Everyone. loves. white. cabinets.
As our (dream) kitchen comes along and we took our time, seriously choosing everything and deciding where and who will be doing the things we needed done. Lucky enough, we didn't switch up our kitchen layout, so we didn't need anything redone like wiring or plumbing but my husband did have to replace somethings that he could just #DIY himself. We talked a lot about this process before we started, so I felt like our game plan was strong. #gameplanonstrong We decided white kitchen since before we lived here. You see our last home, we just painted the cabinets and called it a day... but these cabinets were not salvageable. The countertops simply had to go. & the more time I spent in IKEA the more it made sense to us, to just build it ourselves and save the $4,000 from having someone just install them!
THE IKEA PROCESS It was simple to pay someone to come out to the house and get the correct measurements and design for $250
so I used my handy computer, emailed the store and had someone out the same week. The good news was, 15% off Kitchen sale was going on, which they do twice a year at least & you get the $250 back when you purchase the kitchen! And not in store credit, well at least the #tampaikea store wasn't.
When she came to the house I told her my plan and vision and she basically just did it within an hour or two on her computer, sent over the copies to me and I just had to take the piece of paper into the store and paid. That simple. The delivery was included and there was a lot of delivery... I our order was over 200 pieces. But I just had to have the high pantry... LOL
While my husband worked during the week, I would just build the cabinets, which were super easy if you've built anything from IKEA in the past. I did keep everything super organized in this process. I placed the cabinet doors with each other, the hardware separately, and everything else was in order as well. It was time consuming to organize, but I'm super OCD when it comes to making sure we had everything!
A good tip with IKEA kitchens: it's okay to buy more kick plates now, more filler pieces, more of anything really... because their return policy is the shit. We actually returned about $700 worth of stuff because the "fillers" weren't as needed as we thought.
Also on the sheet that they give you to [order sheet] - keep that! Use that as your guide. I would build #1 (which could have been the third cabinet on the left upper upper, but it was easier to build and put aside then to go back and forth trying to build the cabinet you'll place in first.