Talk to me about kitchen remodeling

[hillview]

We have a house with a kitchen from early 1980s. The layout rocks. The cabinets are a pain and the counter tops are formica and the oven and cook top need replacing. We also may tweak the lighting (under cabinet? etc).

So if you've btdt, please let me know where to start. We are not in a sub-zero/wolf area? I am thinking Ikea in the back of my mind ...
TIA!
/hillary

[egoldber]

When we moved into our house, we replaced the formica counters with Corian, added a desk area and more cabinets and did the cooktop at the same time. We did it all for under $5K and I love it.

As long as you are not changing the layout and placement of plumbing/wiring, it isn't that bad to do.

[wellyes]

From house hunting and living in waaaay too many places, I can tell you -- a cheap DIY from Lowe's always looks like a cheap DIY from Lowe's. And a truly fabulous kitchen is a glorious thing with huge resale value.

We haven't redone our kitchen, but we moved into a house that'd just had the kitchen redone. They used http://www.schrock.com/index.cfm. I don't know how much it cost but it is really beautiful and well-done.

[WitMom]

In our last house, we did a cosmetic face lift, but no major renovation. The cupboards were still in great shape, but ugly. We were like you, and liked the layout, and didn't really want to start from square one. We opted to re-face the cabinets. Essentially a company comes in and replaces all the doors with a wood/color/style of your choice. The "box" component of the cupboards (the part that is attached to the wall) is then covered with a thin veneer that matches the doors. We also installed granite countertops, which were more affordable than we were expecting (we did choose a more common and therefore less expensive granite). We were very pleased with the results, and I would definitely consider refacing again if we were ever in the same situation.

[codex57]

Sub Zero has a pretty piss poor reliability record anyways.

If you're updating, I'd go for something without grout. Doesn't have to be granite, altho now, granite isn't that expensive.

Ikea can be ok for the cabinets, but I'd skip their appliances and fixtures.

[Piglet]

Gardenweb Kitchen Forum... like Baby Bargains but for kitchen renos! It is a lifesaver :) But be warned, you might fall for something out of your budget (just like on here)

[newg]

We did new cabinets and countertops from Lowes..........we ordered the counter tops and had a local handyman install them (save some major $$ that way and I think he did it faster)..........then we had the lowes guys come out to install the countertop (corian countertop).............when we're ready to redo this current house's kitchen we will probably do the same thing.

[crl]

Ikea cabinets are awesome; we put them in our last kitchen and I loved them. They were cheaper and better quality than anything at Home Depot or Lowes. I'm pretty sure they now come with a 25 year warranty. And they have dirt cheap farmhouse style sinks. And they have dirt cheap butcher block countertops. I agree that I wouldn't go with Ikea for appliances. And I used other knobs and pulls because I didn't like any of Ikea's for the look I was going for.

I second the gardenweb suggestion--kitchen forum and appliance forum. And if you are interested in Ikea, I also suggest the Ikea fans forum. People there totally helped me with with layout, etc. (And can I just say, drawers. Put in as many drawers as you possibly can.) Ikea has software you can download to design your kitchen and it totals the price.

Oh, and a plug for cork flooring. If you are going to be replacing flooring, check out cork.

Catherine

[WatchingThemGrow]

LOVE things like pull-out drawers, not cabinets with pull-outs behind them (2 steps!) Love my tall pantry with pull-out drawers, love double-wide drawers...all from HD DIY, installed by friends. Love the silestone countertops. You can probably do a lot of demo yourself, but I'd let someone else do the fit and finish.

[becca_g]

Ikea cabinets are awesome; we put them in our last kitchen and I loved them. They were cheaper and better quality than anything at Home Depot or Lowes. I'm pretty sure they now come with a 25 year warranty. And they have dirt cheap farmhouse style sinks. And they have dirt cheap butcher block countertops. I agree that I wouldn't go with Ikea for appliances. And I used other knobs and pulls because I didn't like any of Ikea's for the look I was going for.


Do/did you have the Ikea wood countertops? If so, beech, birch, or oak ... and any feedback?

Thanks!

