Creative Use of IKEA Cabinets

I thought it might help to explain why it is that, although we are remodeling contractors, we offer an IKEA kitchen design/planning service. We offer this service to ensure that our (potential) remodeling customers have a truly optimal layout. The service also ensures that the remodeling requirements and costs to achieve the finished result the customer wants can be planned out knowledgeably. It's a really worthwhile service I recommend without reservation.

Why do I "sell" this service to people who call? It's simply because we know, after hundreds of IKEA kitchen projects, that having a expert installation contractor AND a pro designer on your team. will get you a much better kitchen. One key is their ability to use IKEA cabinets creatively.

The IKEA software enables you to place cabinets along the walls of a kitchen. A 30 inch cabinet fits in 30 inches of space. It has 3 drawers or two shelves, etc., all the standard IKEA cabinets, as seen in their catalog.

A kitchen designer who is expert with IKEA cabinets, knows how to use these cabinets in many more ways than the software allows you to do. He knows how to avoid installation problems, such as when six feet of cabinets in six feet of space creates a problem (e.g., the oven door won't open) that holds up your installation for days while you re-design and exchange cabinets or appliances. An expert IKEA designer knows how to mix and match component parts and can customize cabinets to elegantly solve design issues in a particular kitchen.

I could not overstate how many more options you have with IKEA cabinets than you might realize, using only the standard cabinet sizes and configurations, and the IKEA planner software or their catalog's cardboard design kit.

Using these cabinets creatively, alterations to cabinets or to the kitchen itself can be proposed. Have a contractor who has years of experience with IKEA kitchen cabinets provides you with the immediate knowledge of what the alterations involve. If you think it'll cost a lot to move your sink to the other side of the kitchen, you may not even consider it. If your designer proposes this and at the same time, an expert installation contractor gives you a price of $200 to run the plumbing lines, well, your dream kitchen may start to come into view. And this is a real-life example.

Here are two more quick examples of recent projects in which the creative design of IKEA cabinets and expert planning service resulted in a much better kitchen remodel than the customer ever expected to achieve:

1) Lovely smaller home in Altadena. Customer wanted kitchen remodel. Designer and contractor went out for planning service appointment. Upon inspection and based on customer budget and their "dream kitchen" ideas, it was worked out that removing a small wall between kitchen and laundry area and moving the kitchen to current dining room location and dining room to kitchen location would result in a much larger and lighter living space that would serve the homeowners needs much more than the small, closed-in rooms they had. The cost of wall removal, electrical and plumbing, new lighting and even moving a large picture window from dining room (view of neighbor's house) to kitchen (backyard view), was well within the customer's $15,000 budget.

2) A customer in Brentwood had gotten a quote of $36,000 to remodel three small bathrooms. Customer wanted a European look. Our designer drafted layouts with IKEA refrigerator cabinets altered to fit into narrow bathroom spaces, and customized with drawers. Minor plumbing alterations were needed. We completed the three bathrooms for under $9,000. Fabulous, European-style bathrooms.

Bottom line: spend a bit on professional design and include an expert installer/contractor on your planning team. In Los Angeles, just call us. Elsewhere, we can do your planning via email, but make sure you bring an expert installer in once you have the design work done, to ensure everything comes together just the way you envision it.

Susan