Nice! Looks very sleek and clean. Love the marble island top.

This is so gorgeous. I keep coming back to stare at the pictures. I love how you incorporated 3 different countertops. Love the waterfall island. Love the niche cabinet. love it all.

You have me second guessing my choie of the adel doors. The abstrakt is so gorgeous with the walnut.

Are those LED lights plugged into the power strip as well, or are they hardwired?

Fantastic job!!

Oh, one more question. I have the same range sitting in my garage. Did you use a filler or cover panel between the range and the side cabinets? The Ikea rep recommended doing that so that it doesn't hit the handle. Just wondering if you did this or if the drawers cleared the range w/o it.

Thanks again for the nice comments! I know this contemporary look isn't for everyone, but DH and I are really happy with it. I posted pictures of our 3 finished bathrooms on the bath forum if anyone wants to take a peek there.

drybean the Abstrakt is a really nice look, but it was hard to work with when it was used as crown molding, and also the deco strip underneath the cabinet had issues too. It can't really be caulked without looking odd. If you've got an alternative to use for crown, I'd recommend it.

The pictures don't show it well, but I have a 1" filler on either side of the range. The drawers wouldn't have cleared the range without it. I'll try to take a better picture and post it tomorrow.

Are those LED lights plugged into the power strip as well, or are they hardwired?

They're hardwired and on a dimmer.

Wow..WOW. I love the use of space.. The beautiful island is THE thing that balances form and function.. We really wanted to do customized IKEA but yielded to pressure from our contracter to use his custom cabinet guy. The balance between white doors and the walnut ones from semihandmade is stunning. I am in peninsula too and if you ever have your kitchen on tour, please post... I would love to see it IRL.

drybean below are a couple pictures of the filler pieces. Starting from the corner is 3 1/2" of filler for the corner cabinet clearance, the 15" pullout, and 1" of filler by the stove. On the right of the stove is another 1" filler piece, the 18" drawer base, and a cover panel.

It's a long story, but none of this was in the original plan other than the two 1" filler pieces. Our architect's drawing was off by 6 inches on that wall! So we had to have the walnut pieces to the left of the stove remade from scratch, and we cut down the drawer panels on the right of the stove from 24" to 18". Fortunately we hadn't assembled those cabinets when we discovered all of this, so we returned the original ones to Ikea and bought the replacements.

lalitha I don't think our little house will ever be on a tour, but you're welcome to come see it. I'll email you.

I love your kitchen. I keep coming back to stare at the pictures. I had no idea you could get grain matching across multiple doors and drawers using Ikea cabinets and custom drawers/doors -- I thought that was the kind of detail that required paying for full custom cabinetry. (Makes me mad I am paying for custom, especially with all the delays.)

The balance of walnut, white, stainless and glass and that gorgeous marble island with waterfall edge make for a stunning kitchen.

Gorgeous kitchen! Question, my kitchen is 14x16 and I want so desperately to have an island, probably 3x5, but I'm afraid that there won't be enough space between cabinets and island. How much space do you have between cabinets and island. Thanks

sthomas our island is 30" x 60". We agonized over its placement in the kitchen, which was partially constrained by how the dishwasher door lined up with the island drawers. Overall it works fine and feels like plenty of room in the island/sink and island/stove aisles. It would have been nice to have had a little more space behind the stools, but it's definitely liveable.

Sink to island: 37"
Range to island: 39"
Microwave cabinets to island: 39"

Loving your kitchen but I need to be on the computer to see it in detail! Work gets in the way!

annkathryn, sorry I missed the reveal last week. It is absolutely gorgeous, you did a fantastic job. Gorgeous grain and that marble is fantastic. I hope you're enjoying it!

AnnK - Finally on a computer not at work - You did a great job on your kitchen!
Great transformation and well thought out on how to use every last inch of the kitchen!

Question - how wide is your dish drawer? If you have been following our thread - we had a dish drawer failure as the KD didn't know the total weight included the drawer weight....

sochi your kitchen was one of my inspirations, it's so beautiful. I wasn't able to find a slab of quartzite as gorgeous as yours, but it all turned out for the best in the end when I came across the Calacatta Oro.

a2gemini I did follow your thread about the weight in your dish drawer. You can see from the picture above that the drawer we use for dishes isn't from Ikea, it's a Sherr's drawer made from solid maple if I remember correctly. Each drawer in the island is 30 inches wide, but the island cabinets are only 18 inches deep. The drawers are very solid, and even if I'd used Ikea drawers I think the weight would have been ok. The KA mixer in the 15" Ikea pullout is fine. The other island drawers hold heavy wood cutting boards and salad & mixing bowls with no problem.

