The surprising thing about this IKEA kitchen design

This IKEA kitchen is a masterclass in how to create a custom look

We hate clickbait just as much as you, so we’ll tell you right away: IKD designed this IKEA kitchen. But, the owner ended up not using IKEA for her kitchen! It’s a non-IKEA kitchen.

Instead, a carpenter used the IKD plans to build Bronwyn a custom kitchen. Here it is:

It sure looks like an IKEA kitchen with grey BODBYN doors. That had been Bronwyn’s plan, but when her carpenter saw the plans he offered to build custom cabinets for less. We’d call that an offer she couldn’t refuse.

To understand Bronwyn’s kitchen, let’s start at the beginning: why she wanted to remodel her kitchen.

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An unintentional kitchen remodel

Originally all Bronwyn had wanted to do in her kitchen was move the wall cabinets. But surprise surprise, there were considerable structural issues that prevented an easy solution (something that happened to our customer Laura in a recent blog post).

Given that there wasn’t really a budget for a full-blown remodel, IKEA was attractive because it was “doable and affordable” in Bronwyn’s words.

So you can really imagine how attractive it was to have someone come in and offer to do it for even less.

The one thing IKEA couldn’t do for bronwyn’s kitchen

Bronwyn and her husband, in an effort to save money, had chosen to keep the existing kitchen blueprint. That meant keeping the kitchen sink in the corner, at an angle.

IKEA only makes square cabinets. Bronwyn’s IKD designer suggested a cabinet hack to fix the space: angling an extra-wide cabinet, and then having dead space in the remaining 45°.

That’s another reason why the carpenter’s offer for a non-IKEA kitchen was so attractive. His custom cabinets could fit in the spaces perfectly with no dead space and, more importantly, no tricky cabinet hacks.

More about this non-IKEA kitchen

Not using IKEA meant foregoing some of the IKEA benefits. IKEA kitchen cabinets come with high-quality Blum hardware (hinges, etc), so Bronwyn purchased that on her own for the cabinets. The built-in trash cabinet that IKEA offers was a bit of a challenge for her carpenter but in the end it turned out great.

The grey was a “Pinterest compromise” between Bronwyn and her husband. He really wanted white kitchen cabinets with a black countertop. Bronwyn however liked the BODBYN grey doors but wanted something with a warmer grey. She went so far as to look at Semihandmade and Dendra Doors, and then her carpenter made her the offer she couldn’t refuse.

A word from Michael Toth, IKD Founder

This is the first time an IKD customer used our design to create a non-IKEA kitchen, and I think it’s great. IKD is first and foremost a design company. We do designs, not IKEA. We’re glad we were able to play a part in getting our customer a kitchen she loves. —Michael Toth, Founder, Inspired Kitchen Design