Kitchen // Shopping Guide

So you have likely seen our Kitchen Reveal and tips and tricks for buying Ikea Kitchens.  This particular post is going to tell you where we got everything else - the essential elements in making our Ikea Kitchen look custom. Things like what hardware, countertops, sink, faucet etc.... This is a long post so all the info is after the jump. Cheers! - Lindsay

MAIN KITCHEN 


CABINETRY
Purchased all cabinetry from Ikea.
Door profile, Adel.
Blog Posts of Interest: Here and how to make an Ikea Kitchen Look custom (aka. Hacking an Ikea Kitchen)

HARDWARE
Made by: Hickory Hardware Studio Line, in Polished Nickle
Relevant Posts: Here
Comments: This hardware is GORGEOUS. It sets the tone for the whole kitchen. I adore the polished nickle and it matches the same finish as our faucet. I'm not really a fan of "knobs" so these pulls/handles are substantial and are really a major part of the design of the kitchen. Small handles (4") were for the majority of the doors, and, smaller drawers. I used the larger handles that are 5.5" approximately for the bigger drawers and as well on the larger pantry door in the Eat in Kitchen.
*Hardware was gifted to us.

  

FAUCET
Made by: Aquitaine Single Lever faucet made by Perrin and Rowe
Relevant Blog Post: Picking our Kitchen Faucet
Comments: This is probably my favourite part of the kitchen. It's the most beautiful faucet I've ever laid eyes on, and I knew it was going to be the focal point of the kitchen - and the main part that was going to dictate the "traditional" vibe to the area. This faucet gets comments from ever single person that walks through the kitchen. It's really beautiful.

*Faucet was gifted to us.

APPLIANCES (Fridge, Dishwasher, Microwave, Oven)Manufactured by: GE Cafe Line - Stove, Microwave, Counter Depth Fridge, Dishwasher
Details: Growing up, Aubrey's family owned a restaurant in Toronto. Because he grew up around chefs and  industrial appliances, we were looking for something that would give us a chef kitchen look - and also the quality. We fell in love with the GE Cafe look as it looks slightly industrial. I have nothing but amazing things to say about these appliances. LOVE.
Blog Posts of Interest: Appliances that we picked
Coming soon: Full details on each appliance, when posted I will update this page.
*We received a discount on our appliance purchase as a result of our blog

SINK
Purchased at: TAPS. Manufacturer by Julien.
Comments: Our contact at Taps is fantastic. If you're looking for someone that really knows their stuff, make an appointment to see Daniel Scheffel at TAPS. We LOVE having a single sink. 

Blog Posts of Interest: Buying a Sink, The debate about how many basins (comments are worthwhile to read)
This sink fit in our 30" Ikea Cabinet

COUNTER TOP
Type of Countertop: Caesarstone in Misty Carrara
Who we hired: MG Stone Craft
Comments: I loved the look of carrara marble but I didn't want the hassle of the upkeep.  I cannot express how much I love the Caesarstone. It doesn't stain, the veining in it is subtle and is slightly gray so it's not a "super-white" kitchen. Everyday when I see drips from the strawberries, coffee, or juice  - I am SO thankful I went with a quartz. Love, love it. It is more expensive than other counters, but it is something I really, really recommend spending that money on.
Blog Posts of Interest: See some blog posts on the countertop debate here,and here. See the Countertop Reveal and tips. See this page of the breakdown of counter-top costs.

BACKSPLASH - Tile and Grout
Purchased: Home Depot, Aubrey installed
Comments on the Tile: If you've ever decided to paint your house "white" you'll know how many whites are out there. Paper white, cloud white, oxford white etc. etc. As with paint, the same is true with white subway tiles. No two are identical. Although they don't have different names, different manufacturers have different tones. I found the Home Depot white subway tile worked best with the Ikea Adel doors. It is worth noting that with these particular tiles we didn't use spacers.
Comments on the Grout: Grout for the back-splash was purchased at Home Depot. Although we are very happy with how it turned out, it is worth directing you to this post showing you that the labeling on the packaging is somewhat deceiving. 
Blog Posts of Interest: Choosing the right tile, installing the tile.

HARDWOOD FLOORS
Purchased and Installed: We had our hardwood floor installer come and install the wood floor and they sanded and stained it on site. The wood was stained Antique Brown (the stain manufacturer was DURASEAL) and it was stained to match the rest of our house. (We had installed new hardwood when we purchased the house)

CROWN MOLDING and VALANCE
We purchased the wood at Central Fairlank Lumber, installed by Aubrey.
Painted it Benjamin Moore Paper Mache, in Semi Gloss which is a great match for the Ikea Adel doors.

UNDER CABINET LIGHTS
Xenon Lighting via Home Depot
Blog Post of Interest: Three under cabinet lighting options via Home Depot
Comments: They do heat up a lot, so sometimes it makes the cabinet kind of warm. I love the light that this collection gives off. Highly recommend.



