As I mentioned in the first kitchen saga post, our kitchen came with IKEA cabinets that were no longer available, and we had to replace the upper cabinets in order to add more storage. Now, we could have kept the lower wood, as I’m a fan of a two-tone kitchen, but all the white appliances sort of messed that up. My original plan with the kitchen had been to do a tuxedo kitchen with deep navy or green lower cabinets, and a white top. But, as our appliances were all white, you’d be left with half white, half colour. Not exactly the look I was going for. So, in an effort to make the kitchen feel brighter and larger, we went all white. Does that make any sense to anyone besides me? No? Okaaay…

beautiful navy + white tuxedo kitchen via Apartment Therapy

So, that meant painting our lower cabinets white, but what about the upper ones? I could have colour-matched IKEA’s SÄVEDAL doors, and then painted everything in our kitchen the same, but decided against it. See, every ceiling, door, and trim in our flat is painted All White by Farrow + Ball. If I wanted to use the IKEA white colour, then it would have meant repainting our doors and trim in the kitchen to this different white, and I didn’t want it to look different from the other rooms in the flat. (Richard wishes I had told him about the colour-matching option…)

Am I crazy? Yes. But I also justify it because the finish on the doors was so smooth and machine-made looking, that all the built-in trim with brushstrokes would have looked different. We would have had to paint the doors to make them all look the same, no matter which white we used.

Aaaaanyways. So in addition to painting all the wood doors and trim below, we had to paint all the new upper cabinet doors as well. That meant removing all the hinges and handles, cleaning everything of grease etc. and giving it all a light sanding. For the wood cabinets and trim, we used 3 coats of this primer, and then 2-3 coats of our Valspar paint in All White. For the upper cabinets, it took 2 coats of primer, and then 2 coats of paint. After the doors were up, I did a bit more sanding, and some touch-up paint, as we had been painting on low surfaces and little bits of fluff kept getting caught in the paint.

Now came the fun part – making all the IKEA cabinets look built-in. See, I’ve always been a huge fan of inset cabinetry and wanted to try and give our bank of cabinets a similar look. This meant filling in the gaps all the way around the cabinets with wood and trimming it all out.

inset cabinetry inspiration via Curated Interior

To get the look I wanted, it meant lining up the trim with the cabinet doors, as opposed to the frames. So we added a piece of 21x21mm strip wood all around the cabinets, flush with the face of their frames. To install it, we simply screwed into the piece from inside the cabinets with a couple of wood screws. Not only did this give us a piece we could then attach the trim to, but allowed us to offset our next piece by a few millimetres in order to create a gap between the doors and our trim.

For the left and right side facing trim pieces, all it required was some No More Nails, and then some finish nails into our strip wood. The one on the left was one solid piece, but the one on the right was two separate pieces because of the window. As the side pieces were quite narrow, they didn’t need any other support, but the piece running along the top required more help. If we had only secured it to the strip wood, then it wouldn’t have stayed in place – the long expanse of pine was just too heavy. So we used some scrap wood that we had lying around and built some supports all along the length of the cabinets, to prevent it from leaning, and then screwed the piece into supports on either end as well. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo showing the larger support pieces on the ends, that we screwed the facing trim into. Just imagine them…

As our ceilings aren’t level, we were left with a bit of a gap towards the right side. However, we weren’t too concerned as crown moulding would cover it. See, all the rooms in our flat, except for the hallway and kitchen had some sort of moulding or covering around the ceiling. Even the bathroom has a really simple coving. But for some reason, the kitchen didn’t have any, which always bugged me. I wanted to make the room feel a bit more architecturally interesting, and add some character back in. Not only that, but it would finish off our built-in cabinetry quite nicely.

Now, one thing I have noticed here in England is the lack of available moulding for the average DIYer. You can buy wood coving at trade-only shops, but nothing for the average Joe (me!). The main reason, I discovered, is because coving here is traditionally made of plaster. And after our experience with installing a heavy plaster ceiling medallion, we weren’t about to try that again. Which meant that our only option was to use the stuff readily available to us – polystyrene. Now, I know what you might be thinking – “ew, plastic coving – gross! that’s not adding character at all!” – which is exactly what I thought at first. But, as it was the only option, we went for it.

