Ikea ramsjo kitchen reno in progress

Thought I would share a few pictures of our reno in progress.  The in progress photos are pretty messy but it gives you an idea of how the design is taking shape.  This kitchen is teeny tiny, which can prove to be difficult when using stock cabinetry, as you are limited to certain sizes that don't always make the best use of your space.  However, stock cabinets have other benefits, such as the price and availability, which were key factors for the homeowner since he purchased this house to flip it.  The total kitchen is about 100 square feet which also had to include the only eating area / dining space in the house as well as a door to the back of the house and basement.  Oh and did I mention we had to find space somewhere for a dishwasher...

Kitchen before

kitchen before

kitchen before

We ended up taking out some bulk heads that were above the original cabinets in order to add extra tall wall cabinets, which you can see in the middle picture (above). There was also a wall separating the kitchen and living room, which was removed to open the space up.  There is a small alcove space that, at first, I wanted to build a banquette with cabinetry for seating and some shorter cabinets above the seating area but we ended up going with the second option, which was to add a built-in table that attached to a wall counter.  This was the only option that allowed us to add enough cabinet space to make this a properly functioning kitchen.   

kitchen before - alcove space and door to back entrance and basement

 kitchen before - wall separating kitchen and living room

 

So, here is the kitchen now in progress.  For some reason I had originally envisioned white cabinets in this space.  There was something about the kitchen window and all the light pouring through it that for some reason got me thinking about a white kitchen but the owner was set on having black cabinets so we ended up going with Ikea's Ramsjo black-brown cabinets.  I'm glad we did because I think it really adds a coziness and sophistication to the space and the colour is quite beautiful.  Online they look black but in person you can definitely see a hint of brown that I think creates a rich, warm sophisticated colour and when we paired it with the brown-grey tiles on the floor it brings out the brown in the wood just a little bit more. They are still very dark though and I think these cabinets would be beautiful for a bistro style kitchen paired with reflective surfaces such as stainless steel, mirrors, etc. 

 

 

One thing I love is the kitchen faucet.  If you live in Canada, you can find it at Rona for $129 and at the time I bought it it was on sale for $107.  Yes you heard me correctly.  And yes I thought it was a steal too!  I know none of these pictures do it justice so I will post some better ones when we are finished. One thing I don't love is that Ikea doesn't sell microwave cabinets in the same colour as their doors.  One of the contractors is going to customize it using end panels so that it matches the rest of the cabinet colour and you won't see the white. 

So this is the start of our alcove area with the built in table.  Originally we were going to use glass doors on the upper cabinets but decided against it for a few reasons.  Since the cabinetry was already so sparse I figured people may need the space to store items they may not necessarily want to display and also because the house is so small and there's a lot going on in this main area, I was concerned with it competing with too many other things.  So we ended up with solid doors.  I've decided to do a mirror on the back splash of this area, which I think will add a touch of glam and help to visually enlarge the space just a little bit more.  I know it's hard to see the tabletop here but it's all done in white quartz like the counters.  The base of it still needs to be completed and I'm still shopping for the perfect chandelier and stools for this area.  Hopefully you will check back in a couple weeks to see the finished product.