Our New Kitchen!!!

1. Look at all that counter space u now have. Love the glass cabinets. The flooring looks really elegant…nice job. So wonderful to have your house back in order.

   — cheryl rush · Tuesday October 18, 2011 · #

2. Congratulations on your major remodel! The kitchen is absolutely stunning…fresh, functional, and inspiring home cooked goodness and merriment. Oh, and the chandelier is a gorgeous focal point….
   I so look forward to seeing it all in person.

   Bisous,
   S

   — stephanie · Tuesday October 18, 2011 · #

3. Amazeballs!!!!! How psyched are you?! Coveting the Caribbean blue Le Creuset on the shelf… Well done, guys! xo

   — Jennity · Tuesday October 18, 2011 · #

4. I love the new kitchen!! but so much work!!
   congrats!!

   Mar
   www.mar-blog.com

   — Mar · Tuesday October 18, 2011 · #

5. Thanks! We love it. Cheryl, Yes it is so nice to have things back and in working order. We will be cooking up a storm this fall/winter.

   Steph, Please come visit so we can cook and eat together!

   Jen, Thought you’d like that. I want the whole set!

   Mar, Yes it was a TON of work but it’s so worth it now that it’s done!

   — Kacie · Wednesday October 19, 2011 · #

6. I love it!! It turned out so beautiful!!

   — Samantha · Wednesday October 19, 2011 · #

7. Your kitchen looks amazing!! Yay for you!

   — Rachel · Wednesday October 19, 2011 · #

8. Sam, yes now I have to have you over for French Onion Soup!!
   Thanks Rachel. We love it!

   — Kacie · Thursday October 20, 2011 · #

9. Your Kitchen looks great!

   — Amy · Friday October 21, 2011 · #

10. it looks so good Kacie! it’s so open now.

    — kym · Saturday November 12, 2011 · #

11. Love it! Everything looks so clean and crisp and bright! You can change the way your refrigerator door opens, you just swap pins and handles. It’s always nice to have to door open side where a counter is :)

    — Cameron · Thursday January 5, 2012 · #

12. I love the remodel, how amazing!

    We are thinking of doing butcher block counters and a country sink in our kitchen as well. I know you said they were both from IKEA but can you share some specifics? Thanks!

    Great job!!

    — Kim · Thursday January 5, 2012 · #

13. Thanks Cameron, we just flipped them this weekend!

    Kim, Thanks so much. We love the countertops and they were CHEAP compared to anything else out there. We got the thicker of the two options from IKEA. They are Oak. They have quite a few options but we loved the Oak look. Definitely go with the thicker cut wood. It also matched our island (which I love).
    Hope that’s helpful. Let me know if you have other questions.

    — Kacie · Thursday January 5, 2012 · #

14. Oh and this is the sink we got… http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S99822037/?cid=en%3Epc%3Ego%3Eproducts_search

    They have a single bowl version too.

    — Kacie · Thursday January 5, 2012 · #

15. Your kitchen looks amazing! Stopped by from Young House Love! I love your shelves – can you tell me where they are from?

    — Christen · Thursday January 5, 2012 · #

16. I’m over here from Young House Love. Your new kitchen is wonderful! Do you mind sharing your Ikea opinions? How easy were the cabinets to assemble, did you run into any problems, etc? How was installation? We have our kitchen planned out and would love to hear what you thought of the process. Thanks!

    — Amber · Thursday January 5, 2012 · #

17. also here from YHL! i have the same questions as amber regarding the ikea cabinets. does everything come completely flat and you have to assemble every one, or does the frame come assembled and you just add the doors/hardware/etc? also, now that you’ve had them for a while, do you still like them? are they good quality? i know they aren’t wood, so just wondering. thanks!

    — sarah · Thursday January 5, 2012 · #

18. Christen, the shelves are from IKEA (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S39864148/). We chose the 11” deep ones, then cut them to size. The brackets are also from IKEA. Really inexpensive, sturdy, and easy to put up.