GOrgoeus!!!!!!

Thanks s much for posting the photos of the range. It looks fantasti, the filler isn't noticeable at all. I'm glad you were able to sort out the measurement error without too much trouble, how annoying!

I just love the walnut. I'm so happy to see the Semi Handmade doors in action. I considered it for a long while but I was able to find frustratingly little from people who had used them.

Great job, again! I keep coming back to stare at your photos.

Beautiful. And the big splurge was worth it!

Annk- :-).
Just want to make sure others don't make the same mistake.
Enjoy that beautiful kitchen!

can't believe I missed this earlier. Absolutely stunning and that waterfall marble is to die for!

Can I ask for details on your LED lighting- what are those things holding it to the light rail? Did you have to modify them to hardwire them?
thanks!
Nancy

Nancy the LED strips are attached behind the light rail by little plastic clips that stick on the light rail and wrap around the strips. My electrician took care of all of this - I don't know the details, other than the strips required a transformer. Sorry I can't be more help.

thanks annkathryn, cann I ask where the transformer is hidden, is it under the cabinets also?

Nancy the transformer isn't under the cabinets. I'm guessing it's at the switch itself.

Wow - great job! Thanks for posting.
We are in the middle of our big remodel - and I am looking at the Costco Ancona Tornado II range hood, I'm wondering are you pleased with yours? ... it's kinda hard to return it after its been installed.
(Coincidently - I too, have purchased an Electrolux induction cook top and a Bosch 800 Series Dishwasher�)
Thanks!

PurpleSquirrel we like our range hood well enough - it's fairly powerful and easy to keep clean. The one issue we have is that it's pretty loud. I think the chimney part rattles a bit and needs some adjustment. Otherwise it's fine and I do like how it looks in the kitchen.

The Electrolux range is working well for us and the cooktop doesn't need nearly as much cleaning/scrubbing as our old Jenn-air stove top (non-induction) did. DH loves the dishwasher!

Where did you get the plug mold?

annkathryn what type of drawer pull outs do you have--sorry if you already answered this--looked and couldn't find it. Are they plastic or metal? They look very functional--and it appears that they have baskets that can hook on to the sides to better organize larger/tall objects like vinegars/etc.?

AnnKathryn:
It's stupendous! I love the mix of materials you used--they go together so nicely: the white perimeter Caesarstone with marble island and amazing walnut cabinets. Love love love the combination you picked! I could move in today!

I am especially enamored with your slab of Calacatta Oro that you got from DaVinci. Been scouting there myself for marble. Did you ever consider a marble with a more brown veining to match the walnut? Like the Volakas:

Or the Calacatta Vagli:

I am considering the marble with the brown for my next project and am wondering if you saw these and ruled them out because of the brownish veins. My island may end up being walnut too and I am toying with the idea of using these.

You did an amazing job and all the obsessing that you mentioned obviously paid off. It looks fabulous :)

Laura12 the plugmold is from Task Lighting, supplied by my electrician. It's tamper resistant, and the strip to the right of the sink also has a switch for the 2 lights over the sink.

Dreambuilder the drawers are all standard Ikea drawers, which are steel with a particleboard bottom. For the tall cabinet I used the basic Ikea drawer dividers.

Firsthouse_mp thanks for your nice comments. Your island was one of my inspirations (was it quartzite?) I didn't see the Volkas at Da Vinci but I did see the Calacata Vagli and another one called Calacata Caldia. DH and I were looking for a marble that had the effect of a river flowing over the side of the island. We weren't focusing so much on the color although we didn't want it to be too gray. The Volkas in your picture looks like it would have been a good choice for us. The veins in the Vagli that we saw looked a little muddy, as did the Caldia. I know they get in new marble all the time, but once we found that slab of Calacata Ora, which is a little creamier in person than in the pictures, we were sold. All Natural Stone in San Jose has gorgeous marbles too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Task Lighting power strips

Just beautiful!

What was it like to work with semi-handmade? We're thinking of doing ikea cabinets with custom doors, and semi-handmade is local to me. I love how they match the wood grain across the fronts, but our home is older (1940) and I have to wonder if the slab front (would do walnut or mahogany) is too modern for our space. I love what you have done though, I may have to go visit their office and see if I can get a sample door.