We ended up purchasing this kit from B&Q as it was the closest in style to the existing moulding in our flat (see above) and came with mitred corners. It was relatively easy to install, except that our not-perfectly-flat walls meant that we had to hold some pieces up for a while so that they held instead of drooping. We probably would have had an easier time if we’d used No More Nails instead of the coving adhesive, which took aeons to dry fully. (We found that out after using it to fill the gap along the ceiling and had to wait until the next day to sand and paint.) The other part that made it so time-consuming was the number of pieces we had to cut. Our room has 5 corners, which meant we had a total of around 13 or so pieces to cut and stick up. That also meant a lot of joins to try and smooth out. I’m a bit meticulous about filling and sanding, as Richard could tell you.

Our final pieces were some quarter-round trim that we added vertically along all the edges that meet the tiles. Once they were up, filled, and sanded, all it took was a few coats of paint. As per usual, we used All White for the trim, and then I cut in again using the wall colour – Barest Hush.

Then, all the cabinets got their matching handles, and the drawers as well. The handles that we chose are these ones from Etsy, in the 14cm length for all the cabinets, and one 23cm long one for the drawer below the oven. The drawer pulls are these ones from the same Etsy seller, in the 7.5cm length. They have a subtle texture, like cast iron, but visually match the smooth handles.

The final touch was filling in the gap along the tiling with silicone caulk. I made sure to tape both edges before filling and then smoothed it with a damp finger before quickly removing the tape and smoothing it again. Once that dried, the whole thing was finished!

We went from basic IKEA cabinetry to something that looked built-in and far more expensive! Not bad for just some simple pine trim, and plastic coving eh? Just don’t count how long it took us to accomplish…

Now we’re just one step closer to a finished kitchen! We can finally put away the paint cans, and start adding those finishing touches. Soon, we’ll have the first properly finished and decorated room in our flat! Yay!

As for what we have done since I last blogged about it? Well, we finally have a functioning kitchen again!

After we patched all the holes in the walls and cleaned up from demolition, it was time to paint! We had chosen Barest Hush by Valspar to be the color for our walls. We tested a couple of swatches, but Richard was worried they would be too dark, so we settled on this option. My goal was to have a grey-tinted green that didn’t read too strong either way. As our living room is grey, I didn’t want the whole place to feel the same. But of course, I also didn’t want too bright of a color, as I tend to prefer more muted walls. Let the color come from the furnishings, in my humble opinion.

Valspar’s Barest Hush

For the cabinets and trim, we are sticking with our tried and true All White by Farrow & Ball, color matched to Valspar paint. This time around we went with their premium paint, as it was the most scrubbable option. It also comes with a built-in primer, so win-win! However, due to time, we didn’t get around to painting the cabinets, just yet. That’s a job for another day. Or month… year… sigh. Procrastination is real folks.

After painting the walls, we put the pot racks back up and got to tackling the cabinets. Originally, our kitchen had only three upper cabinets – two on the right of the range hood, and one on the left. As I mentioned before, we had planned to simply add three more cabinets above our original ones, and paint them all to match. Instead, we ordered eight of the METOD cabinets – four of the 60×60 size, three 60×80, and one 60×40. The four 60×60 cabinets were in the top row, with the 60×80 replacing our existing cabinets. In order to add the MAXIMERA drawers, we ordered all 60×60 doors, and the remaining 20cm of the cabinet became the drawer. The final 60×40 cabinet sits above the new LAGAN range hood.

Quite a lot of new storage eh?

Installing the new cabinets was another point where things took much (much!) longer than they should have. The IKEA rails were fairly simple to cut and line up, but then we started having issues.

See, we ended up back in the same place as before, dealing with old walls. We couldn’t seem to find consistent studs in the walls, and our expansion screws weren’t working in the crumbling plaster. This meant that we had to go grab some spring toggle screws from Screwfix… only the first set we brought home was the wrong length for our wall thickness – darn! I think Richard had to make three trips that day just to get the screws we needed. Every time we tried one set, there was something wrong with it.

