Ikea? Seriously?
It's no surprise, when someone tells you to look into Ikea for your kitchen, your reaction is to cringe at the thought. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Ikea, but to build permanently in my brand new house sounded horrifying.
When I first started to "mock up" my kitchen, I used a tool called Spoak. I had a vision, and I wanted to see it in 3D before I committed to anything. As a designer, I like to be able to ideate, and move things around at ease. Spoak was extremely buggy and designing in 3D was nearly impossible....and so begins my story about Ikea kitchens.
What changed my mind about Ikea kitchen cabinets
1) There's third party companies that create "custom" fronts to fit Ikea's base cabinets. I had NO idea, but this opened a whole new world of kitchen planning and ideas. The one I explored was Semihandmade.
2) The Ikea planning tool is NEXT LEVEL. They make it so easy to switch out cabinets, customize them, move around the floorplan, I was really impressed by it
The beloved before
This kitchen from the 60's was ready for an update! I knew even before we toured the house that it was the one because I saw SO much potential with it that just truly excited us. Though dated, the bones were there. Take down a few walls to open up the kitchen and create a cozy open space was my vision for this kitchen.
Demo day
I've always dreamed of a good demo day!! I found a new passion for tearing down drywall :) But, of course, no house remodel goes as planned. We discovered during demo that the kitchen wall we thought was an easy removal ended up being load bearing. We had to install two beams so that we could maximize the space.
Measure twice, cut once....
Are you familiar? Well I say this saying is flawed. Unfortunately, because we were taking out a wall, we didn't measure the right distances. Really the saying should be "Measure twice at a few different points, cut once". I learned the hard way, went into a little panic mode but had to trek through it and 1) figure out how to cancel my existing order and 2) go back to the drawing board on my designs.
Back to the drawing board
After having to start over, this put a little pressure on my floor plan anyways, I ended up making major changes to make use of a little extra space we had that I didn’t know what to do with! I decided to make it into a coffee bar because I’m a huge coffee addict.
Placing the order with Ikea
Another amazing thing about Ikea kitchens are the expert support that they have to confirm designs. I would not have been able to complete this without them! I had several meetings to verify my plans and any changes I made. Here's a little look at my final designs before ordering.
Now the fun part….building
Our contractors said it was the biggest pile of Ikea cabinets they’ve ever seen! Just what I wanted to hear 🙈. Starting was the most difficult part. Once i started to build the bases, it became a repeated pattern and I just worked on a few each day until they were done. The drawers were a bit trickier, but eventually those were completed as well.
The big reveal!
After hours and hours and hours of designing, building, installing and dreaming, our kitchen was brought to life!! It turned out beyond what I ever expected. I love how versatile the Ikea cabinets are and how I can continue to add shelves or drawers since they stock all the items. I’m so impressed by the Ikea technology, team and the third party sellers they work with. It was truly a pleasure and I’m shocked at how smoothly it went!