[gatorsmom]

When we moved here we did a big kitchen remodel. The ceiling when down to the tops of the cabinets and there was this lattice-work like wooden ceiling that covered the lights. Not sure if you can picture that but it was very dated. So, we knocked it down and put in recessed lighting and resprayed popcorn texture/paint for the ceiling (we had to match the rest of the kitchen ceiling). We would have preferred knock-down texture as it's easier to do and more modern but the rest of the ceilings in the house are popcorn. I think we rented the paint sprayer from Lowes or Home Depot. Then DH put in recessed lighting which looks great and was relatively easy he said. We also decided to retile because the tile that was down was old and dated. But, rather than go through the time and effort of pulling up the current tile we simply tiled over it. The entire house was in excellent shape and was very well cared for. But everything was outdated. So, we got our tile I believe from Color Tile stores and chose 16" tile. We had a lot more cutting to do (rented the tile saw from Home Depot) but it looks great. We chose a grout that was a few shades darker than the tile. We knew a couple that had just started a business dealing in stone and they gave us a great discount to buy our granite and travertine countertops and backsplash tiles from them. In the end, they took pictures of our kitchen to use in their sales brochures so it worked out well for everyone. We got seconds appliances except for the vent hood- went to a special store to find one that DH liked. We also replaced the sink with a stainless one to match the appliances.

The only thing we didn't change in the kitchen was the cabinets. It would have been thousands more dollars to change them and they were in great condition. The only thing we did was to change the hardware to wrought-iron cabinet pulls (we have a lot of wrought iron in our house) from brass and that helped "modern-up" the cabinets A LOT. We got the pulls at Home Depot. The cabinets already had undercabinet lighting which was great since the black granite countertops make the kitchen dark. Also, we installed a wrought iron potrack to hang over the island in our kitchen. I love how that looks.

We did a lot of work, even without the cabinet replacement. The popcorn texturing and knocking down the ceiling was a huge, dusty mess that I wouldn't want to go through again with small children. At the time we did it we didn't have kids. But in the end our kitchen looks WONDERFUL. I wouldn't do Ikea but it is simply not our style. I can't speak to the quality but that would be something I'd be concerned about. HTH.

[crl]

Do/did you have the Ikea wood countertops? If so, beech, birch, or oak ... and any feedback?

Thanks!

We did. We sold that house just about a year after remodeling the kitchen. (So sad, I loved that kitchen). I was very happy with the countertops. I'm pretty sure we had beech. Is that the one in the middle for color? I really used ours though and they did show wear. If you want to use them for food prep, you have to like the distressed look. Also I did stain mine with food coloring, so that's a consideration, they will stain. Those things are true of all butcherblock though. I finished ours with mineral oil (I wanted food safe and had read somewhere that tung oil is related to nuts somehow and didn't want to risk causing an allergic reaction for someone down the line) and thought they were lovely. And, you really can't beat the price.

I will say that you should inspect it before you leave Ikea, because one of our pieces had warped. We were using it for something temporary (long story), so it didn't matter to us, but it would have been better to have caught it at the store and traded for a good piece.

Catherine

[lilycat88]

We started a total remodel of our kitchen on March 1st. We're doing more than what it sounds like you're doing. Our kitchen was circa 1982 with a dropped ceiling and original cabinets. We took everything down to the studs and started over.

I don't know anything about IKEA for kitchen remodeling. We're doing this for the long haul and as an investment so we went with custom cabinets (which, interestingly, cost less than purchasing many of the higher end non-custom cabinets). Appliances are GE Profile refrigerator, oven, microwave and warming drawer, Miele dishwasher, DCS/Fisher & Paykel cooktop.

Everyone will have different styles they like, price points, etc. The best advice I can give is to take your time planning no matter what the scale. Ours is a huge project (we're doing a few other smaller things in addition to the kitchen) and it was about 18 months in planning. The kitchen we're going to end up with is in no way what I would have ended up with had I gone with what our original thoughts were in the first 6 months.

[crl]

I wouldn't do Ikea but it is simply not our style. I can't speak to the quality but that would be something I'd be concerned about. HTH.

I think Ikea's quality varies from item to item. But I think the kitchen cabinets are very, very good for the money. Consumer Reports specifically mentions that Ikea cabinets did better than some premium brands in their testing: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/home-garden/kitchen/kitchen-remodeling/cabinets/cabinets-804/overview/index.htm My understanding is that hardware is very important to the quality of cabinets and that this is a place where Ikea shines. For anyone who does like Ikea's style (and they have a variety of cabinet styles, including one that fit our cottage style kitchen very nicely), I would really suggest checking them out.

Catherine