We ended up putting in more screws than IKEA said to, as every now and then we would hit a stud, or have to move to a new hole. We just put up as many as we could (that were secure). The more the merrier, right?

Soo many screws

Once we got the rails up (finally), it was a simple matter of hanging the cabinets. Of course, because our walls aren’t perfectly smooth, the cabinets wouldn’t line up perfectly. IKEA recommends that you screw the cabinets together for stability, which we did. It also solved most of our problems with the cabinets not lining up. Just a simple matter of clamping them together, and then two screws in between the holes for the shelves.

The only thing not quite so simple to put up was the range hood. We decided to replace the one we had (even though it worked okay) with an under-cabinet version so that we could add two more cabinets to the mix. It just felt like too much-wasted space in such a tiny kitchen. While the installation was relatively easy for the range hood, it came with a plug, but ours had originally been wired into a fuse box. All it meant was that we cut off the plug, stripped back the wires, and wired it into a new white fuse box. Then we cut a hole in the back of one of the cabinets so that we would have access to the fuse, should we ever need to replace it.

We sort of sandwiched the new fuse box on the back of the cabinet, and then it sits in the original recess that the old one had. Not sure if that makes sense to anyone, but we did it months ago and I am forgetting details… I also forgot to take a photo of it inside the cabinet.

After the cabinets were all screwed together, and the range hood up, it was a simple matter of putting in the shelves and attaching the doors. Of course, IKEA put silly stickers right where the hinges needed to go, and they are the type that is ridiculous to remove! Coconut oil to the rescue! Just rub a bit of that onto the sticker and it comes away so easily.

The hinges for the cabinets were really simple to install, and I only wish that I had got the 90-degree ones. The ones we bought open a bit wider (I think they are 110 or 120 degrees). When we were ordering them, I thought that would be a good thing, however, it means that the doors want to open into the walls and window. Oh well!

We finally have drawers!!! So exciting!

Now this is pretty much where we got to before Richard had to go away for work. We managed to put our kitchen back together and use it for a little while. The next steps are to add some trim around the cabinets in order to make it all built-in, and then paint all the doors and trim to match.

I’ve ordered the tiles and hardware, so the only thing we’re waiting for is for me to get off my lazy butt and trim out these cabinets! But of course, Richard is now back in England, so hopefully he’ll be the motivation I need…

welcome to our tiny kitchen!

When we had just moved in, we discussed how we could make the kitchen space work best for us. First up, would be to add some hanging storage on the wall, for all of our pots and pans. I don’t have any photos of the kitchen before we put them up, but you can see below how we’re currently using it. We installed two rows of IKEA’s GRUNDTAL rail system, using the top row for pots and pans, and the bottom for pantry goods. One basket contains bread, another potatoes and onions, and the third is a fruit basket.

Those three baskets took me ages to find (it’s hard to find an open weave basket that’s fairly flat) and are actually beach bags that IKEA was selling in their limited HEMTRAKT collection (I just cut off the handles). And yes, we bought waaay more hooks than we needed, but we still have to buy more pots.

After adding some hanging storage, we needed to address the cupboard situation. The ceilings are high enough to accommodate another row of cabinetry, so we thought – why not double our storage?

look at all that height above the cabinets!

Speaking of storage, before we had moved in, I pointed out to Richard that there were no drawers in the kitchen. I mean, sure… it’s a tiny kitchen, but no drawers?! Where am I supposed to put my cutlery? Who designed this space?!?

We thought about adding some drawers under the cabinets, as the trim below meant we had the space and false fronts to use. I even bought some fully-extending hardware for them! But that was back when we thought we were going to leave the existing cabinets, and simply add three more above. Oh, how those plans have changed…

our dream kitchen includes hiding the microwave in a cabinet

Basically, the cabinets that are here are from IKEA. I measured them and found that IKEA still carried 60cm wide cabinets, and assumed we could simply add another row above. IKEA doesn’t make the same doors anymore, but that worked in my favor. I wanted to paint the cabinets white anyway, so this was a great excuse. We could get flat cabinet fronts, and add trim to make them match our existing shaker style. I’m pretty sure you can guess where this is going…

When I measured the cabinets initially, I had measured their width and height, but not the depth. It wasn’t until I was properly planning all this that I bothered to find the depth – which is when I realized the ones that IKEA currently stocked were too deep! IKEA had replaced the set that we had, with their new METOD line a few years back, and the new ones were a couple centimeters too deep.

