Real Ikea fans take their love of affordable, modern furniture seriously. From the innovators that conjure pure imagination on IKEAhackers to the sorely missed debates on IKEAFans over that one guy in the Red Hook store, people feel passionately about their Ikea. So, when the yellow-and-blue powers that be decommission your favorite cabinet, it’s OK if you feel a little sad. And when it’s not just any cabinet, but the Akurum—the top-ranked system in JD Power’s Kitchen Cabinet Satisfaction Survey for the last two years—there are going to be a lot of sad homeowners.
The Akurum kitchen cabinet system may be gone for good, but there’s a reason for celebration because Ikea's Sektion system is here and it’s even better. We here at Semihandmade love Sektion because it’s even more versatile and intuitive than Ikea's former system. Sektion has more modular cabinet sizes for greater stackability, integrated drawer lighting, better interior storage fittings, and a hanging rail to make base cabinet installation easier.
Here's the rub: Sektion’s new measurements do not match the old Akurum specifications. The systems do look alike with square boxes, high-quality Blum hinges and drawer slides, and many similar-looking door styles. The key is that the cabinet dimensions are different, which makes everything different. A 30” base cabinet, for example, is now almost a true 30” wide by 30” high (before it 29 15/16” wide by 30 3/8” high), and an 80” pantry is now actually 80” instead of its previous 79 1/2”.
There isn’t an Ikea cabinet that we haven’t fallen in love with here at Semihandmade, which is why we still make custom-fit doors and paneling for both Sektion and Akurum cabinets. So if you’re looking for beautifully crafted real-wood doors for a new Sektion project or a set of new doors and drawers to upgrade an old Akurum system, Semihandmade will always be your top destination for the best-looking doors you can find.
For anyone looking for replacement Akurum door fronts, you can now purchase them online.
