select a dishwasher or washing machine and change the dimensions.

Note that the defaults of the appliance sizes are not necessarily American standards. The range and fan are 24" wide by default.

If you place a fan cabinet above a range and then choose a microwave, the microwave will replace the cabinet...not the look you're going for. To rectify this, you can stack two fan cabinets on top of each other and select the microwave for the bottom one. You'll end up with an extra fan cabinet and a microwave on your component list, so make sure to remember to not order them and subtract the cost from your bottom line in the planner. This trick also works under a horizontal cabinet.

The planner gets upset with you if you put drawer cabinets next to a range. It feels that children will open the drawers and use them as steps to reach the stovetop and presumably then proceed to flambe themselves. So expect a little red warning should you do that.