I have a confession.
We’ve been planning the Underdog’s future kitchen layout since March!
I know, I know. That’s not fair. When we took ownership in the beginning of May, other more pertinent projects {tree removal, electrical upgrades, de-shuttering, etc.} took precedence. So, today’s the day I spill the beans on the kitchen’s future. Why are we starting with the kitchen reno first? Well, because the kitchen is a space that we use lots on a daily basis. We rarely eat out and instead prefer to make our own meals. So when prioritizing room reno’s for the Underdog, putting the kitchen up there at #1 was pretty much a given. We can stomach plain Jane bedrooms, outdated pink bathrooms and even no air conditioning for a while but we’d really like to have a functioning kitchen to prepare homemade meals in – for us and our kiddos. It’s part of our daily routine and something that we do together as a family…sit down and enjoy a meal. Or, at least, we try to. More often than not, Handy Hubby and I end up making crazy, non-blinking eyes at each other because Layne can’t seem to keep his squirmy bottom in his chair and Everett chews most foods into a flavorless pulp then spits them out, refusing to swallow a morsel. Yeah, meal times can be a little stressful. But it’s a family tradition that we’d like to keep going because we’re hoping this is just a phase. So many things are going to be new when we do move – neighborhood, friends, schools, surroundings – that we’d like to keep some continuity. Even if it does involve improper dining etiquette!
So, onto kitchen plans…
You already know that we plan to knock down the walls separating the kitchen from the dining and living areas. We have plans to vault the ceilings as well. We’re going for a more casual, open floor plan to help the modest space feel airier. We’ve already removed and sold the original 1950’s kitchen cabinetry. We’re all for painting cabinets but these were not worth keeping. They were sagging, stained and in bad condition. As you’ve probably guessed by now from the post title, we’re going with IKEA cabinets, appliances and hardware. Why? 1) We read a lot of customer reviews touting IKEA kitchens for their budget-friendly and aesthetic appeal. 2) Our local IKEA is less than 15 minutes away. 3) IKEA was having a sale. As in, 20% off your total kitchen purchase if you bought 3 appliances. The sale ended May 1st and we closed on the Underdog May 2nd. Which means we planned for and bought a kitchen for a house we didn’t legally own yet. Scary!! It’s definitely not a decision we’d push onto anyone else, but it ended up working out great for us so far. That means in the weeks prior to closing on the Underdog, we spent a lot of time measuring, researching, asking questions, floor planning and designing. We used IKEA’s Kitchen Planner which you can access at home on your personal computer and also at any IKEA store. In fact, when we were on vacation in April we visited the Tampa, Florida IKEA to work on our kitchen design. That’s the nice thing about the IKEA Kitchen Planner. You can come up with an amateur design at home, save it and then pull it up at IKEA. {FYI – The Tampa IKEA was having computer problems the day we visited but, thank goodness!, we were able to access our saved design. It probably wouldn’t hurt to call ahead and make sure all systems are go before making a special trip to IKEA for kitchen planning purposes.} We found the IKEA kitchen design employees {at both the OH and FL stores} to be extremely helpful in double checking our designs, answering questions, helping us fill in wasted space and placing our order. I guess you can take that however you want considering we don’t have a finished kitchen yet!
Are you ready to see the Underdog’s kitchen plans? Here goes…
That’s the kitchen/living room overhead view once the walls are removed. The kitchen will remain at the back of the house and you’ll be able to see it from the front door. {The front door is shown in the bottom right-hand corner.} Since the kitchen will be in full view from the living room, I want it to have symmetry and balance along with a focal point.
{view from the living room}
The focal point will be the hood. It will be positioned between the two windows {now the kitchen and dining room windows}. The image above doesn’t portray it very well, but the window on the right is larger than the one on the left. Eventually, I’d like to replace the right window with a glass door of some sort that leads out to the backyard.
The left side {I’ll refer to them as left/right for descriptive purposes} of the kitchen will house the refrigerator, microwave, trash pull-out and a lazy susan. The doorway leads to the den and garage. I think having the fridge close to the garage will be convenient for unloading groceries. The sink will remain below the left window.
The right side of the kitchen will act as an office. The image doesn’t relay this but the countertop along the far right wall will extend the full length of the floor cabinets, covering the empty space in between them as well. I’ll be able to slide a chair or stool under it into the empty spot for bill paying, making grocery lists, searching the web for recipes and, most importantly, blogging! I plan to use the floor cabinets as storage for hanging folders, printer, paper, etc. The doorway leads back to the bedrooms.