    — Kacie · Thursday January 5, 2012 · #

19. Amber and Sarah,
    Thank so much for your nice comments. Our IKEA experience was GREAT. Their staff are so knowledgeable, helpful, and efficient. We live an hour from IKEA and had our whole kitchen delivered for about $50! It all comes in pieces, everything is flat. They are pretty easy to put together once you get a hang of it, the quality is actually amazing for the price. All the cabinets and drawers have “soft-close” so they don’t slam shut but close slowly. We absolutely love them. I really don’t have a single negative thing to say about our whole IKEA experience. The cabinets were pretty easy to install. My husband and his dad mostly did that while his mom and I laid flooring but it was pretty straightforward. Let me know if you have nay other questions.

    — Kacie · Thursday January 5, 2012 · #

20. thanks so much for your feedback, kacie! i was using ikea’s online kitchen planner just yesterday and am excited about getting it installed. your kitchen looks great, by the way. :)

    — sarah · Thursday January 5, 2012 · #

21. THis has been the best Reader Redesign YHL has posted yet. Love EVERYTHING about it. Even your styling is beautiful. Never would have thought to put books/cookbooks on open shelves. The pops of pastel combined with glass/white is absolutely genius. Did it really only cost around $3000? It looks like it’s worth so much more!!!

    — MIchelle · Thursday January 5, 2012 · #

22. I love your sink! Several questions…where did you get it? and is it made out of a hard material so you have to be careful when you place dishes in it?

    — Jill · Thursday January 5, 2012 · #

23. Your kitchen looks great! I saw it over on younghouselove.com. I wanted to see how your counters were working out? Also, are the counters food safe? We are putting in a new island and are still debating on wether we’d like a wood countertop.
    thanks!

    — Natalia · Friday January 6, 2012 · #

24. Hey Congrats! You all did a gorgeous job :) I’m over from YHL and read through comments because I’m looking to do the same thing with IKEA products in my kitchen. Curious about the materials of the cabinets…are they wood? Did they square up properly when they were put together or did your hubby have to “rig” any of it? Also the countertops, are they sealed at all? I’ve heard butcher block is high maintenance if it’s not sealed and you still have to re-seal things every 6 months or so…how’s your experience been? Thanks for your help and congrats again!

    — Emily · Friday January 6, 2012 · #

25. I’m also curious about how the countertops are holding up. And do you know about how much they cost? And how hard were they to install?

    — Georgia · Friday January 6, 2012 · #

26. Here from YHL, too! :) Love your kitchen, it’s so inspiring! I really wish we were closer than 3 hours to our IKEA. A couple of lighting questions… Could you list a source for your can lights? We have similar slanted ceilings, and those look like a great option. What was involved, exactly, in turning the one pendant into the three cans? Did you have to run new electrical, or could you just extend/expand the wires that were there? (Clearly, I’m an amateur!) One other thing… Opening that fridge door the wrong way would drive me crazy, lol. I think they make kits to switch the hardware. But of course, it might work for ya! :) Great work on everything!

    — Kate · Friday January 6, 2012 · #

27. Hi there!
    LOVE your kitchen reno! So clean and cozy!
    We just redid our kitchen with butcher block tops from Ikea as well but I have a question for you – what (if anything) did you use to seal the seam to the left of the sink? We have two seams in our kitchen and tried wood filler but it dries out and we’re debating clear caulking but I think it would catch crumbs etc….
    Thanks and enjoy that great space!

    — Rebecca · Friday January 6, 2012 · #

28. Michelle, Yes! The whole kitchen (not the flooring) cost at the most $3,500. About $2,000-2,500 at IKEA and about $1,100 on appliances. We found a great deal on the appliances. Saved tons by doing wood countertops and open shelves.

    Jill, it’s this sink from IKEA (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S99822037/) It’s porcelain so it is really hard. But we’ve only broken one mug in it so far. =)

    Natalia, I love the wood countertops. You have to sand and seal them quite a bit in the beginning. You can’t really chop on them… basically you have to treat them like cheap laminate countertops and you can’t let water sit on them. I really like them and they are very inexpensive. I try to keep all poultry, etc off them because they will hold germs.

