A blog about real estate, interior design, and the home in the Washington, DC area.

Diary of A Fixer-Upper: The Kitchen Cabinets

While buying the big, shiny appliances for the kitchen was fun, the cabinets are what brought everything together.

Luckily for most kitchen renovators these days, IKEA offers affordable, stylish cabinets. One of the contractors who came to look at my kitchen early on left me a catalog, with which I spent some serious quality time over the next couple of weeks.

First, I made careful measurements in the kitchen. I even came to a surprising conclusion: Remember the drywall I removed from the chimney? If I hadn’t uncovered the chimney I would have had an awkward empty vertical space—those few extra inches gave the kitchen wall the length to fit standard cabinets, without a millimeter to spare.

I summoned the skills I learned during my elective drafting class in high school, broke out the ol’ ruler, and started drawing. Then I got out the catalog and turned to the pages of tiny print at the back, where all the cabinet styles were listed. Oh, and were they listed. Two drawer or three drawer? Pantry with drawers or baskets? Thirty or 39” tall? The choices were nearly limitless, even for my tiny kitchen.

I dedicated a Sunday to it, decided on each piece, and listed every item that I would need to purchase. The only slightly unusual piece I chose was an 8” lower cabinet, which I thought would be a great place for a trash can.

IKEA, naturally, was a huge mess. A very generous friend, whom I probably still owe for doing this, drove me to the store in his SUV on a Monday night. I’d called the day before to clarify some things, to make the purchasing go as quickly as possible, but the rep gave me entirely wrong answers. Luckily, my preparation paid off, and we were able to get all the pieces that night with my precise list (and a little forceful prodding of a reluctant IKEA employee).

By the time we got the 100+ pieces into the car and strapped to the roof, they were turning out the lights in the parking lot. IKEA gives you an inventory sheet for you to double check, which was a big help. Even though my contractors would be doing the installation, I worried that a house crammed with boxes would lead to errors (and more trips back to IKEA for me), so I spent the next day sorting huge bags of hinges and reams of identical boxes.

The real excitement was coming home over the next few days to see the kitchen in my mind transforming into the kitchen of my reality. The dishwasher and microwave, which had been sitting in my living room for more than a week, were finally unboxed and installed. It may sound funny, but washing the dishes and kitchenware and placing them in their brand new cabinets was perhaps the most exciting moment of this entire fixer-upper process.

To read Heather's home adventures from the beginning, click here.

More>> Open House Blog | Homes | Real Estate

Comments

I’m not surprised you had a tough time at IKEA. I had a *horrible* experience when it came time to redo my kitchen. The first order sat on the employee’s desk for three weeks; I didn’t find this out till my contractor called to ask where the cabinets were, he’d like to start installing them. The second order was entered incompletely; the third order had tons of extra items (for which I was charged, of course); the fourth order had what we called mystery problems, we did confirm that the stovetop was ordered, the problem was the warehouse left that small item on the loading dock. All in all it took eight orders to fulfil the bill.

Then came the reckoning - I wasn’t paying for the extras, I wasn’t paying for the price increase that happened during the three weeks the order sat on someone’s desk, and I wanted to be reimbursed for the extra time my contractor spent covering for IKEA’s mistakes. I spent 40 hours listing and cross-checking each order, order number, original price, charged price, and so on. Then I loaded all the extra bits - up to and including each and every extra bolt and drawer pull - and had it out with the manager. Turns out the key piece of work was to list the IKEA part number, and not just the catalog number, for each part. With that in hand the manager couldn’t say I had it wrong.

The kitchen looks lovely but I will never shop at IKEA again, and I recommend the same for anyone doing renovation work. The price differential was far overcome by the time (mine and the contractor’s) it took to fix IKEA’s mistakes.

Posted by: Harry | May 30, 2008 10:09:12 AM

Laila,

I get a lot of questions about that fridge. It’s 26" square and 7 feet all, made by Vestfrost, which, yes, is a European company. I really love it -- it’s super energy efficient, and the perfect size for me (living alone as I do -- I don’t come near filling it up actually). If you’re in a household with 3 or more people or are a huge cook, it may be too small for you (although I’ve read of households who love it so much, they buy two and put them side-to-side).

I purchased mine at Costco for $999 (with free shipping and a $50 rebate) and at the time Home Depot also sold it; however, I can’t find it on the Costco site anymore, and Home Depot is out of stock. You might try calling either store, or another customer friendly company like Lowes and see if they’ll special order it for you, otherwise, I hate to say, you might be out of luck.

Posted by: Heather | May 13, 2008 02:07:29 PM

My sister and I bought a fixer upper and the kitchen looks like yours! I love the IKEA cabinets and was curious as to the size of that refrigerator in the first picture. It looks like the small ones I’ve seen in Europe/North Africa. Do you have dimensions of the fridge and where you got it? I would appreciate the help!

Laila

Posted by: Laila | May 13, 2008 09:54:57 AM

Diary of A Fixer-Upper: The Kitchen Cabinets

Comments

Post a comment

They Know Design: Top Architects in Washington

Where & When: What To Do This Weekend