Thanks, everyone. :o) @lisa a: I don't see eating mostly fresh fruits & veggies, sprouted nuts & seeds as a restricted diet. Since we have multiple food allergies/intolerances in our family, I see it as an allergen-free diet. (Americans' staples are mostly known allergens: milk, wheat, peanuts . . . ;o) We've done it before, and getting back into it now feels really good to me. It's like years are falling away from my "real" age, and I'm getting some life and energy back. Love that. I will have a goodly-sized toaster oven, so I can occasionally bake a good gf/allergen-free cake for celebrations. :o) @bmorepanic: (Love your username! lol) Thanks so much for your feedback on the marine ranges. That's really useful. I was thinking of one or two of these induction plates (or the commercial version), and if that didn't work, I'd get a two-burner ceran top electric cook top much like the induction cooktop you linked to. We're wiring sufficient for any contingency, so it's a possibility. And thank you for the heads' up on the window trim. We're planning on using 1x material, so it'll be 3/4" thick. I'm thinking I can put a bumper of some kind on the wall up near the top of the window trim where the cab door would hit it. My main concern right now is figuring out how to make sure the right-hand door on the wall cab next to the pantry cab will open cleanly. I think I have 1" to spare, but would hate for that to be too snug to work. Oh, the devil is in the details . . . I've been rethinking the rail systems, and will still get them, but am not exactly sure where I'll be putting them. I'm just wholly smitten with the fintorp line, and it's fun rustic vibe. The metal pails just make my heart go pitter patter (which is kind of shameful, since I know there are much bigger things to worry about in the world . . . but I like taking pleasure in my surroundings, so it can't be all bad, right?) A pot rack is a GREAT idea. I can totally do that with the ceiling . . . just have to adjust the length of one of the hanging chains. Oh, hooray for getting the pots out in the open where I don't have to nest them! Of course, they don't HAVE those in the kitchen planner (bah), but I can adapt. @aliris19: I'm thinking about putting a shelf above the bedroom door (on the left, by the fridge), so that could add even more function there. I'm also considering an awesome, huge clock. K, here are some fun shots of today's mods: Living room side, with upper cab: Bedroom side. (And don't worry . . . it looks like those cabs are kissing the default 96" ceiling, but the measurements all work out in my math. I'm going to call Ikea and ask about that one, though. The 88" pantry cab shouldn't be 96" tall, right?) Living room side without upper cab (which is really calling to me, as I feel like I'm going to do most of my prep on the peninsula and in that corner (where the outlet for the burner and the toaster oven will be), and I hate working with an upper cab in my face. I could handle a pot rack up high, near the opening to the living room, though.

IKEA in my last home: This photo is of a 7 year old kitchen, the door style is no longer available. The kitchen was tiny, 9' wide by about 11' that I opened into a dining room to make it more functional. The ceiling was slightly less than 8' in some areas, very sloped, and as you can see, the uppers went within an inch or two to the ceiling. I set the bases higher than usual, and the space under the cabinets after 2" light molding was about 17" which was adequate, but not generous. It was a very functional layout, I cooked and baked several times a week, and the cabinets interiors were pristine when I sold the house. No failed hardware, no chipped laminate inside the cabinet boxes where pots/pans/knives were stored and I never lined a shelf or a drawer in this kitchen. The shelf where I stored oils cleaned up with soap and water with no residual yellowing or gumminess. Cabinet fronts had a tough baked on finish that cleaned with soap and water, or BONA finished wood spray and a towel and were not streaky. The cabinet doors did occasionally scratch, though not in a way that was not to be expected from wood, and I tried several brands of brown children's markers and found the brand that matched best, and kept a few in one of the cabinets so when I cleaned and noticed a scratch, I could fill it in. Though I did use the 39" uppers, you should know that I rarely used the things stored on the highest shelves and didn't really know what was on some shelves until I moved because the shelves were too high for me, or my over 6' relatives without using a chair. I was mounting to old cracking plaster with irregularly spaced studs on a very sloped floor so I screwed a leveled 2x4 to the bottom of the wall where the bottom of the base boxes were to rest, and a 1x4 behind where the top of the base boxes were to be and used the IKEA provided screws to mount the base box brackets to the 1x4. It was very sturdy when done and the granite guys were appreciative and had no issues with installation. The cabinets are trimmed out in standard end panels, and the peninsula has a 3'x8' panel trimmed to cover it. The store associates drew pictures for me to show me how to use the trim they provided. I had a miter saw that I rented for the day for the light rail, and used a jigsaw for the rest with a laminate blade and masking tape to prevent pulling the veneer off when cutting. What is different today compared to when I bought the 2004 kitchen is the boxes above were made in Germany and now they are made in the US. I put in IKEA boxes in my new house and the quality is the same, as far as I can see. The door fronts above were made in Spain and now they are made in the US. The hinges and drawer hardware are still German Blum, but now soft close is included in the price, though you can purchase the soft close pieces separately, and take them off your order if you wish. The new version of the lazy susan is an improvement over the old one. I loved the appearance of the slim door pulls visually, but functionally, the ends were square and things used to get caught on them as I went by, but that is not an IKEA issue, per se. IKEA 39 CABINETS ARE 39 1/8. If you ceilings are 92 and you are set on 39, you can fudge the bases down a bit and still have 17" below uppers to the counter tops. As long as you guys aren't tall, you maybe ok with this as most appliances are under 16. I do not recommend this, I would personally go with the 30" boxes mounted higher and then extend the molding to the ceiling, I think this would give the room more visual height, but there are designers on this site that could give you the best insight for how to do this. I have had three IKEA kitchens now with various levels of customization, and I would say that if you can use the boxes they have, it is the best deal, and if you can find a door front you like, the deal gets even better. There are enough panel sizes available to customize with.

