Ikea Hack, Trash Pullout

One of our favourite Ikea hacks in our new kitchen is the trash pullout.  We tried to go with the system Ikea sells but we think their bins are way too small. We didn't want to be taking out the recycling/garbage twice a day.

Here is how Aubrey created something way better....

He ordered a base cabinet that was 18" wide and came with a full height door. He added on one large drawer unit (18" Rationell.) He installed that drawer unit at the very bottom, and attached the door.

This allowed us to use the Rubbermaid bins that you see above. They are 16" x 11" (about twice the size of Ikea's largest bin) and available in most hardware/home improvement stores.

Ta-da! Awesome.

This is a perfect example of how you have to think about functionality when you are designing your kitchen. Imagine yourself actually using it on a day to day basis. Aubrey did, he's the one that takes out the garbage.

You don't have to stick to what's available - take what a big box store offers, and improve it.

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

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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. 

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Client Kitchen

 These pictures were taken in one of my favorite open spaces.  The large light fixture was a gamble but I am glad we took it.  It is a stunner when you walk into the space.

Images: Marianne Strong Interiors

Kitchen Reveal

Ta-da! Our new kitchen! Can you believe it's Ikea?

I'm in love with our kitchen. Our kitchen is a great example of mixing high end items with budget to end up with a kitchen that is gorgeous. The trick to this kitchen was finding areas of the renovation that we could do ourselves (demolition, painting, cabinetry building) and  picking certain things to splurge on to give it a wow factor (having hardwood installed, going for Quartz counters). We were given two major things as gifts - the faucet, and the hardware. We were also given a discount on our appliances, but everything else we got at retail. The mix of big box store and luxury items gives a pretty spectacular result.

There were some tricky things to work around. I knew from the start I wanted to extend the base cabinetry into the eat in portion of the kitchen, which is higher than the rest of the house (in the above photograph you can see the step) We had to get a little creative with cabinetry - but everything is possible. We installed a GE Cafe microwave above the oven that has a vent feature - that pulls the steam from the stove up and out into the kitchen. I'll get into our appliances more in another post, but I love having this above the stove. 

In the above photo you can see the wall of white subway tile in the background, which I simply adore as it reflects a lot of light from the new pot lights. It also blends in because it is white, like the rest of our kitchen. 

When we bought the house the fridge was blocking the doorway to the front hall. We moved the fridge to the eat in kitchen and bought a counter depth GE Cafe Fridge (more on the appliances later) and we built around it a pantry using Ikea Cabinetry. This made it feel more like the kitchen, instead of the fridge just being plunked into a different room. 

The design inspiration for the cookbooks above the sink came from a Kitchen Cousins Episode on HGTV. I loved the idea, as it was a perfect spot for my cookbook collection that has been gifted to me by my Mom. That faucet. OH that faucet. It's the most gorgeous thing on this planet. It's a Perrin and Rowe and my favourite thing ever. 

Anyhow, that is our kitchen reveal. While we've been finishing up the kitchen I've been working on posts that actually get into 1. Ikea Kitchen Shopping tips 2. Where we bought everything. So stay tuned, but if you have questions I'll do my best to answer.

I hope you like it as much as we do!

xo Lindsay

Kitchen Renovation | The Before

So you know what this means, right? If I'm posting "befores" of our kitchen, the "after" is around the corner. I'm happy to post that our kitchen renovation is 100% done and the "after" shots will be revealed in a few days.

The before shots are so dramatically different than what we have now, that they deserve their own post. Above are some photos of what the kitchen looked like when we bought the house. The fridge is blocking the doorway, we had a rolly-dishwasher that you had to attach to the sink (that was blocking the doorway to the basement). We had gross peel and sick floor tiles and one ugly light figure. Over the last three years of living in our house we did small minor improvements to the kitchen to make it liveable (and clean). You can see a the "in between stage" in this post. More photos of the kitchen, and how we lived with it for 3 years after the jump.
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Trick to making Ikea kitchen cabinets look custom...

Happy Monday. This above happened over the weekend. :) Aubrey is constructing the final piece of the kitchen - the valances*. Hooray! He has cut them and glued them together before we go ahead and install them on the upper cabinets.

This is another trick to making Ikea Cabinets look custom - we skipped  buying the molding that they offered at Ikea. Instead we went to our local lumber yard and found a trim style/size we liked and Aubrey is going to install them to hide the under cabinet lighting we installed.

When we paint the trim above the Benjamin Moore Paper Mache, they will blend in with the Ikea  cabinetry. Remember: Benjamin Moore's Paper Mache is a perfect match for Ikea's Adel doors. That tip is worth gold. Really.