Thanks.

This post was edited by canicci on Sun, Jan 13, 13 at 16:50

John at SemiHandMade was great. He spent about an hour with us when we were at his shop and showed us the options for grain matching the walnut & how everything was made. He said we could pick out our sheets of walnut if we wanted, but since we live in NorCal that wasn't practical. I emailed lots of plans as I was tweaking them and got advice/responses back within a couple of days of each email. The drawer fronts were delivered extremely well wrapped, no issues at all with anything that was shipped. When we had to change the layout of the stove wall we got the new doors and filler pieces within a couple of weeks.

Our house was built in 1940 and is of no discernible style as far as I can tell. It's in a neighborhood of Craftsman and bungalows. When we were house-hunting we bid on an original Craftsman and I would have done a completely different kitchen if we'd won that bid. As it was, I didn't have a problem adding a more contemporary kitchen to this house. I think the cabinets we took out were the originals, painted white by a later owner.

Hope that helps!

Ann-I just received my mockett pulls and they are gorgeous! However, mine are not fitting on the abstrakt drawers. The drawers won't close. You didn't have to mortise the edges did you? I'm quite bummed. Going to try to see if I can make something work, but just wanted to check.

drybean I just checked my cabinets. I have 9 Abstrakt drawers and 3 of them had to be notched to allow the Mockett pulls to be inset a little. Two of the 3 were top drawers and the pull hit the butcherblock above. The other was a middle drawer.

The drawers fronts themselves are adjustable about 1/4 inch up and down. If you set the bottom drawer to be on its lowest setting and the top drawer to be in its highest, the middle drawer might be ok if you have a 3-drawer cabinet, for example.

I hope you can adjust so you don't have to cut into the drawer tops.

Since I'm of the opinion that a picture is worth a thousand words, I just took a couple. Sorry they're not in better focus.

Pull installed on the top of the drawer.

Pull inset into top of drawer (you can see the slight tear in the drawer material on the right side of the pull):

We have the Haefele version of these in our master bath, and they're mortised in.

Annkathryn-thanks so much for the photos. I was too tired last night to fiddle with the drawers, but I'm going to do as you suggested and try to lower the bottoms. Dd you have similar issues on you SHM drawers? I really don't want to have to notch the drawers. Boo.

YoungDeb-bummer. I really don't want to have to have to do that.

Hi drybean,

Yes, similar issues with having to chisel into some of the tops of the SemiHandMade drawers too. A good finish carpenter should be able to do this. Unfortunately my GC didn't have one (long story, I won't bore you with the details) and so he took a chisel to the drawers that didn't close all the way and notched out enough room for the pulls. There's a picture above of some of the damage he did. I bought a roll of walnut iron-on edge banding and am slowly repairing everything that needs it.

I felt a lot better after watching a couple videos of the process. Go to YouTube and search on "how to apply edge banding" for more information. I'm also linking more information below.

Do you have your SHM drawer fronts already? If not, maybe you could send them your pulls and have them do the cutting at their shop. I think the drawer fronts are just a hair bigger than their Ikea counterparts, which is good because it covers more of the cabinet box, but not so good when the drawer pulls need such exact clearance.

I was going to use the Mockett pulls on the niche cabinet, but the kitchen cabinets were such a pain that I just used small drawer pulls instead.

I had a custom walnut vanity made for my master bath using the same Mockett pulls. I took the pulls to the cabinet maker and had them do the inset cuts when they made the doors. They look great (picture below).

Also, the roll of edge band I bought is about a gazillion feet, way more than I'll ever use. If you want me to send you some I'd be happy to do so, just message me through this site.

Master vanity:

Here is a link that might be useful: Edgeband instructions

annkathryn, I am thinking of using finger pulls on all my cabinets, as I love the look of your kitchen and bath. Do you find it more difficult to open and close cabinets though since they are thinner than regular pulls? can you tell me what size pulls you used? did you use the same size for all your cabinets?

michoumonster I used Mockett pulls everywhere, all the same size. I think they were the 4" size but I'm out of town and can't measure this week. I don't find it difficult to open cabinets, and I don't really use the pulls to close since I've got soft close everywhere.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mockett pulls

I just love this kitchen. Especially the island. Our kitchen has to match the period of our home...otherwise I'd be all over the white glossy cabinets.

thanks annkathryn! 4" looks like the perfect size pull, even on your tall pantry cab. i am debating whether i should do this pull on the dishwasher too though. maybe i need to find something else for that.