TRADES


CABINETRY INSTALLATION
Who we hired: Eureka Assembly & Installations
Comments: Ah-ma-zing. We really appreciated the help from these guys. Aubrey built the cabinets himself, but hired this company to come in and help install. Although you can hire them to biuld your cabinets as well. I really recommend them, we were super happy with the service.
Relevant Blog Post: Here

DRYWALL and PLASTER
Aubrey and my brother tore down old plaster ceiling, hired Joe to do the drywall. We have used Joe for all the drywall in our house and we are always happy with his work.



EAT IN KITCHEN
The eat in kitchen was primarily renovated when we first bought the house, 3.5 years ago. But it is worthwhile to still provide the resources for this room, as it really is quite beautiful. 

KITCHEN BENCH
BENCH: We made our kitchen bench using Ikea Upper Cabinets.
Relevant Blog Post: You can read the post on our DIY Bench here. 
PILLOWS ON BENCH: Pillows on the bench are various fabrics, all purchased from Designer Fabrics. (I'm sorry - I don't know the manufacturers.)

KITCHEN TABLE
Our Kitchen table is vintage. Unknown origins.

KITCHEN LIGHT
Home Depot


OTHER: PAINT 
Manufacturer:  Benjamin Moore
Walls: Cloud White, Benjamin Moore
Crown Molding: Paper Mache, Benjamin Moore (Matches perfectly the Ikea Adele doors)
Trim elsewhere: Chantilly Lace, Benjamin Moore


OTHER
Purple Hydrangeas in first photo and kitchen reveal photos: Kingston Road Flower Market, Victoria Park and Scarborough Road, Cutting Board; HomeSense


Ps., All of the posts related to the Kitchen all have Tags of KITCHEN in them. You can see all posts by visiting this link. 

Giveaway File dans ta chambre

Créée par Harri Koskinen en 1996, la Block Lamp est devenue un symbole du design scandinave actuel, ayant même trouvé sa place au MoMa de New York depuis l'an 2000. En collaboration avec File dans ta chambre, j'ai maintenant la possibilité de vous faire gagner un exemplaire de cette lampe iconique de chez Design House Stockholm d'une valeur de 183€!

The Block Lamp was created by Harri Koskinen in 1996 and has become a symbol for modern Scandinavian design, even represented at the MoMa in New York since year 2000. In cooperation with File dans ta chambre, I now have the possibility to give away one of these iconic lamps from Design House Stockholm worth 183€! 

File dans ta chambre, le sponsor de ce jeu concours, est un site internet français spécialisé dans le mobilier et l'accessoire contemporain et design pour la chambre d'enfants et adolescents. Avec plus de 110 marques référencées, ils offrent un large choix de produits pour une chambre contemporaine et originale.

Pour participer au jeu et avoir une chance de gagner la Block Lamp, il vous suffit de:
1. visiter le site de File dans ta chambre
2. choisir votre meuble ou accessoire préféré
3. l'indiquer dans un commentaire ci-dessous.
Le gagnant sera tiré au sort par moi le 10 octobre. Bonne chance à tous!

EDIT: Le jeu concours est clos.

File dans ta chambre, the sponsor of this giveaway, is a French website specializing in contemporary & design furniture and accessories for kids' and teenagers' rooms. With more than 110 sourced brands, they offer a large choice of products for a contemporary and original kid's room.

In order to participate in the giveaway and have a chance to win the Block Lamp, you only need to:
1. visit the website of File dans ta chambre
2. choose your favourite piece of furniture or accessory
3. indicate which one it is in a comment here below.
The winner will be randomly drawn by me on October 10. Good luck to you all!

EDIT: The giveaway is closed.

Photo File dans ta chambre

Le bois façon finlandaise

En feuilletant la galerie de photos sur Scandinavian Deko ce matin, j'ai été frappée par la manière dont les finlandais utilise avec brio le bois dans leurs intérieurs (bon, je le savais déjà, mais là ça devenait une évidence...). Alors voici plein d'exemples trouvés dans la galerie!
Un autre joli exemple est la rénovation que Minna du Time of the Aquarius est en train de faire dans leur cabanon récemment acquis, allez voir sur son blog ici.

Et n'hésitez pas à revenir ici plus tard aujourd'hui, car un nouveau jeu concours très sympa se prépare! Non pas de ma boutique cette fois-ci, mais d'un généreux sponsor. Bon dimanche et à tout à l'heure!

As I was browsing through Scandinavian Deko's photo gallery this morning, I was struck by how brilliantly the Finnish use wood in their interiors (well I knew that before, but right then it just became so obvious...). So here comes a whole lot of exemples found in the gallery!
Another great example is the renovation that Minna from Time of the Aquarius is doing in their newly bought cottage, have a look on her blog here.