*Ok, so I call them valances, others call them light rail moldings. What it is, is molding to hide the under cabinet lights.

kitchen via instagram

So, um - where's our kitchen reveal photos? Although we're using (and loving) our new kitchen it's still not 100% done. So the reveal is delayed because I'm a little bit of a perfectionist and I don't want to reveal until everything is installed. We're almost there. Aubrey is still trying to find time to do the valance (what hides the under cabinet lighting) and he promised me we'll have it done soon. Anyways,  I snapped some photos from around the kitchen to at least show you that I'm still going to reveal it ... hopefully sooner than later.

Clockwise from Top Left: [1] Can you tell where this spot is in our kitchen? If you've followed my blog you'll know that this was inspired by some dreamy kitchen men on TV. [2] Best decision ever to have 1 large sink vs. a sink split into two. I love, love it. Excuse the dishes, but it does show you how deep and awesome it is. [3] Our morning ritual. Oscar pretending his watermellon slices are cars. This is the table I'm thinking of staining darker  [3] Wall of Tile - Best decision also. It's gorgeous. :)

I can tell you - the kitchen is goooorgeous. ;) It's worth the wait.

Client Kitchen

 This is a recent kitchen we gutted and redesigned.  The client has a very clean aesthetic, this kitchen looks like her (and me).  Not fussy but stunning in person thanks to gorgeous finishes.

Images Marianne Strong Interiors, Photography Beth Hontzas Photography

grouting surprises

Grouting the kitchen backsplash is complete. :)  We had a little surprise when the grouting was done - Although the container from Home Depot said "Bright White" as you can see in the image below, it definitely isn't bright white.

It's kind of gray .... no?

Thankfully it was a happy surprise. For the longest time our kitchen was being used without grout and the spacing between the tiles made it look like we had done gray grouting. The look was growing on me and I was nervous to go completely white with the grout. But we did - partially because I like to play it safe. When Aubrey was done the grouting I said to him cautiously - "It looks kind of gray doesn't it?" He agreed, but then we kind of moved on because we both liked the look. It also plays well with the Caesarstone Misty Carrara countertop.

So conclusion to the pre-mixed grout? Awesome as there is little cleanup and you can use what you need, and put the rest away. Downside - the colour was a wee-bit off from the label. ;-)

kitchen progress

Aubrey was doing a lot of this today.....

Grouting!! We're almost at the finish line. We went with a pre-mixed white grout. Although the container says "ultra white" it it kind of is still greyish. It may be that we're using a lot of different tones of white in our kitchen which shows the difference in whites a lot more. Regardless of the darker colour than I expected, I love it.  Almost there!

full wall of tile

I'm not holding back "reveal" photos of our kitchen on purpose ... we're really still working away on it! :) So I'll keep blogging showing you the steps that we're taking to really make our big box store kitchen look custom. For example...we're tiling an entire wall in white subway tile. I was a little nervouse taking the leap to do this but I'm really glad we did as it shows off our tall ceilings and really adds great detailing. It reflects light, and makes this once dark corner sparkle. Can't wait to show you the "after"!! Eeek!

Ps., Looking for some inspirational "wall of tile" pins from Pinterest? Check out this, this (although it's a bathroom) This photo from The Home Depot "Dream Book" was inspirational too.

kitchen tricks: hidden outlet

One thing you won't see when I reveal the kitchen is this hidden outlet. In order not to break up the backsplash with an outlet but also because this wall is concrete (it's a shared wall with our neighbour) we didn't (and couldn't) install wall outlets along this one wall. So a plug was hidden on the base of our upper cabinets- out of sight but easy to plug in things when you need to use that blender. Here is a nicer shot of how someone else did it over on Pinterest.

Ps., The backsplash is still being worked on so excuse the unfinished tiling backdrop.

countertop selection + tips

If you've followed along the process of the kitchen you'll know that one of the biggest decisions for me was what to pick for the counter. I liked the look of Carrara marble but didn't want the hastle of the upkeep, or the possibility of "patina" so it came down to the three options.

So I can tell you what I didn't pick. I ruled out almost immediately Corian Rain Cloud as although I loved the look I didn't like the way it felt to the touch. I felt as though it was too soft for a kitchen countertop. Next on the list - although I liked the feeling of the Cambria Torquay (it's a quartz), I felt had too much veining for our small kitchen. The pattern felt too bold for me. I always kept going back to Caesarstone in Misty Carrara (Style # 4141) and after seeing it used in a larger project (vs. just the small sample) I was sold. And I'm SO in love with it. It's perfect.

There are a lot of things to consider when doing a countertop. Instead of breaking it into a lot of different posts I wanted to keep it all as one so this is a REALLY lenghy post with more pictures and details on the whole process of the countertop ordering. If you're in the market for a counter you may find this post helpful. For everyone else, I just thought you'd enjoy this photo above showing the counter! Yay! Love it.

