Faucet and sink

Our faucet is from Rona is the uberhaus model and the sink is by Kohler Vault model.

Installing IKEA cabinets and backsplash ideas

IKEA cabinets have adjustable legs to help leveling them. This sounds nice, but in practice we found at least two places where the legs were impossible to use. When we installed the big pantry in a tight space We broke a leg, but finally had to build our own frame to make the cabinet sit in a solid way. It is a 24 inch wide, 24 inch deep and 88 inch high pantry not including the legs. We had to slide it in the existing space between 2 walls. It was a pain to turn it up after assembling, and my husband and his father found it hard. With a fixed base it went much faster and the leveling was easier too. I assembled all drawers and we installed the door together. The other place we can't use the legs is the peninsula. Along the wall cabinets are attached to the wall, or as we did, to a wood piece attached to the wall to make it solid. However the peninsula is only attached to a wall a one end. We have to build a wooden base for a peninsula, then level the rest of cabinets to those of the peninsula which are fixed. I ordered the counter and they will come in less than 2 weeks for measurements. In the mean time we can finish assembling cabinets and leveling them. While my husband was building the base, passing cables for TV and Internet and finishing the drywall for backsplash, I went to a tile store for a ceramic for our backsplash. I spent a few hours on Internet looking for backsplash ideas. And it is a difficult piece to select. I had in mind simple subway tile with darker grout. I then found modern flat elongated subway tiles installed in stacked way. I spent a couple hours at the tile store and found this type of tile, which is awesome in glossy finish. We however already have glossy cabinets and the quartz will be glossy. But the style of these tiles is so beautiful, I brought samples home. I had selected two tiles from Soligo Ambiente: one in almond and the other in beige colors. Beige color is nice with the counter which has quartz pieces in that color, and almond is exactly matching the cabinets, so may be not that exciting, but we can play with grout colors to enhance design. Using 1/16 inch spacers would be a good idea too. I also liked at the store two other ceramics: one in cream with tiny tears which made some shine reflection and another one in cream with beige and brown bamboo style tile. The latest could be nice installed with aluminum profile line as an accent. Here is an example from Porcelanosa site: All choices are sort of glossy, but some more than others. But really all together looks good because of the style. We consulted with our friends who have families and all agreed the glossy materials are great to keep clean. At first I had in mind matte tiles, but couldn't find anything I liked. But all our family just loved Soligo Ambiente tiles and they look also nice with soft LEDs light. Anyway I will be waiting for the counter to be installed, then I will bring back samples.

Cabinet and pipes installation

Our original plan was to keep pipes and extend by a few inches, but when my husband removed the cabinets the return pipe just fell out. The bad news our pipes even return are copper. So he would need to solder right stuck to the drywall. The good news pipes are copper. Once you solder them, they will last for a very long time. He managed to solder them and had to redo the dish washer machine pipes as well as they were quickly installed through the front of cabinets. This was ok as long as our base cabinets had frames, but frame-less cabinets would show these pipes.

Cabinets and lights

I always liked IKEA kitchens, however I didn't see so far a perfect style for me. When they brought new colors of Abstrakt model I was just delighted. Our choice is Cream high gloss kitchen with black Rubik glass doors for glass top cabinet. We ran into some complications however. IKEA furniture can't be hanging from ceiling, and I didn't want to lose the hanging units over the peninsula. They provide a lot of storage and we need it. This type of unit would cost a fortune to rebuild. Also, since my kitchen is not in a living room, and we have enough room for a table and chairs there, we have no need for open concept fashionable style. I have to say I dislike very much this open concept fashion because I don't see how someone could do serious cooking in a living room. Greasy dust would be everywhere. I also like a bigger kitchen where we can sit and have our meal. There is enough room for a TV and entertainment. We still have a dining room for special occasions and guests. I was watching a TV show on people purchasing property and one girl disliked very much a kitchen in the living room. Then the seller wanted to pressure her saying this was fashion, but like me she just said it was a way to sell you a smaller place for a bigger price. Yes, it is fashion, but fashions do pass. My priorities are functionality (being practical) and needs first, then nice, and in very last concern to please others with my choices. I understand however others could have different needs, and so, their choices could be different. I am not following fashions, but rather like timeless things, since I keep them for a long time. This Abstrakt model is easy to keep clean, as it doesn't have ridges nor relief on it as our old wooden kitchen had. I really didn't hate our old kitchen, but after more than 40 years, and several painting attempts it was still very hard to keep clean. Anyway we had to keep our top units. Also we have soffits in our house, but they are used for central heating and can't be eliminated. So, I couldn't build the upper cabinets to the ceiling. Oh well. So it is basically a combination of preferences and constraints. But I didn't really particularly liked IKEA corner units on top cabinets, and since we couldn't go higher, we kept the old cabinets, which we refaced with IKEA doors. Now, this is not that easy, and we needed to buy Bloom brackets, which by the way fit IKEA doors with little adjustments, as they also make IKEA brackets. I also purchased a very nice self stick white vinyl liners to cover the shelves, and we painted existing cabinets same color as the IKEA furniture. So the result is nice. My husband suffered quite a bit with adapting brackets since each cabinet is non standard and has frames, and we wanted a frame less look. The result was nice, but everything got spoiled by the wooden finish to the soffit. He was really discouraged when I asked him to remove the strip. Since the existing material wouldn't have fitted there or would have given a heavy look (we tried), I started imagining something with unconventional finishing materials. I chose to use the aluminum profile used for ceramics borders. When we tried it, it was very nice and actually matched the handles. Then my husband arrived with a very nice idea of mounting LEDs lights under that aluminum strip, and finally is looks awesome. We chose soft light LEDs sold in rolls from electronic store. It is even possible to add a LED light dimmer if you want to get really nice results. The bottom cabinets and the pantries are from IKEA. I chose all bottom cabinets except under sink to have drawers. One of the pantries is in a corner and is deep, however it doesn't have enough room on the side for a door, so we had to go with a pull out model to the ceiling, as there is no soffit. My husband also extended LEDs to inside the pantry. The second pantry will be shallow 12inch. We also created a unit on top of the refrigerator and up to the ceiling with a 24 inch deep cabinet we built ourselves with wood and using a IKEA door that we cut on a side and a set of pull up Blum brackets. These brackets cost more than the cabinet itself, but made that unused space very usable. I added inside a slide out Glidez deep shelf that can completely slide out.