Custom kitchen finish. Not the custom kitchen price.
Designer-grade doors, drawer fronts and panels for IKEA METOD cabinets. The cabinets do the heavy lifting on cost. We handle the finish. Up to 40% less than going fully custom.
Made in Sydney · 4–6 weeks · Tempe showroom
There's a gap between IKEA and full custom.
A locally-built custom kitchen with the finish you actually want lands at $40K and up.
The flatpack alternative is a fraction of that — but the standard fronts straight off the shelf don't quite look like the kitchen you've been pinning either. Particleboard with foil. A short list of colours. The same handles everyone else has.
Buy your IKEA METOD cabinets the way you would anyway. Then source the doors, drawer fronts and panels from us instead. Made in Sydney from MDF, in painted 2pac (any colour), NAVURBAN, woodgrain laminate or matte laminate — or unpainted profiles you can finish yourself.
Same kitchen footprint. Completely different kitchen.
How it actually works.
Three steps: Pick the cabinets from IKEA. Source the fronts and panels from us. Your installer puts it together.
That's the whole thing.
Use IKEA's free METOD planner to lay out the carcasses. This part of the kitchen — the cabinets — is the same in every kitchen. What you see when the kitchen is finished is the fronts. That's where Customea comes in. Save the plan and you'll have a list of sizes.
Match IKEA's sizes to ours and order doors, drawer fronts, cover panels, fillers and kicks. All METOD-sized doors and drawers come with IKEA's drilling pattern. Handle holes are drilled on-site by your installer.
Your installer assembles the IKEA METOD cabinets and fits Customea fronts using the standard hinges. Same job as a normal IKEA install — just a better-looking finish at the end.
Get an instant quote for a quick budget check.
Or order our Build My Cart service ($200) for a personalised quote — every door, drawer front, panel, filler and plinth translated from your IKEA plan, quoted within 48 hours.
The bits IKEA doesn't offer.
A kitchen is fronts plus the pieces that hide every join, gap and cabinet edge. Order them with the doors so the whole kitchen lands as one cohesive piece.
Cut to fit on-site. Larger than IKEA's — built with extra wiggle room so your installer can trim for uneven walls and floors. Custom sizes available for awkward jobs.
Bridge the gaps between cabinets and walls, or between cabinets and ceilings. Matched finish to your fronts so the join disappears.
Matched to your fronts to complete the high-end look.
Got an exposed island end nothing standard will cover? An odd gap between the cabinets and a feature wall? A run that needs a single uninterrupted panel rather than a join? Custom sizing is one of the biggest reasons a Customea kitchen reads as built-in — and one of the easiest upgrades to add to an order. Minimum and maximum sizes apply.
Made in Sydney alongside your standard pieces. 4–6 weeks total — bespoke doesn't slow the order down.
Three bestsellers customers come back for.
A small edit — the three combinations chosen most often for METOD. Tap any to see the range.
This isn't a hack. It's a kitchen.
"IKEA hack" means a clever DIY upgrade. Customea is the opposite: real joinery, built in Sydney, that just happens to fit IKEA cabinet sizes. No handyman skills needed — design, order and install all happen with us and our partners.
IKEA's standard fronts are often particleboard wrapped in foil. Ours are moisture resistant MDF, built for high-end finishes — painted 2pac, NAVURBAN, woodgrain laminate & matte laminate finishes. The difference is visible. The difference is also tactile.
Order a sample from $5 and you'll feel it.
From using our design partners to lock in your layout, to having us create your quote, to expert installer referals, there's support for every step of the process.
You don't have to figure it out yourself.
Designed and manufactured in our own factory in Sydney. Australian materials. Faster turnaround than imported alternatives. Easier support.
4–6 weeks from order to delivery.
A soft warm white. A deep charcoal. A clay. A sage. Not a curated 9-colour palette like everyone else. Select any Dulux, Taubmans, Porters Paint, Resene... or custom match.
You decide the colour.
Same finish quality. Up to 40% less.
A small U-shape kitchen — 7 base cabinets, 1 tall cabinet, 5 wall cabinets, 12 drawers, all cover panels & plinths and additional mechanisms (corner carousel, bin).
