Discuss I'm completely lost on IKEAFANS.com. We're Personalizing the IKEA Experience. I'm completely lost - Need help with planning your remodel? Want a kitchen planner to review your ideas? This is the happenin' spot!.
I've decided to go with an Ikea kitchen after my first bid came back with the low-ball cabinets 9000 dollars at least (my husband is still iffy for now). But I am a bit confused about a few things. We'd like to get white-painted cabinets, don't care if they're wood or not (we don't know any better, I guess). It looked like a couple of styles were painted fiberboard, Lidingo and Stat, is that true? Can they then be touched up if they are damaged? Also, I wondered if these cabinets will support soapstone countertops?. Another question, has anyone figured out how, or if, toe-kick drawers can somehow be incorporated with these cabinets? That's one thing I really wanted for placemats and for dog bowls.
We are planning some structural remodeling before we get started, removing one wall and a portion of another and turning half of our screened porch into kitchen space. We'll have to raise the floor and hire a mason to continue the brick floor in the kitchen. The future perimeter of the kitchen will therefore be very different from it's current layout. I entered them into the Ikea kitchen planner and then tried to start "furnishing" the kitchen but I feel extremely overwhelmed and don't really understand what I'm doing. Is there only one type of base cabinet? Is it only the doors and drawers that change? I'm confused!
I'm not sure how to post the image that I've come up with so far. Can anyone tell me how it's done? I've saved the dimensions file to the IKEA website, but I don't know how to save it as a file to attach here.
Once I get that figured out I can tell you what my husband and I are planning layout-wise and see what you all think. Thanks so much for your help!
The cabinets will definitely support soapstone, granite, or anything else you might want in terms of countertops. Susan (the Admin, Garden of Darwin) has soapstone, I have granite, and the cabinets are performing wonderfully.
There are no toekick drawers available in the US (yet) although they do have them in the UK. Since the toekicks (also called plinth) snap on and off, it's an easy retrofit later should they come out with that particular item here.
The base cabinets are all 24 inches deep, and come in various widths and with various drawer/shelf combos. Since each element is a separate item, you can customize the cabinets in many ways depending on what your storage needs are.
If you are raising the floor, be aware that your cabinets will be higher also, and you might end up with countertops that are higher than the standard 36". Nothing wrong with that, and actually many people prefer it, but I thought I would mention it. The AKURUM legs are adjustable but have a minimum of a 34 1/2 inch height (or close to that anyway).
There is a thread on paint matching, as well as threads on modifications. I suggest you peruse all the forums for lots of information you may want to know! Especially the "Why IKEA" section for your DH.
So feel free to post your specs and questions, we will do our best to help!
Thank you so much for your help and welcome evaperconti! I appreciate all of your tips. I actually did read through many of the areas you recommended, but since I'm coming in with absolutely NO knowledge about cabinetry at all, some of it is like a foreign language. :?
What I meant by the floor being raised is that the current (soon to be remodeled) screened in porch has a lower floor than the current kitchen, so that will have to be raised. The current kitchen is half of the attached picture. It would basically be the left side (larger) square portion of the attachment here. The screened porch would be the smaller right side (smaller) square of the image. They are currently divided by a wall with a door to the south side.
We want to take that wall out and possibly install a support post, and also take out the section that is showing a door (currently a wall) on the south section of the smaller square, to connect the kitchen with our family room. The large doors on the north part of the smaller square would then lead to the smaller remainder of the screened porch and the door to the right would lead outside.
What we'd like to do is have the current kitchen still be the main part of the kitchen, with refrigerator to the north of the large window on the left, the sink beneath the window on the north wall (where it currently is) the range/oven we think will be where the current wall is deviding the kitchen from the porch with an opening beside it where the current door to the screened porch is, so basically all of the appliances and countertops will be in a U against the north wall. Fridge left, range right and sink bottom of U. We'd like to have a raised bar area with stools on the other side of the range (in the current porch area) and we'd like a small Island in the middle of the U (we figure about 4'x4'). The open area of the new kitchen (current porch) would be where the table would go, if we can figure out how to situate it so as not to block doors or traffic flow. (One idea is to remove the door to the outside on the right of the picture and only access outside through the new screened porch through the double doors.
