[Minmin]

The meet and greet sounded great. (Sorry I missed it, but a beach weekend was calling!) The catalogue preview is very helpful. Thanks for putting up the picks. I like the solar beech, but found myself most intrigued by the focus on MATTRESSES! Interesting... will Sleepy's be losing some sleep??? Susan--did you post a thread on the meet and greet?

[Susan]

I've been remiss in posting about the Meet & Greet. And we missed you! I was hoping with the rain on Saturday morning that you'd skip the beach and join us...alas. Not to be.

Anyway, we had really spotty wifi while we were there, and we got home late last night. Kids arrived home this morning and there hasn't been a quiet moment. Hopefully someone can post a blow by blow, but I will say we had a presentation by and tour with Mike Baker, the store manager, and Luis Fernandez the next in charge. We spent several hours getting the low down on the store and I've got a request in for a press kit to get some more details out to you all. We have some pics of views that not many get to see...

Susan

[kelly]

I loved the Solar beech and of course am thrilled that IKEA listens so intently to my demands here on IKEAFANS for an integrated handle wood door!

My ONLY concern is that the catalog itself shows how dramatic the graining is when you put island panels next to each other. The doors are awesome and the grain is gorgeous in that "isolation"- I would definately cover the back of an island with abstrakt white or even nexus bb panels.

Dulci asked McGuyver and I at the party if we wished we'd waited for SB- it would have been a tough choice if available when we were installing, but at the end of the day, I deeply love my NYB with McGuyver integrated handles!

[aldyn]

i sooooo totally agree, kelly! i LOVE the mismatch edges on the door/drawer panels (like here: http://i34.tinypic.com/2llbjhk.png)

but then when i saw the one picture in the catalog, i hated how the island panels looked. especially because the one side is bigger than the other. (http://i33.tinypic.com/dyu71y.png)

edit: for those of you who saw it in person, is it more orangey like the first pic, or more brownish/tanish like the second?

[kelly]

I saw it as more brownish- but that was in a warehouse with all kinds of lighting going on, so I'd want another look at it before I made any big statements! That first photo is sooo Henrybuilt- awesome with the open storage. The second photo seems funny that they didn't "wrap" it in white as it appears the toekicks are...well, they look a little grey, actually, but I'm guessing white.

[socal59]

When I saw the at the Costa Mesa store last week, they were just about done putting together the display kitchen. They looked somewhat in between to the pictures (doors vs panels). They looked pretty cool, but the difference in grain was pretty pronounced. My first impression was hmmmm tear down my abstrakt white? Naa not yet.