Many of you may have followed along last fall on Instagram and saw my IKEA kitchen renovation project. It was quite the adventure! I’ve been meaning to write a post about it but haven’t had the chance. I made some time to take photos this morning. Keep in mind I have 3 kids, a puppy and 2 cats. So I did clean, but instead of photoshopping some spots I missed on the “stainless” steel I decided to just ask not to be judged! 🙂
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A little background: We have lived in our home since November 1, 2006. We bought our house at the height of the market, or just before. We knew we needed to get something before we couldn’t afford anything. We tried selling our tiny house a few times and no bites. We decided this past summer it just wasn’t going to happen. Since we are a family of 5 living in 1184 sq ft (no garage, basement or attic), we really wanted more space. We looked into building an addition thinking we had enough equity in our house to help pay for the hefty $60,000 estimate. We started the equity line process to receive a devastating and unexpected blow. Our house appraised for $118k when we bought and we knew it probably lost a little value with the market, but we had also put so much into it (ie maybe $40k). The house appraised for $85k. Yup, I cried for a good 2 hours. I was in shock. My past realtors were in shock. We decided that God had other plans for us. We were not meant to add or move to a bigger house for a reason. Quite honestly, the budget would have been much tighter with both that we breathed a huge sigh of relief. We would continue to have the means to experience life the way we want. We could vacation, go to the movies, sports, dance, etc. You know, all the non essentials in life that have seemed to become essential for us.
What now? Well, we are stuck in this tiny house and crammed in. We needed more storage space however we could get it. After booking our trip to Disney, I made a trip to IKEA to get some storage for my girls’ shared bedroom. While there I knew I needed a white IKEA kitchen. So we started planning.
I used their online planner and I thought every drawer out so carefully. I was so stressed about it! I wanted it to be perfect, because I was not going to do this again. We met with contractors because we didn’t think it was something we could handle with such limited contracting skills. I made my first (yes first of three) trip to IKEA to get my order placed. I was so excited!
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Then the kitchen cabinets were delivered and the contractors demoed and prepped our space. This was really “fun” because, well, remember I said we had a tiny house and no garage or basement? Yes, it was chaotic!
What’s a home project without a hiccup or two? We weren’t going to replace the floors or the appliances right away. But due to the flooring coming up a little short for the new baseboards and the dishwasher not having side mounts, we ended up upgrading floors and appliances too.
When you order from IKEA, they don’t always have all of your pieces. So we had to wait for a few weeks for some doors to come in. Buttercup didn’t mind.
We had really fancy counters while we waited for the Quartz to come in. Again, Buttercup wasn’t picky.
Finally it all came together!! I now have almost everything done. We have so much more storage space for our family. It freed up space in a closet where we needed to store kitchen stuff. So now we have that space for our other storage needs. We have plenty of counter space for all of the baking I love to do. It’s exactly what I had hoped and since we went with IKEA we were able to afford everything we needed and wanted. Another thing I love about IKEA is that if a drawer front gets damaged (one already has a few nicks from when Damage Control came in with huge machines when our water heater leaked) all I have to do is order a new front! With 3 kids and 3 animals, more are bound to get damaged. .jpg)
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We went with the IKEA Bodbyn cabinets. I had originally intended on doing the Grimslov but changed my mind in the store. Now I do wish the cabinets were pure white instead of off white, but only because I knew I wanted a white countertop. I tried going with a different countertop and couldn’t do it. It’s really not a huge deal. If I had a much bigger budget, I’d maybe have been more picky.
I love my IKEA Domsjo farmhouse sink. A true cast iron sink is definitely prettier, but the IKEA sink was $315 vs $1500+ cast iron sinks. I like how deep it is and goes right to the wall. The only downside to it’s depth is that I am 5’1″ so I have to reach to rinse dishes.
How about that tile? I tried lots of samples from local places and couldn’t find anything I liked. I ordered some samples online from Tile Bar. It was cheap to order some samples to try. I ended up with Loft Aspen Aura 2×8 glass tiles. .jpg)
The satin nickel hardware is from Overstock. I went with pulls for drawers and knobs for cabinet doors. Hubby and I had an assembly line going on to install these. We still need to add a knob to the corner glass cabinet. I accidentally ordered hinges that don’t open far enough, so I’m waiting until we need to take it down to fix that..jpg)
The main light fixture is from Restoration Hardware. I wish I had gone with the largest one (I got medium), but I was too cheap to pay exchange shipping fees to get the bigger one, haha. It’s been fine. The pendant light over the sink is from Lowe’s. .jpg)
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I knew I wanted drawers under the cabinets instead of shelves. I ended up with some hidden drawers as well, which I love! They help keep me organized without having so many visible drawers. I do have shelves in the corner with the big door. It’s very deep and stores all of the bigger items that we don’t use as often. With IKEA drawers, they don’t have true sides. So that’s something you have to keep in mind. So if you have little things that might spill out (tupperware lids) little baskets from Michaels are perfect!.jpg)
Thanks for taking a peek at my new kitchen. It was worth the effort and money. I honestly can’t tell you our final number since I never had a chance to figure it out, but a good estimate is $15,000 for appliances, cabinets, counters, lights, floors and contractors, the whole thing. In the world of kitchen renovations this was definitely a ‘budget’ project. Tell me what you think of it!!
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And for fun, here are before pictures. We had painted these and put these countertops in about 3 years after we bought the house. So okay, this is a true budget reno lol. This above cost us $500.
Crystal, this came out gorgeous!!! It looks so bright and fresh and airy! Love it! When we redo our kitchen I think I need to look into Ikea =)
Thanks! They have no slam feature too. Definitely worth checking out. I think there are many benefits to IKEA kitchens. Even the raised legs so if there is a water leak on the floor, it won’t ruin the cabinets. 🙂
It’s gorgeous!!
It turned out great!!!
Your kitchen is stunning!!! I too AM GOING WITH Bodbyn. the Grimslov is just too blocky. Did you use a 1/8″ spacing on tje glass tile, or do they come on mesh? What counters did you use and paint color. Love all the choices you made. just gorgeous!
Hi! Thank you. I’m not sure the spacing. Our contractor installed the tiles. We sold this house last year, so I can’t even check for you. The counters are quartz from a local place. Ikea is not local to us. Paint color is silver bells from benjamin moore. 🙂
Hi, Crystal, it looks soo lovely. I am buying my cabinets tomorrow. A question…I was going to wait to upgrade floors later too. can you explain (again) why you chose to upgrade floors sooner?
I am sorry! I didn’t get this. I did the floors because we had vinyl. The vinyl was cut to fit the old cabinets. The IKEA cabinets didn’t fit the floor. So we would have had to do some rigging to hide the gap in the floor or just replace the floors. So we replaced them.
looks lovely, thank you for sharing.