Why Designer Kitchens Do Not Have To Cost Much - OR: When Architects And Designers Use IKEA Kitchens

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While IKEA kitchens in some countries still have the reputation of being cheap kitchens for young and small budget households, it seems that in France architects and interior designers effortless and successfully integrate IKEA kitchen into their projects. And at the end, they are even featured in glossy magazines like Marie Claire Maison. And the source IKEA is clearly stated.

After seeing all my finds below, you might forget about your fear of the DIY hassle of assembling an entire IKEA kitchen. I, myself feel tempted:

Above, the architect Philippe Harden managed well to disguise a kitchen behind brown furniture (Nexus, IKEA). The counter top harmonises with its dark wooden tint (Numeraer, IKEA). White lacquered cabinets  (Applad, IKEA) frame the counter and form a niche. The dining table is custom made (Atelier 54) in steel after an army table. Above the table, two bicoloured lamp shades (Habitat) are pending on red electrical wires (BHV). (remark: text partly translated from the original French description) - Who would have thought that this sleek kitchen is by IKEA?

interior by architect Flora de Gastines - black glossy kitchen furniture by Ikea (Abstrakt)

a Parisan apartment by modern architect Carl Fredrik Svenstedt - basic kitchen furniture by IKEA

architect C. F. Svenstedt had Ikea kitchen furniture repainted in a fresh "bamboo" colour (inox gas stove by Ariston)

the kitchen island is a cube made of 10 modules by IKEA 

The above apartment is arranged by French interior designer Didier Gomez - with a kitchen by IKEA. Okay, this one looks almost like a cut out from the IKEA kitchen catalogue - but with a thick stone counter top and the different styles of lower and upper cabinet it looks more stylish.

And now, how to get the look:

glossy surface with ABSTRAKT? Or APPLAD or NEXUS?
(click on picture to enlarge)

handles - or no handles for a sleeker look

industrial faucet HJUVIK (NR 7, just 169 Euro)


IKEA's steel shelves, although nice, would reveal IKEA on the spot 

little helper on the side, flexible inox service wagon NR 8


So it depends on you, how you transform an IKEA kitchen into something special, something not looking like a cheap IKEA kitchen from the catalogue:

like this (above)
or like that (below)

Have you experience with assembling and using an IKEA kitchen? Please send in a comment. I am looking forward hearing from you.

Photo sources: Marie Claire Maison and IKEA


Ceilings: Some lighter blue paint

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Angelo tries out a lighter blue in another corridor
(all three panels are painted in the same hue)

the light sky blue in comparison to the other recent bright blue

for comparison of hues and for orientation - both are corridors 

The story behind:

This morning, very early around 6.15 am, I saw these pics in my mailbox. Angelo had written last night and was asking about how I like the new light blue, that he had tried out (surprise!), and which colour I would like better.

Remember, he is addicted to blue colour paint and obsessed with painting the walls and ceilings colourful - and then surprising us with the result.

First, I had to ask back - via mail from Bangkok - whether the light blue in the first pic is one or three different hues (I could not tell). Later, Angelo confirmed from Italy, that it's only one light blue hue and that he and Tonino, his co-worker, like the new sky blue. Also my husband, on business trip in London, joined the discussion by mail and said that he likes the new colour too, but I should decide.

Due to the time difference between Europe and Asia, I was busy with other things (egg cleaning the fish pond) and for some hours not at the computer, while, meanwhile in Italy, Angelo, probably waiting with a paint brush in his hand, couldn't wait any longer and just sent me a SMS text message on my mobile phone:
"I am still waiting for your reply. See my and CC's mails." 
Wow, now, a new medium got introduced to our long-distance-renovation-project: SMSs.
After a quick look into my mails, I wrote straight back: "Light blue! Va bene. Grazie e buon lavoro!"
I did not even know that I can send a text message from my prepaid Thai SIM card to Italy.
It worked. Only a few seconds later, his reply : "Good choice!"   

4 favorites in my kitchen

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In my actual kitchen - in Bangkok - I have four absolute favorite "accessories":

4 Favs

They are all four in the above picture - can you tell? From left to right:
  1. our electrical cutting machine - it is a farewell gift from our dear friends and neighbours back in Germany (via eBay) - we use it quite often to cut ham and salami from Italy.
  2. the large and very cool wine cooler ! I love the tenant for being so thoughtfully... we do not only store lots of wine but also chocolate at a temperature of 19 degree. A must in tropical climate! (by Miele)
  3. a garbage bin (by Franke) accessible from top of the workbench. It is a 12 l bin and comes in handy every day.
  4. the professional flexible faucet dispenser (looks like Flex by Franke)

I like the gadgets on the kitchen island: garbage bin and faucet

the lid of the 12 l bin (by Franke)

And here comes maybe the most strange information from Thailand: 

We do not cook in this kitchen. If we cook after all. Usually, the maid cooks and she cooks in the "Thai" kitchen, since what you see in the picture is the so called "Western" kitchen. Yes, it is quite common in Thailand to have two kitchens in a household. One for the "expats" to cook, if they like - and one for the "heavy" Thai cooking (garlic, oil, curry...).

