IKEA Cabinets | One Room Challenge: Week 5
Welcome back, friends! If you’re new here, I’m Mel! I’m renovating my kitchen over 8 (hopefully!) weeks as a part of my third One Room Challenge. You can catch up on progress so far here:
Week 1: Kitchen Plans, Before Photos, and Mood Board
Week 2: Traditional Floorplan vs. Open Concept
Week 3: New Floors for an Old House
Week 4: Choosing Appliances
Lots has happened over the past week (floors are done?!) but this week I want to talk more about cabinets and why I chose what I did!
When it comes to kitchen cabinets, you have two broad choices - custom or pre-fab. This is not our forever home so I took into account my budget and the value of houses around me and quickly knew that custom wouldn’t make sense from a cost standpoint. That meant I was going with a modular solution from a big-box store and while I got a lot of strong recommendations for Lowe’s line of cabinets, I ultimately went with the IKEA SEKTION line. The biggest reason for this was that they were a little cheaper, and gave me more options for customization.
Another thing I love about IKEA kitchens though, is how modular they are. Since the cabinet bases, doors, and drawer fronts are all sold separately, going IKEA means that if months or years down the line I’d rather have drawers where doors are, or vice versa, I can make the swap easily and without any major renovation. It also means that a potential future owner could come in and replace all the drawer- and door-fronts with a totally different style and colour without having to renovate the whole kitchen again. I’m big into that flexibility!
Once I knew I was using IKEA, I had to choose a style and colour. As with everything else I didn’t want anything too ultra-modern, but I did want it to feel fresh and clean. The kitchen has a big window but since it faces the neighbours house it doesn’t actually get a lot of light so I thought light coloured cabinets would be best to keep the space from feeling dark (like it did before with the dark wood cabinets). I ended up going with the GRIMSLOV cabinets in off-white which I think is the perfect fit. The shaker-style is classic without feeling stuffy, and the off-white is light without being stark.
Since the cabinets were going to be off-white I wanted some colour and warmth from the countertops so I ended up with the BARKABODA counters which are a beautiful, rich-looking wood veneer. Being veneer instead of solid wood made them a lot more affordable, and the veneer is thick enough that it can be sanded down and re-sealed once or twice if needed which gives me some peace of mind.
Finally, I wanted to incorporate a small amount of open shelving. The kitchen isn’t THAT big, and I really love to cook so I a bunch of open shelves don’t really make sense for my practically. That said, so many elements of this house have reminded me of my grandmother’s house and hers had a few very small open shelves for displaying things so I’ve always known I really wanted to incorporate something like that. In the end, I included the VALDHOMA open shelving in just one spot which I think ties in beautifully with the counters. Once the kitchen is done if I add any other shelving or hooks on the walls I’ll match the same wood tone to bring them in.
I still have a lot to get done, not the least of which are priming and painting everything, assembling the cabinets, and figuring out trim. What’s next?
Demo- Frame out the new pocket door
Insulate and vapour barrier exterior wall- New electrical,
venting the range hood Replace drywall as needed& paintReplace/reinforce subfloor- Lay underlayment
New floor tile & grout- Install cabinets
- DIY appliance garages
- Run new heating/cooling vent for kitchen, gas for the gas range,
electrical for the dishwasher, and water for fridge and dishwasher - Install counters
- Install and grout backsplash
- Install appliances
- Finishing touches
Going to be real, I’m dragging a bit here! We’re into week 5 and I’m TIRED! We got a little staycation this week while the grout cured but we were still working all day so while it was a nice escape it wasn’t the most relaxing! But there’s lots left to do and we won’t have a kitchen again until it’s done so I’m trying to find a balance between taking it easy on myself and still pushing forward! You can follow along on my Instagram, and check out what the other participants are doing over on the One Room Challenge blog!
