Personal | Renovation Update!

Since we moved in our new-old house in July we have patiently waited to start major projects. Well, the time has finally come! Last week we got our contract with the contractor all finalized and our loan was approved to convert the garage into our master suite and laundry room. We also started work on the kitchen (a DIY project). Most of the work we are doing to the house we are hiring out because it is simply outside our skill-set/time constraints… but the kitchen was something we thought we could tackle ourselves.

We went back and forth on what we were going to do with the kitchen…. replace all cabinets (and likely counters too, since cabinet installers frown upon trying to remove granite and then reinstall it after putting in new lower cabinets), paint the existing cabinets (got a quote… $5000!!), paint the cabinets ourselves, or reface cabinets. Ultimately we decided on a mix… we are refacing the lowers (keeping current boxes in place… so we aren’t messing with counters) and replacing the uppers. Why not just reface uppers? Well, they don’t go to the ceiling and are a little awkward looking with the staggered cabinets.

So… this means I am painting the lower cabinet boxes and island to match the new doors. I spent last week sanding, priming and painting the island Benjamin Moore Cinder, which matches the grey Ikea Bodbyn cabinet doors we are using on the island. Ikea has the most cost effective cabinet doors, and having a store about 15 minutes from our house made the decision simple. Even if you walk in Lowes or Home Depot, you cannot just buy door and drawer fronts off the shelf, you must buy the entire cabinet (I guess you can special order them, but not buy off the shelf). The only drawback to Ikea’s system is the wait to get those “off the rack” items. The easiest way to do this is to design your space using the Ikea design tool and print the list of items when you’re done. Then go through the list and decide what you want… it will automatically include pulls/knobs, counters, cabinet boxes and shelves…. none of which we wanted. For the island we JUST wanted the doors, hinges and dampers. You have to find a worker in the kitchen area or self-fulfill and they have to print you a paper with all your items, you pay for it, then go to furniture pickup where they will have all the items for you gathered. The only issue is this is a lengthy process… if you are picking up a larger order, or when it’s the least bit busy… get your paper, pay and then go eat meatballs. We waited like 20+ minutes for just 5 items and hinges. I wish you could order online and pickup in store, but that’s not an option. If you order online you must get it shipped to you.

Now, the tricky part is to really research what size doors and drawers are available and thinking outside the box. Our lower cabinets are “standard” sizes, however, Ikea doesn’t make doors that fit our openings. Their lower options are full doors (with no drawer above it) or over-sized drawers over doors. We ended up having to buy 15×24 drawer fronts and turning them vertical to make doors out of them. This also means the pre-drilled holes don’t work for hinges, they are made to fit on a drawer box… so Jeremy had to buy a 35mm drill bit to make the holes for the hinges. Ikea also doesn’t make 12×24 anything (doors or drawers) that would fit the smaller cabinets on the end of our island, so we had to get full height doors that cover the existing drawers. This is probably getting confusing. You can see in the left photo, the side doors will cover the drawers… and the middle doors are actually large drawer fronts turned vertical (made for this). The middle drawer in the island is actually a sink base, so it’s just a faux drawer… We think we are getting a drawer from here and will use this front from Ikea.

We quickly realized our cabinet boxes are “framed” and Ikea’s system is a frameless system… so Jeremy has to notch all the spots where the hinges go so they fit correctly. You can see below the notches he’s done on the outside cabinets. However… after attaching the doors we’ve realized the Ikea hinges are just not going to work 🙁 (they are just too thick, so the doors don’t lay flat against the frame) so we are going to try using similar hinges to the ones on our old cabinets tomorrow… cross your fingers they work!!

Here’s the overall design on the Ikea designer I’ve done. The island cabinets are grey and the wall cabinets are white. You can see the full height cabinet next to the fridge in the rendering below… we don’t really need more storage (to the right of the fridge is an existing pantry)… but it’s space that is wasted, and it will be the perfect spot to hide the Keurig! Cannot wait to get that thing off the counter!

A breakdown of the cost:

Doors and hinges for the island (already purchased): $296.21

To be purchased:

Lower doors, drawer-fronts, hinges and dampers: $310

New upper cabinets, full-height pantry and one new lower cabinet: $1804.07

Total: $2410.28

I really want to change out our florescent lights for can lights and add two pendants over the island…. I’m dying to have these from One Kings Lane, but Home Depot has a pretty good dupe for 1/2 the price! Eventually the flooring will be changed to tile, too.

We are keeping the granite and all appliances since they are all new. This doesn’t include pulls or knobs and of course the ones I want are stupid expensive. Ugh.

Do you Periscope? I’m planning to give a little tour tomorrow! I’m @HortonJJ there… so find me and watch!