Includes basic appliances, 20mm mineral benchtops & handles.
Same layout, three different ways to source it.
Cabinets do the heavy lifting on cost. Customea brings the finish.
What's not included: installation and third-party trades (electrician, plumber, tiler).
IKEA figures are illustrative — actual cost depends on what you spec at the store.
See and feel it before you commit.
A kitchen is a long commitment. Before you order doors for the whole thing, hold the finish in your hand. Look at it in your light. Put it next to your floor.
Order samples from $5 each. They arrive in a few days. When you're ready to order doors, get in touch and we'll apply your sample cost as store credit toward your full order.
- Real materials, full thickness, real finish
- Delivered Australia-wide
- Sample cost credited to your full order on request
- Or visit our Tempe showroom — 9 full kitchens on display
The questions everyone asks.
If your question isn't here, check out our full list of FAQs first or reach out and our team replies to most enquiries within a few hours during business days.
Use IKEA's free METOD planner to lay out your cabinets and save the plan — you'll have a full item list with sizes.
FOR PRICING:
- Shop the website to add your items one by one from our online catalogue.
- Use the instant quote tool available online, just create an account and upload your IKEA plan.
- Alternatively we can build a complete Customea quote for you via our Build My Cart service for $200.
Either way, the IKEA planning step happens first. We come in for the fronts, panels, fillers and kicks afterwards.
Yes. All our METOD doors and drawer fronts come pre-drilled to IKEA's standard hinge and drawer-runner pattern. Your installer fits them the same way they'd fit IKEA's own fronts.
Handle holes are drilled on-site during installation — that's standard trade practice and lets you decide handle position based on the finished cabinet, not the spec sheet.
An IKEA hack is usually a DIY workaround — buying off-the-shelf components and modifying them yourself to look more expensive than they are.
Customea isn't that. We're a Sydney joinery business that makes premium MDF cabinet fronts and panels designed to fit IKEA's cabinet sizes. The product is real high-end joinery. It just happens to be compatible with the cheapest, best-engineered cabinet system in the country. No DIY skills required at any step.
Not as a standard size, but you can order items to fit via the CUSTOM SIZE option.
If you're not sure whether you have an older IKEA kitchen model, read this.
We do recommend using someone who specialises in installing IKEA kitchens specifically as they will be familiar with the suspension rail system etc. Our fronts use the same hinges and drawer runners as IKEA's so will be installed exactly the same way.
See our list of recommended installers here.
4–6 weeks from order confirmation. Made to order in Sydney. Shipped Australia-wide.
For comparison, full custom kitchens are typically 8–14 weeks. Plan your IKEA delivery and your installer to land within the same window.
Yes. Two ways:
Order samples from $5. Real material, full thickness, real finish. Delivered in a few days. Cost credited to your full order on request.
Visit our Tempe showroom. Open Monday–Saturday 10am–4pm. We have 9 full kitchens on display, plus 2 laundries, 2 wardrobe set-ups, 3 TV units and other smaller joinery — so you can see Customea fronts in real installed kitchens, not just on a swatch board.
We re-sell handles and supply benchtops as add-ons, but the joinery is what we actually make and what makes the visible difference. Most customers source handles and benchtops separately and use us for the doors, drawer fronts, panels, fillers and kicks — the parts that determine how the kitchen looks.
If you want everything from one supplier, we can quote handles and benchtops alongside your fronts. Ask during Build My Cart, or bring it up at a design appointment.
IKEA's standard METOD fronts are mostly particleboard wrapped in foil, with plastic edging. Ours are MR MDF, built for premium finishes — painted 2pac in any colour, NAVURBAN textured woodgrain, woodgrain laminate, hard-wearing matte laminate made to order in our own factory in Sydney.
Different material. Different finish. Different look. The price reflects that. The reframe most customers find useful: full custom joinery for the same layout costs up to 40% more than IKEA + Customea. You're paying more than IKEA to get a custom finish, but a lot less than going fully custom for the same look.
Make your IKEA METOD look custom.
Two ways to start. Order samples from $5 to see and feel the materials. Or book a design appointment with one of our partners to see what's possible for your project.