Anyway, if I haven't confused you enough yet! The dimensions are:
Wall A (left): is approx 13' 2"
Wall B (right): approx 10' 8"
Wall C (north): will be approx 25' 2"
Wall D (south bump out) 12' 3"
Large window on left wall: 69"x 69" and 1' 2" off the ground, about 14 inches from south wall.
small window on north wall: 40"w x 41" h and approx 3' 7" off the ground. About 5 ft from left wall.
Doorway (really just an opening) in south wall bump out: 37" wide and 8' tall
Doorway (planned opening) in south wall small section will be approx: 64" and 8' tall
Double doorway planned for north wall to screened porch will be approx: 72" w and 80" tall.
We'd like the majority of the left wall to be windows with possibly one door at the bottom which would be standard (36"x80")
I think that's it! Oh, yes, one more thing. The range we plan to buy is 40" wide!
Forgot one thing! in the small fourteen inch section to the south of the large window (in the bump-out section we currently have a sort of bar area. It's exactly 14 inches deep. The wall above it is empty however and we'd like to add either a couple of large wall cabinets with a pot rack between them (our original idea), or now I'm thinking we should do something like the "Adel Cream Buffet" shown in Pickles_ca's before and after shots.
OK here's what I am thinking. Let me know if I've gotten anything wrong, or if there's anything that won't work!
Edited to add: Total price, not including appliances, bar stools, countertop or sink ... about $4000
Here's the 3D view. The bar is set at 42" (standard bar height) to provide a bit of barrier from the range. You will need a range hood to hang over the range, I think.
I've created a hutch at the end of the bar which can house some appliances, coffeemaker, etc. It can have a glass front for the upper cabinet or solid, depending. It should go to the end of the overhang, but the planner is being finicky.
The two cabinets on either side of the window are glass.
I think a rolling island would be your best option, it can live next to the big window and be pulled out where you need it.
Here you can see the hutch effect where your bar area is.
I was about to post and tell you that Eva will probably be willing to put your ideas into the planner and work up some ideas for you....but she has beaten me to it and shown you better than my words could ever have expressed. (Nice job, Eva, that is GORGEOUS!)
I'm planning my kitchen now, and this community has truly been a blessing! Welcome, and please let us know how things are going as you plan things out!
Thank you so much, that is a great start! I tried putting together something similar and could not figure out how to accomplish some of the stuff that you did. For example, how did you get the program to allow you to put wall cabinets on the floor?
I really appreciate your help!
I need to think about what if any changes I would want.
I am wondering about that plate rack in Pickle's buffet. I didn't see anything like that among my choices.
The plate rack has become availible in the white only recently, or will be availible in April. It hasn't made it into the planner yet. You might be able to fiddle in the space for it if you find a cabinet the same size and place it where the plate rack would go. I had to do that on my plans when the planner refused to put a countertop on my dishwasher....it was a real nuisance to me so I "faked" it.
I'm not sure how often they update the planner, but I know I found pieces on the version in the store that I could not access at home. So keep your eye open for updates, and don't give up hope if you spot things you like in the catalog but you cannot find them in the planner!
Man, that planning tool is finicky! It's making me crazy! Sometimes it would rather stick something on backwards or on the window rather than doing what I want it to! How FRUSTRATING!!! I've been working on it for hours and for the past fifteen minutes or so I've been trying to add something to the left to mirror what's already on the right. Can't the thing understand symmetry!!! AAARRGH! [img]images/emoticons/shock.gif[/img]
Anyone have any tips"
By the way, thanks Eva for the link to your sketch! I didn't notice it until today! I started building on it right away, but I wish I knew how to make the thing cooperate. Also, thanks Emmie for your welcome and advice!
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