With our latest kitchen renovation, we wanted to push the envelope of our IKEA kitchen, so here are the 8 ways we customized our IKEA kitchen. If you have missed our kitchen reveal, you can check out the full blog post. Our reveal post also contains a list with links to all of the projects we DIYed in our kitchen. All sources for the kitchen are listed here.
Semi-Custom Fronts for IKEA
We knew from the get-go that this time around we’d used semi-custom fronts made for use on IKEA SEKTION boxes. We chose the DIY Shaker (unfinished and paintable) fronts from Semihandmade. We wanted to use the unfinished and paintable fronts for a few reasons. First was we wanted to choose our own cabinet paint colors, second was so that all of the other elements we customized had the same exact color and finish as the door fronts, and third it is more custom and higher quality than off the shelf IKEA fronts. Check out our blog post on installing the kitchen cabinets and painting the cabinet doors.
Countertop Cabinets
One of our must haves for the new kitchen was countertop cabinets. I love the look of countertop cabinets and we decided to use them at our pantry and storage wall. We installed these without the bottom of the cabinet so that the stone counters were visible inside the cabinet and we can easily slide items in and out. Check out our blog post on installing the kitchen cabinets.
Stacked Cabinets
We also utilized stacked cabinets at our pantry wall and our coffee bar. By stacking two sets of upper cabinets on top of each other, we were able to achieve floor to ceiling cabinets for a custom look. Because we were limited to IKEA’s standard cabinet heights, any additional height we needed to make up was dealt with using a trim piece between the stacked cabinets. Check out our blog post on installing the kitchen cabinets.
Baseboards
At all of our side cover panels (which we made from scratch using 3/4″ MDF), we brought them down to the floor at each side of all of the end cabinets. This allowed us to wrap baseboards from the side cover panel to the toe-kicks for a built-in look.
Crown Molding
Similar to adding baseboards for a built-in look at the floor, we added crown molding at the top of the upper cabinets where they meet the ceiling. We also used this same crown molding at our range hood so all of the details coordinated. We’ve got more information on how we installed our crown molding on our Instagram, at our IKEA Series highlight.
Walnut Cabinet Interior
At our coffee bar we used the same DIY Shaker (unfinished and paintable) fronts from Semihandmade, but with glass panel fronts. Because the IKEA SEKTION boxes are just white inside, we decided to line the interior of the cabinet with 1/4″ walnut veneer plywood. This added a richness to our coffee bar and you’d never guess this was an IKEA cabinet, in my opinion! If you’re interested in more info, we’ve got a coffee bar blog post.
Flush Filler Pieces
This is a simple one but I think it is very impactful. At most IKEA kitchens I see the filler pieces at the end of cabinets or in-between two cabinets mounted flush with the cabinet box not the cabinet front, because it is easiest to attach that way. For all of our filler pieces, we mount them flush with the cabinet front for a more custom look. We attach 3/4″ blocking to the back our filler piece and use the blocking to attach it to the cabinet box.
Custom-sized Cabinets, Fronts, and Filler Panels
We also created custom-sized cabinets, fronts, and filler panels in our kitchen. It’s worth mentioning that this is probably only an option if you’re planning to use semi-custom fronts. The company we ordered our fronts from also offers custom front sizes to use our on custom-sized cabinet. To the left of our sink cabinet we created a 7″ wide cabinet to fill the gap where IKEA did not offer a cabinet size less than 12″. We also used a custom filler panel above our fridge that creates a more custom look.
There you have it, 8 ways we customized our IKEA Kitchen! We hope this recap was helpful for planning your IKEA kitchen or any kitchen for that matter. Leave us a comment below if you decided to use any of these customizations in your kitchen renovation!