    Emily, We were lucky because our house is really square and level so we didn’t have any issues at all. The cabinets were great. Easy to install. They have wood options but we opted for the plasticy ones because they are sturdier and less likely to ding. With our baby we figured sturdy was better. As for the countertops, you do have to seal them but it takes very little time and is easy. Kind of a pain cause you have move everything off but really not a big deal.

    Georgia, The wood countertops are holding up great. They get stained from wine bottles, beets, but I like that. Plus, they only cost about $300! If we had done cheap custom ones they would have cost $2,500… as much as the rest of the stuff from IKEA. I love them.

    Kate, The can lights were just from Home Depot. We got the ones with the eyeball things since we have the slanted ceiling. My husband’s Dad is a handyman and they were able to move it over (and add a second light switch) then we had to patch, drywall, texture and paint the ceiling. Same thing with the chandelier. We lucked out and didn’t have to paint the whole ceiling. The electrical was definitely the hardest part of it all. If my husband’s dad hadn’t known what he was doing we would have had to hire someone. It can be done though! Oh, and YES we switched the door around!

    Rebecca, We did have to seal the sink. We used white caulking. At the time I was concerned it would show but if you put it on, and wipe it clean, you don’t see it at all.

    THANKS SO MUCH EVERYONE FOR STOPPING BY. LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER QUESTIONS.

    -Kacie

    — Kacie · Friday January 6, 2012 · #

29. Great Job! I was thinking about using Ikea cabinets and countertops too, so glad to read about your experience with them! Thanks for sharing!

    — Jennifer · Friday January 6, 2012 · #

30. I also came by way of YHL and was so glad to see that you went with IKEA cabinets. I was wondering how they were and how the quality was. After reading your responses it sounds like you are really happy with them. I like that they have the “soft close” feature. Way better than always hearing a cabinet door slam shut. I look forward to keeping up with your blog. Thanks for sharing!

    — Lexi M · Friday January 6, 2012 · #

31. I love those countertops! They are gorgeous and much easier on glass/breakables for a klutz like me!

    — t · Friday January 6, 2012 · #

32. Love your kitchen! Great post on YHL. Can you tell me about your open shelves? Where they are from, how it was putting them up, how sturdy are they??? Thanks for all the other info you’ve already posted.

    — Angela · Friday January 6, 2012 · #

33. Angela, Yes. They are from IKEA as well.
    http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S39864148/
    We looked at floating shelves but they were too hard to DIY and they didn’t hold enough weight. These ones are super sturdy. We cut the shelves so the brackets lined up with the studs in the wall. They sell middle brackets too for extending like we did. They were really, really easy to put up.

    — Kacie · Friday January 6, 2012 · #

34. if you don’t mind my asking how much did the butcher block counters cost you?? I love that style so much!

    — carri · Saturday January 7, 2012 · #

35. Carri, of course not. They were about $300 total! So inexpensive. It was great for our remodel budget.

    — Kacie · Saturday January 7, 2012 · #

36. Your kitchen is beautiful! Can I ask where you got your jar canisters that are in your kitchen cabinet with granola, beans, and popcorn?

    — Heather · Tuesday January 10, 2012 · #

37. I really like the storage containers you have the loose corn and beans in. Did you get those from IKEA as well ?

    — Derek · Tuesday January 10, 2012 · #

38. Yes Derek, They are from IKEA. We also just picked up a bunch of old canning jars for all the beans, rice, etc. last week! So it’ll be almost all glass. =)

    — Kacie · Tuesday January 10, 2012 · #

39. Oops, Heather. Didn’t see you comment there. Yes all from IKEA. I particularly love the little ones that help keep all the spices (that I buy bulk) organized instead of in those little baggies! See my comment to Derek too.

    — Kacie · Tuesday January 10, 2012 · #