Hey all,
We take over possession on thursday, so its time to make some decisions. First of all....the kitchen. I've have always wanted a white kitchen, with butcher block countertops and SS appliances....but after visiting family last week and seeing how messy/scratchedup/dented her SS fridge is after only 5 months in a kid-free home...we've decided on black appliances. We went shopping a couple of days ago and ordered Whirpool appliances..all in black. I am VERY excited about the ones we've chosen, but now am starting to worry that the contrast between white cabinets and black appliances might be a little too much. We plan on using black handles and drawer pulls on the cabinetry...helping to tie in the black. (At least...thats how it seems in my head..lol) Other choices we've made are a bamboo floor with a dark (tho not espresso) finish. How does all that sound to you guys? Should I maybe rethink the countertop choice? Should it be a darker mix of browns and blacks? And, does anyone have any pics of what I'm wanting to do?? I can't seem to find anything. Honestly, planning a kitchen was much easier BEFORE we actually had one to plan.
Oh...another question. How easy/difficult is it to install Ikea cabinetry? And....how long does it usually take? Paul doesn't have any experience with this sort of thing and wants to hire someone to install them. I disagree....and would rather save the money we'd pay for someone to do it for us. We have 2 weeks before we move into the house, provided Ikea has the cabinetry in stock, can two novices install a kitchen using just evenings and weekends in that length of time??? The kitchen is fairly small, 11' X 14'.
:confused: Mel
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Hey there,
so...we aren't getting as much done as we'd hoped we would. Life keeps getting in the way. Work has been pretty busy for me, and Paul has been on course. Crappy....but what can ya do?!? We've stripped wallpaper from the 3 bedrooms...and ripped up all the glorious shag carpet...and tonight, actually started painting the kids' bedrooms!!! Under the carpets in all the bedrooms, we discovered some sort of wood tiling. I have no idea what it is....but when we rent the sander for the living room hardwood...we're gonna give it a light sanding and see if it'll take stain. If so....we've saved ourselves a TON o' money! We haven't even attempted the kitchen reno. I guess we're gonna be one of those unlucky families that has to "live" in there kitchen while reno-ing it. All in all, things are progressing rather slowly, but smoothly. No major problems. I promise to keep in touch with updates along the way. Sorry I didn't have anything more exciting to share.
Mel
Hi Mel:
Congratulations on the new home.
In my last house, over 4 years ago, I had a white kitchen with black appliances. The lady before me had done the remodel. The countertop was a laminate with white, grey, etc marbling. The backsplash was shiney white tiles - there weren't alot but they were attractive. If I hadn't moved I would have replaced the brass knobs with a mat SS or grey ones. Imo, the black knobs would have been too dominant. This may not sound like an exciting kitchen but it certainly got compliments.
One thing about black countertop - it will show every crumb, etc on it. My friend loathes her black countertop.
Wish I had pictures of it. If I find some I will post them.
In my present kitchen I had a white microwave. Had to replace it with SS to get the size I needed. What a PITA compared to keeping the white one clean.
Happy remodelling.
So - it's been a week since possession - do you think we'll get an update soon? Is this the middle of the two weeks they allotted for doing the kitchen? I'd love a play-by-play.
A four foot one.
PS. Invest in a really good level.
We recently installed our own Ikea cabinets. The process went well & took us about 2, maybe 3 weekends to totally install. The instructions given are excellent. If something seems wrong it's probably because you read the instructions wrong! LOL Everything fit precsiely as they say. We even installed the uppers with only me as a helper. The hardest cabinets were the corner lazy-Susans as they were quite involved. All in all we'd do it again! They look great! We have had them up since April. Very easy to clean too.
Some pics for you...
I wouldn't do black hardware on the cabinets & drawers. I'd go with a dark countertop to tie in with the appliances and use stainless steel hardware.
And how about a black metal crystal chandelier :)
we did ours, from HD though, not Ikea, and we did them in less than a day. We hhad a C-shaped counter (two mitres) and so we got a professional (again from HD) to install; we were nearing the end of the reno, and we were tired, and the thought of mis-cutting that countertop just didn't justify NOT spending the money on getting it installed. Downside : we had the kitchen in, and no countertop for 6 weeks, as the fitters come and measure once the cupboards are in. (no countertop = no kitchen sink, either! We covered the cabinets with vapor barrier, and laid he old countertop back down, and ferried a basin from bathroom to kitchen to wash dishes in).
now that we have been in our house we have decided that a new kitchen will likely be coming sooner rather than later.
MEL76 my plan is creamy white/antique white cabinets, black appliances and some sort of counter. The cabinets will have black hardware, I wasn'y absolutely certain of the color combo, until I viewed the lottery home my friend won. Her new laundry room had black counters, black washer/dryer and creamy white cabinets looked fab!!
