Please post more pics when you do more to the kitchen! Can't wait to see what tile you choose! What style/colors are you thinking? Wish I could see your floor too - or just wider angle of kitchen. Am I being too demanding?! p.s. if you're comfortable saying, what part of Portlandia? ;) We're in the Lloyd Center area (Irvington). Here's our stainless after 2 years of being beaten up (14 gauge). Could be worse as it's taken a REAL beating (having 3 boys and stupid friends at parties)!: http://www.flickr.com/photos/49559819@N00/6788566393/in/photostream Actually here's a less flattering one that shows more of the scratches although I'm not sure the countertop's actually clean here (buffed dry w/ towel to reduce appearance of marks): http://www.flickr.com/photos/49559819@N00/7049901467/in/photostream/lightbox/

Dawn, I was just admiring your kitchen plan, and I noticed something on it you may want to double-check. If you are planning on doing IKEA doors (didn't you say Lidingo?), I am fairly certain that the 3-drawer base does not come in 24", and the corner cabinet does not [yet] have a glass door, though I believe I read that there will be one in the future, and that can always be changed out. (A very nice thing about IKEA cabs!) Anyway, I just wanted to pass that info on to you.

Just FYI-- for the IKEA pullouts, you have to drill your own holes on the IKEA pullout doors, as they they use the same doors for cabinet uppers, and they are only bored for hinges. The drawer pack apparently has the template. I haven't seen it, yet, as my entire kitchen of flat packs is stacked in my garage. Do a search on ikeafans, as this has been discussed previously. They may even have the templates, but it is easy enough to make your own, using an IKEA drawer. Get an Arlig drawer front, as they are approximately $2. I am bucking the trend and going with a different vendor than Scherr's. They were just a bit too pricey for me, since I want v-groove panels for my lowers, and some mullioned doors. For anyone that is interested in vendors outside of Scherr's, I have found in my search of custom doors, that most vendors will bore the hinge cups for you. The boring pattern is Pattern B, with 5mm from the edge, and 3" to the center top and bottom--the Blum pattern for the Blum hardware that IKEA uses. The only difference is the size of the two holes flanking the cup. Standard Blum is 8mm and IKEA is 5mm. You can order the standard Blum Inserta hardware for frameless cabs, and it works with the IKEA cabinets just fine. I have both hinges, and they look exactly the same, except for the size of the pin holes. You can also specify the cup boring only and then drill your own pin holes. I did note that posters on ikeafans had no problems with the larger holes and IKEA hardware, as the 35mm cup is the one that really holds the door. IIRC, they had used Maplecraft USA custom doors.

Understand that if you only had Blum to look at, you would be farther ahead. Blum is the source of all things Ikea-ey in terms of Ikea's kitchen base cabinets, the Blum drawers that Ikea sells, and the drawer heights that ARE available to you when you merely install the raw un-doored drawer that you get when you buy an Ikea (Blum) drawer. Drawer fronts are a different animal. The 3 sizes of Ikea drawers are not Blum-determined, Blum-decided, Blum-dictated. They are not Blum-ey. They are an ikea internal marketing committee decision. They are a bad choice for YOU but they are a good choice for the ikea marketing person who has to justify to the rest of ikea what to manufacture ship stock track and promote. If you were "ikea" you would sell a reduced set like this too. Do not buy these sizes. Unless they suit you. Looking in Blum brochures and catalogs you may begin to see images of these OTHER size options you have. Call Blum. See Blum web site. Act as if Blum were the only source. Then, use Ikea as a dumb hardware store that gives dumb advice but has the item you'll buy. In an ikea store, look underneath to see the overhang created when the three ikea standard size drawer fronts get clipped onto the Blum drawer. Then, look at the exact opposite: the aluminum internal drawer front (another ikea option). unixisgoodforyou, it's fine to limit yourself to the 32mm spacing of the predrilled holes on thecabinet side. This spacing corresponds to the spacing that Blum drawers use. ((Again, consult Blum not ikea)). If you wanted to put a batch of the shallowest-possible drawers inside one cabinet, the middle ones would be about 3.5" in height. Call Blum and ask about this; it's not an Ikea question. Whether or not this will mean that your highest one will be 3.5"h or 3.75" or whatever will depend on details that you will see when you purchase a single "rraw" drawer and play with it. Also, it might depend on your countertop, or on the wood bracing inside the cabinet (which I removed, in my case, because the flat steel countertop frame is my cross-bracing). Only Blum is Blum. No ikea employee is ever going to know as much as a Blum employee. Do not think about Ikea. Pretend Ikea does not exist; plan everything as though Blum were the only thing. At the last minute go buy the drawers at Ikea. End of story. Here is an example of an ikea hardware search: rationell+deep = Blum drawers and ikea drawer front (if you want a "front" of that height. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=rationell%2Bdeep In the ikea search engine, i used keywords : rationell+deep Here is the SHALLOW internal drawer front. It goes onto any M height Blum drawer (of the Tandembox type) which you might purchase from any other source of M height Tandembox by Blum. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40132391 Tandembox is roughly from pages 200 to 350 of the Blum bible. Tandembox drawers come in heights N, M, B, K, etc. It is more efficient to buy one Ikea drawer instead of reading catalogs. There do exist some differences between some of the Blum Tandembox products and the Ikea version of Blum Tandembox. It might be good to know these differences. But it is not important yet. Now you are at the stage where you are planning height(s). There are no differences in terms of drawer heights or slider mechanisms. In the unadorned "raw" drawer. A "raw" drawer purchased at Ikea is a kit containing many Blum parts and no other parts from any other company. Onto a drawer you can attach ANY size drawer front, made by anyone.It could overhang or it could be sized "just right". When you buy the drawer at Ikea, it comes with the attaching clips that will hold a drawer front onto it. It's a kit. When you order Blum parts from any supplier of Blum parts, you can order these clips separately. There are millions of these clips available for free in the "As-Is" section of Ikea because the clips are unnecessary when you attach the internal drawer front. Here is a link that might be useful: SHALLOW internal drawer front that goes onto a Blum M