Kitchen Renovation: Practicing on plasticmom

I should probably clarify that I'm actually renovating two different kitchens. Since I'm new at this, I decided to start with plasticmom's smaller and much simpler kitchen project. For a few reasons, some selfish and some not, I prioritized her project first:

1. plasticmom is off somewhere warmer and it would be more convenient to complete her kitchen while she was away so she could come home to a nice new kitchen
2. I'm practicing on her project for experience before I tackle my own
3. By the time our remodel is underway, plasticmom will be back in Beantown and I'm hoping she'll use her new kitchen to make us lots of prepared foods we can microwave in our living room kitchenette. Thanks plasticmom!

I've been wanting to get her new cabinets for a while because hers are about 30 years old and held together by glue. Since her appliances are in good shape, we only updated her tile and her cabinets. I found the prospect of cabinet shopping a little intimidating and overwhelming so when our contractor suggested IKEA, I decided to check it out.

Original 1990s Kitchen, still in decent shape, but limited base cabinet storage

Electrical work for new layout, moving some outlets, adding some more...

First, plasticmom and I went to IKEA in LA over Christmas and picked out the cabinet doors she liked and cabinet pulls. Then, I used the IKEA 3D online tool to try different cabinet layouts. After much trial and error, I finally settled on a cabinet layout with more cabinets with drawers. plasticmom is kinda short and can't really reach the wall cabinets very well.

Her original kitchen also had a full sized dishwasher which was a bit of a waste on plasticmom since she never used it so we swapped the dishwasher out in the new layout for another base cabinet. I figured she could always swap the base cabinet out for a small dishwasher later if she wants to. For now she'll enjoy the convenience of more base cabinet storage.

The original kitchen also had 2 dead corners under the counters. By shifting a few things around, we were able to get one corner base cabinet with a rotating carousel. The second corner is still dead empty space. We didn't want to spend the money to get truly custom cabinets to maximize storage.  That's one of the tradeoffs when going with IKEA versus more custom options.

New corner base cabinet in the spot that was previously empty dead space

Original sink

New sink is shifted more to the center

I accidentally ordered a birch cabinet for the sink, but fortunately the doors will cover the cabinet so you won't be able to see the birch cabinet until you open the doors. I'm trying to pass it off as a design choice, but really I made a mistake which is why I worked on plasticmom's kitchen first

Since IKEA doesn't offer cabinets smaller than 12 inches, my contractor offered to use IKEA cover panel material to build custom narrow 9 inch open cabinets to fill the cabinet gaps.

Custom narrow open cabinets to the right and left of the hood and stove

Custom narrow open base cabinet made from IKEA cover panels

New tile floor, contractor saved some time and $$$ by tiling over the old tile

So far, I've been really happy that we went with IKEA. Once you get the hang of it and understand the little quirks, their 3D planner can be addictive. It's been my version of playing Candy Crush this winter. All the hundreds of parts that make up these IKEA cabinets were delivered in about a week so you can't beat the quick turnaround on IKEA. They're actually having a 15% to 20% off kitchen sale through the end of April which Adam and I plan on taking advantage of in a few weeks.

IKEA cabinets are like building LEGO kits without any written instructions. You get stacks and stacks of parts rather than completed cabinets. Fortunately, my contractor was happy and willing to work with IKEA so "everything is awesome!"