And make sure you come back here later today, because there is another great giveaway coming up! Not from my shop this time, but from a generous sponsor. Have a great Sunday and see you later!

Source Scandinavian Deko

Beautiful House & Banglow with Nice Render

3D Visulation Tower

Tips & Tricks for Buying an Ikea Kitchen

I know that someone may fall upon our kitchen reveal in a few years time and will have missed all of the entertaining posts leading up the grand reveal that explained how and why we chose things. I'm going to create some posts that include a lot of information for readers who may be interested in renovating their own kitchen.

For this particular post I'm focusing on the main element - our cabinetry, which is Ikea, and the door style is the Adel door. This post doesn't go into the details of what we picked elsewhere (counter, tiles etc) that you can find in our "Kitchen Shopping Guide". This is just a list of things to consider when designing an Ikea kitchen.  Warning. This is a LONG post. 

If you read my blog regularly you'll know I'm a fan of "hacking" Ikea things to make them look custom.  There is my Ikea Rast side table project from 2008 (inspired by Style at Home Magazine), there is my Ikea Ribba Frame Hack (inspired by Sarah Richardson), our DIY Bench in our Kitchen (inspired by Samantha Pynn) my DIY $300 Desk using Ikea, and most recently another Ikea Ribba gold frame hack. So my kitchen is no different. We've gotten creative with Ikea cabinetry and worked in elements from other stores - giving us a custom look at a better price than custom. Anyhow, without further delay - here is my summary of buying an Ikea Kitchen.  - Lindsay

The pros to an Ikea kitchen are pretty clear - they are economical, easy to buy, things are usually in stock so you can walk out with them the same day. The downside - your Ikea delivery may look like this and will be a little intimidating. And ....you're really on your own to design and build your kitchen.

I'm not going to go into the differences between custom kitchens and Ikea, there are a lot of factors in support of both - but for us the cost savings of an Ikea kitchen was very hard to ignore. For cabinet purchasing- Ikea really came in as the economical choice.  We ended up choosing the Ikea Adel door, a classic shaker that I think is the best profile they have. 

We've all done it - open the Ikea Catalog, seen kitchens that are economical and look like they could just be installed the next day. I wouldn't say it looks easy to accomplish, but it definitely looks achievable for the every day homeowner. Which, is true. BUT, if you want it to look built in, a lot of pre-planning is involved.

We spent a lot of time designing because we really wanted the kitchen to look built in, not just "installed". This meant that we had to do a lot of planning, something that took us months and months. Aubrey stresses that you really have to pre-plan EVERYTHING when doing an Ikea kitchen and it's a domino effect. Everything effects spacing - appliance dimensions, what crown molding you use, what height is the valance you use. Know everything you are going with before you start the design process. 

Although we have a relatively easy space I found the design process stressful. The one downside to an Ikea kitchen is that although they have a very large selection of cabinetry - inevitably they are limited in cabinet sizes. So it's a bit of a puzzle working out which cabinets should go where. In the beginning I did debate hiring a designer to help design the layout. I have read that many designers can offer select services - such as helping design layouts - which may make it an economical opportunity for a homeowner. (For example, Carol Reed offers this service) In the end Aubrey and I worked it out - I'm pretty creative, and Aubrey is great with numbers/measurements.  I can break our designing process into three important steps/stages.

• Researching Ikea Kitchen Pictures: I spent a few hours going through Carol Reed's blog, soaking in some of her designer tips of working with Ikea kitchens. I also googled a lot of "Ikea Kitchens" and tried to really spot what I did, and also what I didn't like of Ikea Kitchens.
• Ikea Kitchen Designers: We took advantage of the staff at Ikea in the Kitchen Department. They were great. With our measurements in hand, they helped get set started using their kitchen design tool. That initial meeting with a kitchen designer set us off on the right foot. You still have to do the design yourself, but the kitchen staff will helped start us off with their design program.
• Ikea Online Kitchen Design Tool: The last step for us was tweaking the design that we did in Step #2, at home. When you go home, you can tweak the design using their online design tool. I found the online tool confusing and frustrating so Aubrey ended up taking over and handling it. (Guess which one of us has more patience in the relationship)

TIP: Be creative and think outside the box. You can hide some empty spaces with "Filler Panels". One great example is shown below. I wanted to connect the "Eat in Kitchen" with the Kitchen we brought the counter further into the eat in area. The space for cabinetry in the kitchen area allows for normal depth cabinets. But the eat in kitchen is an extension, and the wall is actually further set into the room. We couldn't maintain the same base cabinet size along the run. So to maintain a straight line of base cabinets into the eat in area, we had to fake it a little. We added in less deep base cabinets into the eat in area. We added in a brace for counter top, and knew that "cover panel" would hide the wasted space behind - and in the end, seamlessly blend in.

