[Ikeafreak]

Hello all!

I thought I'd share a few pictures of our ongoing project which started on March 20th. We are having a 1200 sq ft. additionput on the back of our house which will include a mudroom, kitchen, family room on the lower level and a master bedroom, bath and closet on the upper level. We are also having extensive structural changes done to the inside of our current home.

Here's part of our old kitchen:



Here's where the new kitchen will eventually be going:



And here's our Ikea plan:









Wewill hopefully be starting kitchen installation in the next few weeks. My husband and I are building the boxes and our builder is installing them. Should be interesting!

Heather

[stacylu]

Holy Cow! That's a HUGE addition and I'm jealous! Your kitchen is going to be enormous and gorgeous! Congrats on starting andI hope that everything goes smoothly!

[Ikeafreak]

Thanks! We're very excited. The addition is supposed to be completed by the end of September, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll be able to host Thanksgiving dinner this year.

The kitchen will be approx. 17.5' x 15.5'. Our current kitchen (or what's left of it) is 10'x 11' with almost no useable counter space, sothe new kitchen will have loads more room. We decided that this would be our "until we retire" house, so we tried togo as big and do as much as wepossibly could. Hereis ashot of the addition from the backyard. The three windows in the middle of the bottom level will be the new kitchen:





This is where we started about three months ago:



I hope to have many morepictures to share over the next few months. Thanks for the warm welcome!

[Ikeafreak]

I just came across this picture and wanted to share. The sad thing is..this is how the living room lookedfor6 months BEFORE the construction started. (Notice the IKEA bag on the left and the Ikea Pax shoe rack on the right that I got in the As Is section for a steal.)

[Ikeafreak]

Here are some of the things we're using in the kitchen, family room and dining room, which all flow together...

Honey Maple Flooring will run through the entire bottom floor:



Uba Tuba granite



Sink and faucet:



Vent hood:



Here's a collage of elements from our dining room. The table is Ikea Bjursta and can seat 10. Two pinto leather chairs will be at each end and8 dark brown chairs will be on the sides.Therug atthe bottom will also be used in the family room, hopefully tying those two rooms together.



And finally, this isan originalquadtych painting I just purchased on eBay. It will go on a large wall in the family room and will be highlighted with Ikeamagnesium rail lighting:



I'm really working hard on the decorating end of the project. It doesn't come easily to me, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'd welcome them whole-heartedly!

[DesignDiva]

You've got some great elements there! I'd love to see some accents in gold and maybe dark green to warm up the living spaces. That painting should be a focal point, but the strong color needs to be spread throughout the room.

You've got a circle thing going on there, so you can go with that in accessories (round bowls, platters, etc) or play off it and use more angular decorative stuff. I'd probably go with sharp acute angles rather than rectangular, since you've got the furniture with mostly right angles. I'd love to see a triangular shallow bowl filled with round balls with some texture (feathers, beads, etc) on the table, and some wide Asian style square pots with orchids or greens around. I think the space will also need a few selected very old pieces...an old Chinese sculpture, a carved wood salvage piece, a rusty metal decorative grate maybe...to provide some dramatic tension. It will make the modern stand out even more.

Don't forget that accessories don't have to be just set on a table, you can use stands, boxes, a stack of books, etc. to display them and that brings another element into the composition. In your space, less is definitely more, so a single piece or grouping of three small pieces per surface would be sufficient. Just make sure they are interesting and unique enough to stand alone, since they'll be the focus of attention!

[Ikeafreak]

Eva, I love all of your suggestions. I was thinking about usinglong, tubular sconceswith amber glasscovers in the kitchen to pull thecolor from the family room art pieces.

I love the idea of sharp angular pieces. One of my biggest problems is being too matchy-matchy. I need to think more outside the box.

Your suggestionto use old pieces is something I would've never thought of.And with eBay, I'm sure I'll be able to find just the right things. I honestly don't think I'd ever be able to do this addition if it weren't for eBay. I've saved a ridiculous amount of money buying on eBay. And most of the things I've gotten look likeI spent a fortune.

[Ikeafreak]

I found this sconce for the kitchen, but I'm not sure if it will be too matchy-matchy. It would go on either side of the middle window above the sink. Anyone have an opinion?

Forgot to add that it would be strictlyaccent lighting. It doesn't really have to do anything but look cool and it will be onits owndimmer.

[DesignDiva]

I like it! It isn't too matchy because the quadtych in the living room is far enough away that it will relate but not look like the same artist made the sconce and the carpet LOL And it's a small enough accent that it will look like an accent. Now if you were doing wallpaper in that pattern, that would be too matchy.

I like how the light coming through the sconce will echo the light in the center of each panel of the painting. Very dimensionally pleasing.

[Ikeafreak]

Wonderful! Another decision made.

Eva, I'm telling you...You should really start charging for your design services. You have the knack.