Hi Annkathryn, so happy I found your post.
I am doing almost the same kitchen with
marble counters & walnut and white high gloss cabinets. :-)
What walnut did you use from Semihandmade? Flat or rift
sawn?
Marble-honed or polished?
How are the the walnut fronts and marble after 2 years of use? Thanks!

Hi decogirl,

Hope your kitchen turns out great! I used the flat sawn walnut from SemiHandmade. The mable was honed. Both are in great condition after 2 years of use, the walnut slightly better than the marble. We've got a little bit of etching on the marble but don't mind it. We still love how everything looks together. I've had no issues at all with the cabinets and would definitely go that way again.

Hi Annkathryn, thanks for answering my questions. :-) Are your counters flush with the cabinets or how much do they overhang? Not sure about the glossy white fronts since they ding easily but the matte has a slight pink tone. Any changes you would do if you could?

The counters have a little bit of overhang on the drawer side, maybe 1/2 inch. On the chair side we have 11 inches. It's a little tight but workable as DH and I eat all our meals at the counter. We have white leather chairs now, not the wicker ones from the original photo.

The glossy white cabinets haven't dinged at all, the doors are still in excellent shape. The glossy white strips we used for the toe kick haven't held up as well though, and they were difficult to mitre everywhere we used them as trim.

Annkathryn: Love your kitchen. I am in the throes of designing and IKEA kitchen with the aim of using Semi-Handmade fronts. Also trying to incorporate a corner cabinet (the 24" x 47"), and an island very close in size to yours. So, a couple of questions:

I got samples of both the walnut and the teak from SHM, and I love the walnut "swirls" but the sample I got seems a lot more "grayed out" than your photos. Do you see a warm hue in your walnut, or is it just in the photos?

I need to finish the back and side of the island - for seating, similar to your concept. Did you think about using sheets of wood from SHM -- or did that just not work out?

I am trying to figure out spacing requirements for the corner cabinet -- is it constructed so that when the door opens it doesn't hit the cabinet drawers at the 90 degree angle on the corner? I can't find anything on the web about clearance requirements for installation, and I see you had an issue. Thanks so much for your help! I too am sweating every detail, and am trying to figure out these final points.

Cathy

Hi cv2014,

I still love the look of our Semihandmade walnut, to me it's very warm.

We briefly looked into having Semihandmade make panels for the side and the back of the island, but we wanted a more substantial edge and it just seemed like we'd have better luck getting it to all work out if we hired a finish carpenter to do the job. We're very happy with how it turned out. You can go to almost any good lumber store and purchase a full sheet of walnut veneer for not a lot of $$s. Depending on where it's used, it could be ok if it doesn't match perfectly with the Semihandmade walnut.

The corner cabinet has a filler piece, I think it was around 4 inches, that gives enough clearance so that the cabinet door can open without worrying about having it hit the door to the right. In my case I think I was also concerned about clearance so it wouldn't hit the oven handle as well. That was solved by making the pull-out next to the over slightly wider than originally planned.

These are the older Ikea cabinet style, so I'm not sure if the new style has the same kind of corner cabinet or not.

Good luck with your planning!

so happy i found this thread thru the semihandmade website!. your kitchen is gorgeous, we are still in the design phase for our new build but this information is so helpful i contacted a kitchen designer that specializes in ikea and semihandmade today!. thanks for all the great info!

Your kitchen is georgeous. Are you still happy with all of your choices? How about marble top? I was advised against using marble in the kitchen due to staining problems. Also, with doing IKEA together with other more custom cabinet door and drawers makers, do you think that you still saved money vs if you went with all custom kitchen cabinets? Thanks a lot!

Hi melnikovai, yes, we're still happy with all of our choices. The marble is our favorite feature of the kitchen and we still love it. I'm glad we didn't use marble on the perimeter counters because I might have been more stressed about keeping all that marble from getting etched.

We saved well over $10,000 on the cabinets by going with Ikea vs having custom cabinets made. The custom drawer and door fronts were a bit more expensive than Ikea, but we didn't have a lot of them and they were well worth the cost. Both Sherr's and semihandmade were great to work with.

Very nicely done!