As it happens, her husband and brother install IKEA cabinets as a business and they say that almost anyone can do it.
The probelm I have run into with IKEA is the lack of color choices - or more specifically - the lack of creamy white.
I also believe that IKEA cabinets are hung with the rail system for the uppers and the bottoms have the legs that go up and down; both of these systems make it "super easy" to get the cabinets level. The difficult part will be getting IKEA standard cabinets and fillers to fit within your space.
I, too, am very interested in knowing how you make out. Both with your color combo and if you go with IKEA.
I would put the cabinets together myself I did our bathroom vanities and they aren't hard just a slow must do in order process. I would hire someone to install them as if you don't get them perfect they will not open and close perfect. Same as the counter top the corner has to be perfect. I had a white kitchen with black granite counters and dark brown floors and I loved the contrast.
I have my eye on my first kitchen remodel in the future, and I see no reason for it to take as long as all the "professionals" say it does. Some say it takes months! DH says I watch too much HGTV where they rebuild an entire house in 1/2 an hour :rolleyes: I know, rediculous, we all know they usually use the 1 hour shows if they are rebuilding an entire house ;)
I hope you'll post a "diary" or "timeline" for us so we can all learn from you just what we have in store. For instance - Monday night - 5 hours - read instructions - :D Just kidding - we all know men don't read instructions and it wouldn't take you nearly that long!
Good luck!
Oh - and a play by play in pictures would be wonderful too. I plan on following in your footsteps.
If it helps, here is my kitchen which has white cupboards, Ikea butcher block and Stainless steel. You can see it as it is, with the backsplash turned white (so as not to influence) and with the appliances in black.
I can't comment on how easy or hard putting cupboards in is, but I can tell you that if you get the butcher block and there is a corner in that kitchen where two pieces meet, you really do need to be good at using a saw with some very thick wood to get nice clean miters at the corners. I hired someone through Ikea to do mine and it's perfect. The counter that was in before was obviously a DIY and that corner was merely a very close, not perfect, and it looked awful. Its the old success is in the detail with that kind of thing.
I can also tell you that counter has been great. I sanded and oiled it when I got it (do it before you install the sink or you could end up with silicone from the sink staining it like happened with mine because the cut ends for the sink part weren't oiled before. Anyway, what minor scratches or water marks it's had over the past 3 years I just sanded out and then oiled again for selling. It really does look brand new again, so the stuff is forgiving.
Pearl, thanks for the links!
Cherylallismom, my aunt is a NEAT FREAK! Which is why I was shocked to see the scratches her fridge has on it. She figures it must be from her ring (the only explanation) And there's a dent on the bottom mount freezer because a PLASTIC BOTTLE OF WATER fell out and the top of it struck the door. Anyway, I'm not that into cleaning, and my kids are little piglets sometimes, so I figure I'll just stay away from SS. ;)
As for the other questions, he has done jobs like tiling and flooring and whatnot...but has never installed a kitchen, I haven't either...but I have assembled a TON of Ikea flat-packed furniture...so obviously I'll be a natural at assembling the cabinets!!! :D And really, how hard can it be? I mean, is there anything you can't do yourself these days?? I mean GAWD...you can download everything from the internet!!!
Here are some crappy quality scanned pics of the layout we've come up with. Please excuse my not so great appliance artistry...LOL
When you say he doesn't have any experience with this kind of thing, do you mean installing cabinets, or doing any sort of home projects? How it will go may have a lot to do with how confident he is! I know some people will disagree with me, but we found building and installing the IKEA cabinets to be a very easy task. We even had to modify some of them and that went well too. That said, we were pretty confident in our ability to do it before we started. The boxes are simple to put together. If you can put together flat pack furniture, you can put together the cabinets. The first one took about 20 mins, while we figured it all out. After that, it was about 10 minutes each to build them. The mounting system is very easy to use for uppers, and the lowers have great adjustable legs for leveling. We found the whole thing to be by far the easiest part of the whole kitchen process. Depending on what you choose, IKEA will probably have the cabinets themselves in stock. They may not have the doors and drawer fronts though. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It means fewer cardboard boxes to sort through at a time. Get your cabinets, build them, and put them up. Then, when the fronts come in, add them on. Invest in the door / drawer closers and lots of interior fittings too. Its the pretty you will notice at first, but in the end, its the guts that's going to make you happy every single day!
By the way, what the heck have your childless friends been doing in their kitchen? I've had my SS appliances for over a year. We have one kid of our own, a stream of neighborhood children passing through regularly and entertain large groups frequently, and our appliances don't have a mark on them!