Ikea Kitchens - Tell it to Me Straight

I had to delay my Ikea kitchen home measurement appointment because I'm going to Sweden of all places next week. Hoping to return with lots of design inspo and after watching the Great British Baking Show Season 1, one of these in my tummy.

Image via Ikea.com

Ikea will come over when I return to measure my kitchen and put the Kitchen Remodel Project into motion. From my understanding, the parts are affordable, but the labor is not. I've built some Ikea dressers in my day - can I build a whole kitchen? I need to identify the break even on sanity vs. savings in this scenario.

Our plan is to hire contractors for the flooring, electrical, and plumbing. We'll demo ourselves. We have a few appliances all ready to go. So, what's the damage going to be? It's a small space in desperate need of countertops and storage space. Maybe a few floating shelves.

Did you build an Ikea kitchen? Did you pay Ikea to build your kitchen? Did you go another route entirely? I'm dying to know here, folks. Tell it to me straight.