Thanks for more feedback. @lkplatow, I like the Karlstad, I actually like all the Ikea sofas. They seem reasonably comfortable and there are some good fabric options. Sadly though after more hunting, I think they are all - including the Kivik - just not big enough for what I'm trying to achieve. @nosoccermom, you're entirely right. They are darker than my bad cell phone photos, but they are both light beigey in tone. The Belfort's one had slipcovers that were supposedly machine washable, but I had the sense the sales people there are in the habit of telling you what you want to hear. So I did some more power shopping today and came up with 1 realization and 2 additional options. The realization, as I said above, is that the Ikea models, even the Kivik, are just too short. I suspect a batch of boys would use the full 90" length of the Kivik without any issue, but when I sat in it today I realized my tall husband would be like a weird giant, with his head on one armrest and feet on the other. So that's out (wish I could change my post title!) So I went a few extra miles on the Beltway to go to Value City. It's definitely not my speed for the most part - giant recliner faux leather sofas etc - although I noticed a ton of items that were explicit knock-offs of the CB/PB/Rest Hardware look (literally - if you are pining for the Big Sur table from Crate & Barrel, their copy seemed pretty nice!) They have a sofa that is right in every way: length, width, color (a true taupe, I'm the weirdo who just redid her galley kitchen with greige/taupe cabinets.) It's a great price. It's advertised as made in the USA (a company called Kroehlers, ostensibly in NC). It's even got nice turned legs that will make it easy to sweep up all the legos that will find their way underneath it. BUT.... I have no illusions that the construction or the fabric or the foam/springs/whatever is as solid as some of my other options. Alternatively I might be able to talk my husband into spend a few hundred more per sofa for a similarly sized one at Macys. I don't really love it, but it fits all the requirements. Finally, here's the room where the 2 sofas will go - I took apart our current sectional to get a feeling of how it would work. The TV would be on the wall opposite the picture window.

Thanks Benjesbride! Well, as seems to be our fashion, we had an unexpectedly rushed last minute do-or-die IKEA kitchen buying experience when our contractor told us he'd start putting in the cabinets on Tuesday (we had been debating trying to reuse the old ones that came with the home vs buying anew). So we drove to IKEA the same afternoon I posted this question. After much consideration, we went with the Ringhult white fronts (the kitchen associates said those were the most popular/durable with strong reviews) and we took everyone's advice to get rid of the corner cabinet and move the dishwasher into that space! I was pretty nervous about making the call (husband was not a fan of losing the extra counter space since we have a number of appliances that we use regularly), but we both agreed that having the kitchen feel more open was with the trade-off, since everything else in the home is pretty closed off with narrow passageways. At this point, we just have to move forward and hope for the best (I second guess myself constantly) and hope we made the right choice for layout and aesthetically! Benjesbride, funny that you suggested that pantry where you did; one used to exist there but that's where the termites were found and after they opened the pantry up, the space felt a lot bigger. But, yeah, I'm counting on all those IKEA drawers to help sort out our kitchen storage system (along with donating things we don't use or need)!