If you have a house, a Thai kitchen is not even inside the house. And as this one kitchen would do for Thai families, there is often a second cooking possibility when the property is rented to Westerners.

In our case, we are lucky. We found a very modern condo with very modern, Zen like, interior design. That's why our Western kitchen is so luxury. But wait - luxury? In one point these developer and designers are still very Thai: there is no hot water ! In none of our kitchens. And no dish washer. When I complained (and asked to move the boiler from the guest toilet to the kitchen), they just said: "Cannot" and: "In Thailand we use soap". - But I love my 4 favorites!

Focus on Kitchen

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That's the actual situation: a niche with a hole for the hood. The balcony access that should not be blocked by the kitchen island. I think a kitchenette or L-shape with our stand alone 2 door inox fridge on the right (below the glass bricks). And it looks like we better have shelves instead overhead cabinets on this front!

In only two weeks from now I have to pack... we will fly to Italy ! The main purpose why we are doing this trip - in between a skiing holiday in Europe and our summer holiday in Italy - is because we need to make some major decisions, and this is about the KITCHEN !!!

The kitchen, not only in Italy, is the center point of the house. Nowadays, there are mainly open kitchens planned in new houses or remodelled in old houses. Kitchens are connected to dining and living area by just a kitchen island. Friends and family gather together around the kitchen before, during and after cooking and eating. Kitchen islands play a key roll. They are not only the new "border", they provide additional working space, they offer useful storage and often feature appliances. With stools they can be used as breakfast area, laptop work area - to check recipes ;-) or simply invite for an aperitif to accompany the cooking.

You all know that, and I am not a kitchen seller. This is just to remember, how important it is to choose the right kitchen design! It should matches the style of the house, especially the dining and living area.

That means for us a balancing act:

Our house is some 200 or 300 years old. We do not have a dining area yet. It will be a sleek long wooden table for sure. Chairs, not decided yet. Modern and comfortable for sure. Two modern sofas, we have shipped in from China, they are "close" to the modern B&B Italia style. We love inox steel appliances. We have a bulky 2 doors inox Siemens fridge (shipped in from China, hope it still works!). And we plan to have an inox oven and stove from Arniston or Smeg with inox hood.

Country style could work, but a bit more modern and maybe glossy surfaces would be nice too.

So I sat down, yesterday, and clicked through my kitchen resource links (on my new resource link page) and also browsed through my "kitchen briefing" file. But before it gets colourful and glossy here, I post our before and after layout and the kitchen planning drafts :

When we bought the house, we had the above layout at the ground floor (piano terra): a small kitchen with access to the balcony and a small bathroom. But big rooms all around. That's why we tore down all walls and moved the bathroom into another area.


The "after" layout: the displaced bathroom gave new space to the kitchen. Initially the plan of the architect suggested to have the fridge in the middle of the room, to somehow separate the dining area visually from the kitchen. We will, however, not follow this idea, and install the 2 door fridge just opposite the balcony. (front 4,50 m long, side about 3,40 m until door)

With a drawing by myself (see further below) and a rough layout of the ground floor we went to a kitchen company in Beijing that was quiet modern and very "Italian". The above plan is what they made for us.

And that is the front, seen from the dining area. The balcony would be on the left side.

Above, my changes in red: We have a niche with a hole in the wall that will be the place for the oven, stove and hood (as before). The fridge should be closer to the sink and work space to make moves more efficient - according to the kitchen triangle. The island needs to be just a minimum space away from the fridge and not too close to the balcony door to allow easy and barrier-free walking.  


My drawings :-)


If over head cabinet, then maybe only on the left of the fridge or a full-length pull-out-cargo

We could look for a simple island solution. But meanwhile Angelo organised "water" access for the island in the middle of the room, which means we could have an extra sink in the kitchen island. This is of course always useful. However, the island will be small - and I would love to have enough space there for breakfast. I think two stools there or three - and enjoy the sea view (this you can't when sitting at a lower table).

The next post will be about kitchen again, but this time glossy photos for inspiration!

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PS: In case you wonder why I ship things in from China to Italy - we lived in Beijing 2005-2008 and everything there is so tempting cheap!

PPS: Did you notice, I slightly changed the layout of my blog by adding "pages" below the header. How do you like the change? Does the blog loads still okay or is it slower? And how about the "read more..." button, is it disturbing to have to click to continue to read or is it okay? Thanks for giving a small feed-back :-)