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what we picked for the kitchen backsplash...

Aubrey started tiling the backsplash. :-) He's a pro after having tiled the basement bathroom, so a project like this was easy for him to do. In terms of the tile I ended up going with my gut instinct and went with a classic white subway tile. Although the white subway tile is one of the more economical tiles to go with, it definitely doesn't look "economical" when you pair it with everything else we've picked. It looks really gorgeous, so I'm really happy.

We purchased the tiles from Home Depot after I compared different subway tiles in this post. The Home Depot tiles definitely complimented the off white Ikea Adel doors the best. In terms of the grout colour, we'll be going with white grout. For for me, a gray grout would have added just that pinch of too much fuss. We're getting close! Eeeek!

Ps., Some of you have asked for a full rundown in the end of what we picked and tips from the full kitchen reno. I'll definitely do this at the end so there can be a comprehensive post.

{ Annie Sloan Green Door }

and after, with a base coat of AS green and a top coat of 

a custom mixture.

The green door looks much better from my foyer now.
A while back I striped the foyer ceiling,
added burlap to the walls and wallpapered
book pages to the stair wall.

I love the green in the kitchen as well.

It looks great with the blue ceiling and mocha walls.

Another AC chalk paint project , checked off the list!

linking to

chugging along

In the first few days of the kitchen demolition Aubrey pulled down the plaster ceiling and had Joe of Gallant Home Improvements (photo above) install a brand spanking new drywall ceiling. This allowed us to install pot lights and also get rid of the ugly bumpy plaster ceiling.  Joe is one of the best so if you're in Toronto and need a drywall guy call Joe. Love his work. He's a hard to get a hold of, but once he's in your house he does the best work. (He also did our entire basement project)

In other news, our counter should be installed tomorrow (Friday) and with that in place Oscar and I are moving back in on Saturday. Although we're a long way from being 100% done, we're at a point where I think it's time I moved back home and I should also reopen my shop. The break has been nice (and needed) but it's time we regained some normalcy.

More (better) shots from the house next week since I'll be moved back in. :) I'll also give you a list of our trades that we have loved all in one post that hopefully will be helpful to our local readers. xo

Ikea Adel Doors

Although we installed the cabinets last week we didn't start adding doors until a few days ago. We delayed the door installation until after I had painted the ceiling. (I wanted to eliminate the risk of getting paint splatters on the doors) So Wednesday AM I painted for three hours. I hate painting ceilings. I really do.

So with the freshly painted ceiling Aubrey was able to do the door installation and Wednesday night he sent me some photos ..... it looks amazing. I can't stop staring at the photo. I'm really, really happy with the Ikea Adel Doors. We still have to add crown molding, a valance, backsplash --- still lots to do.

Part of the reason for showing this shot is because a lot of people have commented on the exposed brick wall that has been seen in previous photos. Although it's lovely, it's not staying like this for a few reasons.

First, the other side of the kitchen doesn't have an exposed brick wall and I think it would look odd to different back splashes. Number 2 - I don't think brick cleans very well so food splatters would be hard to get off. Last - although I like the look, it's not the look I was going for. Now - that being said the interesting thing is that the soft grey of the brick has me debating whether I really want to do a white subway tile as we had originally planned. The grey looks lovely with the cabinetry. Because of this - we've decided to wait until the countertop is installed to decide on the backsplash.

Still a lot of things to do, but this shot was too fun not to share. ;) Have a lovely weekend! xo Linds

When to hire help....

We're still making progress on the kitchen! :) In my last post you saw the cabinets installed - they were installed by two (awesome) guys from Eureka! Furniture and Assembly. Although we're handy people and can do many projects on our own, we know when to hire help. Hiring for the cabinet installation was money well spent.  Although you can hire Eureka to build & install your Ikea cabinets we hired them only for the installation. We had them in for one day, and they were AMAZING. Highly, highly recommend.

See more photos of the installation day after the jump.
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kitchen reno progress shots

Here is another sneak peek at what is going on in the house via an instagram photo. New cabinets, floor, the stove is in place and the microwave is securely above it. We've extended the base cabinets into the eat in kitchen. Although we've hit a few delays, we're still moving at a good pace. The reno created a lot of mess and because I don't feel it's a totally safe spot for Oscar, the two of us are still camping out at Moms. Aubrey visits us at night, helps me with Oscar's bedtime (to give me a break) and then heads back home. I feel like we're dating again. (but with a child) Tomorrow I'm heading down there to paint the ceiling and do some tidying up. Aubrey thinks that until the counter is in, I shouldn't be moving in. So, time will tell when I get to move back! xo Linds