Kitchendreaming, thanks for your comments! I have posted at ikeafans but not about options for the 21" base. As it turns out I had a meeting with my builder this morning and 24" bases will fit at each end of the sink wall. :-) Our sink is a actually a stainless apron sink (already purchased) but unfortunately the drain is not offset. I'm still hoping to tuck a trash can under, even if it just sits on the floor of the cabinet and is not on a pull-out, for scraping plates, etc. I really feel that having the trash/recycling in the island is going to work for us. We usually have a trash bowl in use all during prepping, partly because the trash can in the rental we're in now is very inconvenient. In any case, the prep sink will now be in a 21" base, so that will give even more room under it for possible trash as well. So possible trash in three places, surely we can make some arrangement that will work. I have been pondering using larger cabinets instead of the smaller ones and some measurements I got today helped solve that. As I said earlier, now the sink wall has a 24" drawer base at either end. On the cooktop wall there is now a 36" drawer base, 36" cooktop cab, 24" drawer base, 21" sink cab, and then the oven cab. Kaismom, totally with you on the no water on the island thing. My kids are young, but I see them hanging out there for snacks, homework, art projects, etc. And I feel that having a sink and faucet would really take a lot of that room. I also envision us clearing the table to the island after meals, where I plan to store my food storage containers, ziplocs, wraps and foil, so I think the fridge being further removed from the cleanup sink will work ok. I realize it isn't ideal, but I do feel this will be workable for us and the best option given the conditions we are dealing with. I have to admit when I posted the plan I wasn't expecting such a negative response to the fridge location! But that's OK, I wanted to be challenged to take a second look at everything. Dianalo, so glad to hear you love your cabs and 36" bases! If you've read this far you'll see that I was able to upgrade my 30" to a 36"! and as far as the prep sink across the aisle, it has to be across the aisle from something right? Either crossing the aisle with boiling pasta to drain or with dripping, freshly-washed veggies to prep? :-P Thanks again, I really appreciate you all taking the time to comment! Cintijen

One thing to remember about the displays is that they are abused. Seriously abused. Hundreds of people day in and day out opening and closing drawers/cabinets, running into them with strollers, carts, whacking them with purses on the way by - and some being purposely "stress tested" by customers trying to see how tough they really are. Search this forum for IKEA reviews/users and you'll find the vast majority are very happy with their choices. ETA: One caveat to this is the Knoxhult "Instant kitchen" cabinets - those are cheap and should be avoided. The comments above refer to the regular Sektion cabinets.

Hi there, IKEA has announced another kitchen sale starting today 5/24, going through to 7/9. The strange part is the lack of details. All it says is "Save 15%" and "Shop now." Their social media team is off for the day for training - maybe that's why the website hasn't been updated?

I got 20% off (tiered, based on amount only) in summer 2014. We did happen to buy one appliance, a dishwasher, but it wasn't required to get the full discount. It was also the last year before they switched from Akurum to Sektion, which may have had a lot to do with it. I haven't watched *every* sale since then, but I have been pretty aware of most of them, and have purchased during sales twice in the last two years, since we moved to our new house and started renovating. It has maybe hit 20% once, but if it did, it was with gift cards, not an instant discount. And I'm not totally sure it did, to be honest. I think 15% is about as high as they seem to be going now. No appliance purchases have been required in the sales I purchased, though. (Summer 2017, and again in fall 2017, when we got a retroactive price adjustment for quartz countertops we purchased in Sept.) We purchased more for our final project just a couple of weeks ago, and will be hitting them up for another price adjustment as soon as the sale starts. I'm in the States.