There are more tips on the design process below in section D.

Here are some tips on ordering your Ikea Kitchen.

• DO ask for help from the Ikea Kitchen Staff. 
• DO Take advantage of the Ikea kitchen sale. You get 10% back in Ikea gift cards when you buy Ikea cabinets from the store during the sale.
• DON'T plan your kitchen design in the middle of the Ikea Kitchen Sale. It's going to be crazy busy and getting one on one assistance (uninterrupted) from a Kitchen specialist will be impossible. Plan and design your kitchen well before the sale happens.
• DO ask about their sale policies. We found out that Ikea will honor the 10% sale discount if we bought up to 45 days prior to the sale. [Call the store and ask what their policy is on honoring sale prices] We ended up getting back $400, in gift cards but skipped the mad rush of the sale in the store.
• DO call your order in vs. going into the store and picking each piece out of the warehouse.
• DO have your order delivered. We had a bad experience with the delivery company that Ikea used/uses. Ikea called for feedback (standard policy) after the order was delivered, and Aubrey gave an account of what happened and we did receive an apology. But still, just be ready to instruct the delivery guys/women on where to put the order and be prepared for your delivery to look like this.

You can hire a company to build and install your Ikea cabinets. When we priced this service out it was going to cost approx $100 per cabinet. So if you have 20 cabinets (which is normal) you're looking at $2,000 for this service. Because we were watching where our money was going, we decided to do 1/2 the job ourselves. Aubrey built the cabinets, and hired a company to just install. Be warned.....Some companies won't do this - they only offer the Build AND Install combo. So call around before you start to build your cabinets. Either way - I thought it was really valuable to hire a company to help with the installation. Ask whether the company will install the cover panels/filler panels - these little details are what finish off your design. It's ok to hire help, and there are a lot of reputable companies that are around that will help you install. 

Here is what I think are important tricks for making an Ikea Kitchen look custom.

• DO BUY the tallest cabinets possible, so that they go as close to the ceiling as possible. I think wasted space above the cabinets always is an obvious sign to the fact that you bought "store bought" cabinets.
• DON'T BUY any of the trim from Ikea. Build your own valance. You need to have the right tools, but this kind of detail makes a HUGE difference. If you don't have the tools, maybe hire a handyman for the day.
• DO consider adding in crown molding. I think crown molding gives a gorgeous "finished" look. [See photos below for examples]
• DO Paint the trim to match the Ikea doors. Ikea Adel door paint match is Benjamin Moore Paper Mache.
• DO BUY an Ikea door to bring around town with you as you try to match elements for your kitchen. That one Ikea Adel door stayed in my car for a month as I went looking for counters, tile, etc.

I guess my analogy is this - I think buying Bedroom Sets from a store doesn't result in a very nice look. It looks too matchy matchy. (This is totally a personal style, so don't take offense if you have a matchy-matchy bedroom set.) They sell them as sets because people like them, and need them. But for me - I think things look more unique and custom, when you mix and match from different stores. The same goes for Ikea and their kitchens. Buy the cabinets from them but look elsewhere for everything else. It likley won't cost you more, but it will take you some time to source things.

Our kitchen - Note the crown molding is painted the same colour as the doors. Have your local paint store help match paint. Benjamin Moore's PAPER MACHE is a perfect match for Ikea Adel Doors.

We likely spent more hours designing than the majority of people would but we really wanted it to look built in. Do you need to spend as many hours as we did designing? No - but it's worth it in the end. As Aubrey stressed when he saw me writing this post - it's imparative that you know everything you're working with before you start designing. The cost savings of choosing the Ikea cabinets made it worth it. And, they look fabulous. In my mind, go with the Adel doors, they are so classic.

I'm sure I've missed certain things. I appreciate this isn't a buider-guide-how to, but at least you get the inspiration to take away to create your own kitchen, and see the tricks we used.

I hope this has helped!

xo Lindsay

Update: Be sure to check out this page for other Ikea kitchen related posts. 


Disclosure: Because of the extensive (LONG) review, I feel as though it is worth noting that this post was not sponsored by Ikea.  

J'aime...

Je m'imagine bien avoir un bureau comme celui ci... Et le meuble d'archives en bois, je prends merci! J'adore le reste de l'appartement aussi, car on y retrouve cette palette à laquelle je reviens toujours: blanc / noir / bois / verdure et petites touches de couleur.

En revanche, je ne suis pas convaincue par le mur vert dans la cuisine... un peu trop flashy?

D'autres images ici.

I could easily imagine myself having a home office like this... And the wooden archive drawers, yes please! Love the rest of the flat too, it has that color combo that I keep coming back too: white / black / wood / greenery and small splashes of colour.

Not so sure about the green wall in the kitchen though... a bit too bright?

More pictures here.

Source Stadshem