Who's coming for dinner? * Directions Not Included

We have a kitchen! A 90% complete kitchen, but it is a kitchen! I can’t believe we did it ourselves but IKEA kitchens in all honesty are really easy to do. Time consuming of course, but otherwise pretty easy.

We still have to install the handles (which are on the to do list for tonight), pick a backsplash, install the toe-kick along the bottom cabinets and have our lights installed. All and all, I’m happy with our progress. So now the big reveal….

View from the family room into the kitchen including our new mini-counter for serving drinks and things.

Big ol’ farmhouse sink from IKEA.

View from the dining room into the kitchen. We raised the wall between the kitchen and dining so the top of the stove wouldn’t show. Still need to plaster and paint to cover up the wood.

Full view of the kitchen.

No finishing details yet, but it is functional and nice to look at. Much better than this, that’s for sure. So for those of you contemplating doing a kitchen yourselves, if you are handy you can definitely do it. My tips for IKEA kitchen installations are:

Keep a folder together of all your paperwork from IKEA and receipts. You are going to need them.
Organize all your boxes. You will get an unbelievable amount of boxes with your order and you want to make sure you have everything for each cabinet. This will help reduce trips to IKEA to pick up missing pieces.
Start with your top cabinets and build them all. The instructions are strange but once you get one down, the rest are easy.
Use a finishing nail gun to nail in the back of the cabinets. You’ll get a tighter fit and it will help speed up the process.
Use a blanket to build the cabinets on. You don’t want to scratch up the finish while you are building them.
The most important thing for the top cabinet installation is to make sure your top rail is level and that your corners are square. We had a pretty bumpy wall and our corners were a bit tricky. You want the cleanest base to start with. If your corners are not square, call IKEA and they can suggest what professional help you’ll need.
Make sure you take into consideration what height you want your backsplash to be before you install the rail. Standard is between 18” – 22”. Since we have high ceilings we used 22” and the taller 39” upper cabinets to maximize space.
Start with your corner cabinets as suggested in their instructions and don’t fret if things look a tab bit off at first.
Have fun, take lots of photos and don’t stress out if it takes longer than expected…it will and it is normal!