Kitchen Plans Foiled at the Corner

You know what they say about the best laid plans? Yeah, well, that happened.

I spent the morning at IKEA today, looking at new cabinets for the kitchen.

Look at those pretty cabinet fronts! It’s like they hypnotize you into wanting and loving a new kitchen. I was so excited.

I was ready. I went to the planning desk and started the big kitchen plan.

I got two cabinets in place and then BAM!

Foiled by the corner cabinet!

I swooned over this kitchen. I love the shaker-style cabinets. The sleek pulls. Sigh.

Let me explain. In my kitchen, the corner cabinet is a 36-inch cabinet.

But the IKEA corner cabinets are either 38-inch or 47-inch cabinets.

Wah-waaaaaaah.

Bummer.

I don’t want to pay for custom cabinets for this kitchen – at least not at this point. If we were to expand or do a major reno of the kitchen, that’d be one thing. But just to have white, new cabinets (sigh), I’m not up for spending thousands.

Could I find a stock non-laminate-coated cabinet to fit this corner? Maybe. I’m going to do some crackpot internet research and see what I can find. I’m also going to keep checking my favorite salvage haunts. Part of me just wants to appreciate (and deal with) what I have and part of me wants a fresh start in the kitchen.

With that said, here’s the plan, as revised. Changes are in blue.

• Clear out laundry room
• Clear off shelves in kitchen and remove from walls (why? Because I’m going to paint the walls and ceiling, too, while I’m at it.)
• Take down pantry sliding door (required to paint door frame) and decide whether to patch the doorframe and keep the sliding door or return to the old doors. (The sliding door is slowly becoming (a) noisy and (b) possibly in the way if I put something on that piece of wall next to the pantry. But it’s so cool!)
• Sand trim in kitchen and laundry room.
• Sand chalkboard paint. I know – I like the chalkboard paint backsplash! But I’m going for a lighter look in the kitchen, so I’m going to cover the dark chalkboard paint. I have plenty of chalkboards elsewhere, honest.
• Prime trim and chalkboard paint on wall.
• Paint the kitchen ceiling. Why? Because the ceiling is darker where the upper cabinets used to be and I want it to look clean and even.
• Paint trim – Ultra White semi-gloss by Behr.
• Paint walls –
  • Laundry room: Violet Sparkle by Ben Moore
  • Kitchen: Choose a paint color. I’ve narrowed it down to either Palest Pistachio (a light blue – I feel like it should be green, but it’s blue) or Pernod (a light yellow), both from Benjamin Moore.
• Finish laundry room:
  • Install countertop above machines.
  • Install tile backsplash on back wall behind machines.
  • Put it all back together.
• Paint kitchen cabinets white?
  • Right now, I’m leaning toward keeping the open shelves and not installing new wall cabinets. I’m on the fence on this. Stay tuned. If I added new upper cabinets, I would need three – one for the area to the left of the window and two for the wall above the stove. I could still add wall cabinets – the doors to the IKEA cabinets match the style of the base cabinets I have. Not sure I want to, but it’s an option.
• Add tile backsplash to kitchen? Maybe. I do not want to put glass tile in a kitchen in a 1929 house, but I don’t love subway tile in a kitchen (gasp!). I might change my mind on that – I’m going to see how I feel once the kitchen is painted.
• Replace light over sink with pendant.

All plans seem to be subject to change.

Given the enormity of the sanding, priming, and painting that must go on for these projects, there’s a decent chance I will just do the laundry room and the kitchen trim first and wait on the kitchen cabinets. That said, I’m insane thorough, so it’s highly possible I’ll start sanding and not stop until the cabinets are ready to be painted. Right now, it seems like such a daunting task, though.

As always, I welcome your thoughts!

Spoiler alert! See the finished laundry room here!

See the finished white trim in the kitchen here!