A word about BM Camouflage. I have it in my bedroom and adore it, esp. with darker, warmer wood tones like your existing cabinets. It's very chameleon-like and can shift from blues to grays to yellows, depending on the natural or artificial light. However, I used to also have it in my kitchen and along one dining room wall which both rooms share. It completely fizzled and wimped out. It looked barely there. I finally got rid of it in that space. Both kitchen/dining and bedroom have eastern exposures, so go figure. If you end up still wanting it, make sure you get your lighting right first and then paint a large enough test board to see if it will hold up in your kitchen. It's a lovely wonderful color, but it's very changeable.

I bought a Haggeby white 18x30 door from Ikea for $3, and measured the distance from the top and bottom of door to the center of the cup to be 2.5". If I remember correctly, the distance from the side of the door is 5 mm. The cabinet shop that I used to do the boring had a machine to do boring for Blum hinges. My suggestion would be to take that $3 Ikea door along with the hinge to the shop that is doing the boring for you.

We are in the process of installing an Ikea kitchen right now with custom doors/drawers/panels made by Scherr's. I cannot speak to the durability yet, but so far I am very happy with the functionality. I had the fear also about 'putting lipstick on a pig', but I don't really think this is the case here. I wanted a lot of drawers and I wanted good hardware, and Ikea makes this easy for a very reasonable price. I did not want the Ikea doors however. Using Scherr's allowed me to get exactly what I wanted for looks, with the functionality of Ikea. The only place I'm not 100% sure I made the right decision is with the cover panels. I got flat panels, and they are 3/4" thick instead of the 1/2" that Ikea sells. I did not pay attention to this detail when I ordered from Scherr's, and in one spot in the kitchen, that extra 1/4" over 2 panels is making things harder to fit. Also, I wish I had specified the panels had the rails like the doors/drawers. And I might prefer the looks of the thinner panels. It will all be ok though and I'm very happy with the doors and drawers.

So we went to Ikea yesterday and love the bjorket, which matches the existing wood in the house pretty well (and it doesn't have to be an exact match as no cabinets will be installed right next to the door). I don't remember if anyone already told me this, but the smallest drawer fronts are plain, so I wouldn't have to have *all* shaker drawers. Also found out it's being discontinued, which sucks. They said they have plenty right now, but who knows how long that's going to last. I'm frustrated because I can't imagine starting this until the fall at the very earliest, and now I feel pressured to make a decision on the cabinets. I think I have narrowed my options down to two, both of which would use Ikea boxes (which we would probably assemble ourselves): 1) buy bjorket doors and drawer fronts, having the uppers treated and painted white, and accepting that some of my drawers will be shaker; save money or 2) buy shaker doors and plain drawer fronts from a cabinet company, having the uppers painted white and the lowers stained birch; spend more *we bought a drawer front and it says it was, in fact, made in China