In the center of everything will be a ~ 9′ long island. I love, love, LOVE the idea of a large farmhouse table standing in for a kitchen island, but Handy Hubby and I decided we’d need the extra storage provided by an island with base cabinets instead. We’re torn between adding big chunky legs, a countertop overhang and 4 stools to the living room side of the island OR leaving it as-is and having a dining table on the living room side of the island that can be pulled away from the island to seat extra guests if necessary. If we go with an eat-in island, I’ll have to come up with a clever way to add extra dining surface in a jiffy. Maybe a drop leaf or pedestal table in the living room that can act as a dining table when necessary? Obviously, an island that seats 4 would be plenty for us on a daily basis, but we would need other dining options for guests. The other problem I have with island eating {let’s just call it that} is that my legs always fall asleep when I sit on barstools. I’m short. Maybe I just need a padded cushion, footrest or something?? Aaaaah, so many decisions! Good thing we’re quite a ways out from having to nail down the whole dining thing. The back wall will house the gas stove, hood, dishwasher and sink. I’m pretty excited about my dishwasher having a door panel that looks like cabinetry. I think some open shelving and a tiled backsplash above the oven that extends all the way to the ceiling would emphasize the hood as a focal point even more.
You may have noticed that we chose contrasting upper and lower cabinetry which I hinted at here. Not only do the white uppers and black lowers differ in color, they are two different styles of cabinetry. Mix-and-match cabinets, here we come! The uppers are the AKURUM wall cabinets in white. The uppers above the desk area will have glass fronts for a lighter feel. The lowers are the RAMSJÖ base cabinets in black-brown. We hadn’t originally intended on mixing styles but ran into issues with size and color for the upper wall cabinets. {More on that next week.} I think I’m really going to like the mix though. It should make it feel a little less store bought-ish.
A few other things of interest about our future IKEA kitchen:
- This layout will require us to move the placement of the stove which means we’ll have to re-route/run a new gas line. I thought about switching the positioning of the stove with the fridge but didn’t think a refrigerator made as good a focal point as a stove. I also liked the idea of having the sink in the island but decided against it since the current sink placement gives us a wonderful view out to the backyard and Handy Hubby doesn’t want to move plumbing around if he doesn’t have to.
- We did not purchase a microwave, sink, faucet or countertops from IKEA. While we did find a few options we loved, they were priced high compared to what we payed for our sink, faucet and granite installation last summer. I’m keeping an eye out for a good deal on a microwave. I’ll probably scour the web and Craigslist for a sink and faucet. I’m thinking of mixing and matching the countertop surfaces too. Some light-colored solid surfaces along with worn, salvaged wood are tops right now.
- We purchased a refrigerator, gas stove, hood and dishwasher along with our IKEA cabinetry. This got us the 20% off discount. All IKEA appliances are made by Whirlpool even though they may/may not have the IKEA logo on them.
- We’re going with the VÄRDE hardware.
- The cabinetry, appliances and hardware came in right at ~ $8,000. That’s with the 20% discount. That’s not inexpensive by any means, but since we bought a house for well below $100,000 {yes, I said below 100K} we can afford to spend ~ 10K total on the kitchen reno.
- When we placed our final order, there were a few items that weren’t readily available for shipment due to the warehouse being out of stock. Apparently, when you order an IKEA kitchen, it’s shipped from a warehouse NOT your local store. We were able to buy a few missing items {dishwasher, hood and cabinet trim} directly from our local store but are still waiting for a few drawer fronts to come in. The rest of the order was shipped to the Underdog about 2.5 weeks after we placed the order. The delivery fee was $89.
- The cabinetry requires self assembly {like most IKEA stuff} which allows for smaller shipping packages and lower costs versus your local home improvement store.
So, it looks as though we have an IKEA kitchen in the making. No, we haven’t even opened a box yet since it was delivered 2 weeks ago! Remember, we still have the electrical upgrade and demo to do before we can even begin to think about a kitchen. Even though we don’t have final results yet, we’ve been happy with IKEA’s service {thanks to Rob at IKEA West Chester who stayed after hours to place our order} and design help {especially the guy in Tampa who squeezed a trash pull-out into our design} and are stoked that we got to take advantage of the 20% off deal. Don’t worry, I’ll share the rest of this IKEA kitchen story – assembly, installation, quality control, appliance integrity, etc. – as it unfolds. Stay tuned!
I’m curious to know if any of you have had experiences with IKEA kitchens? Ever installed one? Know somebody who has one? Been eyeing one? Does just the thought of one make you cringe? I don’t know anyone personally who has an IKEA kitchen, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a tad apprehensive. But all the ones I’ve seen and read about online are fantastic. Another reason why I love the www.
FYI – I was not compensated in any way for this post. I’m just sharing what we’re doing even if it involves a Swedish home furnishings superstore.
images: all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking
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