This meant we couldn’t simply add three more above our current set.

soooo much ceiling height wasted

This left us with a few options:

1. We could just get a new kitchen
2. We could custom build new upper cabinets to match the old ones (proper depth)
3. We could replace all the upper cabinets but leave the lowers, and paint them to match

I liked Option 1 (obviously) but the old wallet didn’t. Richard liked it too, but it just wouldn’t bring any return in resale which meant it wasn’t going to happen. Option 2 wasn’t really something we felt up to DIYing without the proper tools (although I look back now and laugh at that… we will end up doing more work in the end now).

Which left Option 3, the one we have gone with! IKEA has some cabinet fronts just like ours but with a slightly different-sized trim around. We’re thinking that if we paint the uppers and lowers white, they will be close enough to trick the eye. As they aren’t side by side, you probably won’t notice the difference in trim.

IKEA’s SÄVEDAL cabinet fronts

Now, with the new METOD system, we will be able to have drawers (!) in the lower set of cabinets. This means we no longer have to build them (yay!). We can also get slightly taller cabinets as well and still have room at the top for a bit of trim. Unlike the rest of this flat, the kitchen currently has no crown molding, so we’ll add that all the way around the room. I’m also going to add wood pieces on either side of the cabinets to make it all look built-in, hopefully, flush with the doors to create an inset door appearance.

Now, as if all that wasn’t enough, I found myself looking at our range hood. It’s always bugged me that the stainless backsplash thing doesn’t go all the way up, and by adding cabinets on either side, this would only look worse. So what if we replaced it?!

IKEA makes some range hoods that can go under a cabinet. Since ours doesn’t actually vent outside (and can’t) it mostly just acts as a light and fan. But the one at IKEA can either be vented outside, or you can use a charcoal filter and recirculate the air. With that in the middle (as opposed to our current one), we could add cabinets all the way up to the ceiling!

We could go from having only 3 upper cabinets to having 8 cabinets, and 3 drawers!! Talk about storage! But by replacing the range hood, we would have to replace rather than repaint the tile. Which is terribly sad. I mean, who wouldn’t want to keep this gorgeous stuff right?

I’m obviously kidding – this stuff offends me. I’ve always wanted to try tiling and both Richard and I are big fans of classic subway tile. So once we decided to replace the range hood, it meant we had to replace the tile – yay! I’m thinking of a classic white subway tile with contrasting light grey grout. We’ll probably end up using either a flat or beveled tile, but if Richard would agree to it, I would looove to get a textured handmade-looking tile. I love all the ones Emily Henderson keeps using from Cle tiles. But of course, Richard really doesn’t like them… bah! So instead, it’ll be more like the image below.

subway tile photo via Nest of Posies

Finally, to complete this space, we need to paint the walls, and I’ve found a pretty great color to use. I had wanted a green-tinged grey and had quite a struggle finding something that still read as green, without being too minty or brown. This is actually a bit more green on the walls than I had been searching for, but pretty darn close. It’s Barest Hush by Valspar (what a name – right?), and we’re using their premium paint which has a built-in primer, and is apparently very scrubbable. Perfect for the wall where our pots and pans will constantly be banging and scraping.

Okay, was that all straightforward? Feeling lost and confused amidst a sea of bland before photos? How about a recap, eh? Here’s our plan as it stands, for updating and increasing the storage in our wee English kitchen.

1. Remove the 3 upper cabinets, range hood, and all the tiles
2. Paint all walls that won’t be tiled with Valspar’s Barest Hush
3. Install 8 cabinets (with 3 built-in drawers) using IKEA’s METOD system
4. Install the new range hood
5. Paint new IKEA SÄVEDAL doors and all existing ones to match
6. Tile backsplash
7. Add contrasting black hardware
8. Decorate with fun accessories

And that’s that! Simple right?