The Nitty Gritty, part 2: Kitchen Construction

Demolition started on the kitchen a few weeks after I closed.

This is the drainboard sink. Great for drying pots and pans and dishes, not so great at providing a flat even work surface. Also, not so great for the lazy among us (like me) who hate doing dishes.

I wonder how much it weighs

Originally, the kitchen had 4" x 4" ceramic tile running up 3/4 of the walls. I'd planned to keep the tile to save some money. Once the base cabinet and iron sink were removed, it was clear that the original builders chose to tile AROUND the sink. It would have been difficult to patch only a portion of the wall so all the tile had to come out. The upper existing cabinets were in really good condition. The thought of removing them pained me so I decided to keep them. To achieve the look I wanted, I had my contractor remove and cut the doors so I could have glass installed. What's old is become new!

The babies got shipped off for a glass insert face lift

In my previous post, I talked about sourcing my cabinets from IKEA. To save even more money, I agreed to assemble the cabinets while my contractor would install them. I got the boxes all put together, but I decided to leave off the doors until after everything in the kitchen was finished to minimize damage to them. I chose to use doors and drawer fronts from the BODBYN line in off-white.

Made in the USA. Who knew?

Two down, three to go.

I assembled the two drawers for the 15” wide cabinet, but one of them gave me a bit of trouble. One of the sides wouldn’t stay attached! I started to panic but after looking around online, I came across this really great YouTube video that shows how to remove the drawer front from its base so I could try to realign them. It was a little frustrating but after a while I got it. The drawers fit in the cabinet perfectly! You can see how the soft closers work in the video below. I apologize in advance that it's vertically shot :(

Something I neglected to mention is that I actually bought two of my cabinets fully assembled from the “As-Is” department at IKEA. I found a 15” and a 24” base cabinet. They were both half off so I saved about $50 overall. The 15” cabinet fit in my little Corolla just fine. The 24” would NOT fit, no matter how I twisted and turned it. I had to disassemble it right there in the store! Apparently this is a common occurrence, but in all the commotion I left the back panel of the cabinet at the store by mistake. As a solution, I bought a piece of MDF from Home Depot and had a friend come over to help me cut it to fit. Then I (poorly) spray painted one side using Rustoleum spray paint in French Cream to match the off white color. Voila! Good as (almost) new.

  

Can't finish the cabinet without the back :(

Demolition is pretty messy, especially when you're working within a small space. Fortunately, I'm not living at the house during the work so I don't have to deal with the dust and debris. I still have some decisions to make, especially about the cabinet door hardware (door pulls and/or knobs). It's like jewelry for your kitchen and I'm having the hardest time choosing the right set! I think I'm getting close though.


When I first walked through the kitchen during the inspection period, I wanted to  keep the original base cabinet and use it somewhere else in the kitchen. Of course this plan didn't work, but I still have thoughts on what to do with it. Because of the way it's built, it had to be removed in two pieces. You can see the separation in the photo below. There is still tile on one side of it and there's no top. Currently, it resides in the dining room until I can come up with a plan. I just can't get rid of it!

What will it be in its next life? I think I have big dreams for it but I'll have to dust off my DIY hat.

Next up I'll talk about my kitchen design choices including colors and appliances.

Thanks for reading!