Creating our Dream Kitchen No. 2 / Semihandmade on IKEA Cabinets

You can read more about our kitchen renovation over at SemiStories!

When we were first putting together our renovation ideas for the kitchen, we knew that using IKEA cabinet bases was a must. We wanted an affordable cabinet solution that we could put together ourselves. The multitude of customizable options for the bases themselves made IKEA a no-brainer for us. It also wouldn’t hurt that we could just drive down to IKEA to pick up the bases or have them delivered to our door. The only issue was that I wanted a more custom look, and IKEA didn’t offer cabinet colors that I loved.

I first stumbled upon semihandmade door on IKEA Cabinets last year when saving images of kitchens I loved. If you don’t know, semihandmade makes doors for IKEA cabinets. They offer a whole host of beautiful color and finish options, and in my case, completely inspired the entire kitchen color scheme! We went with the Supermatte Agave Slab. I love how the color shifts throughout the day with hues ranging from green to blue to gray. It’s truly a beautiful shade.

As I mentioned before, we did ALL of the installation work on the kitchen ourselves. The first step after demo-ing the kitchen was putting together the cabinet bases. I did this while David prepped the kitchen (aka cleaned) for the installation.

Once the cabinets were built and placed in the kitchen, I brought in all of the semihandmade doors for IKEA cabinets, and began to install. The instructions for installation were incredibly precise and easy to follow, and honestly only took a few steps to complete.

After the doors went on, we cut the included toe kick and side panels down to size with David’s chop saw. Again, we followed the installation directions exactly as they were described in the IKEA instruction manuals.

The entire process was shockingly do-able for us as novice kitchen renovators. We were able to tag-team the installation, and thanks to David’s basic knowledge of shop tools, the cuts needed were no problem.

I cannot recommend semihandmade doors on IKEA cabinet fronts enough! The finish and color options promise to make your IKEA kitchen look high end and custom.

Here’s a little sneak peek at the new kitchen! First, a view of the original room (BEAUTIFUL, right!? haha)

TA DA!!