For the past 3 months we’ve lived with our new IKEA Ulriksdal kitchen, still in its packaging, in our garage as our kitchen renovation blossomed into a half-house renovation with new plumbing, wiring, central vac, etc. In the meantime, I’ve had ample time to play with Google’s free 3D program, Sketchup, and get the satisfaction of a completed kitchen if only on my computer. And with the help of Sketchup, I’ve come to realize that the Ulriksdal style was all wrong for our kitchen. While it’s a handsome style, its vertical lines were too distracting when combined with our checkerboard floor and future dazzling backsplash. So Andrew and I discussed it and came to the conclusion we should attempt to return the Ulriksdal doors and cover panels to IKEA (Stoughton, MA) and exchange the for Abstrakt. Amazingly, they accpeted our return (we were WELL over their 45-day return policy) and were able to exchange everything. With the price difference between the two styles, we were even able to buy a new sofa:
This is IKEA’s “Arild” sofa in white leather. I never thought I’d go for a white leather sofa, but this one is quite beautiful. It has a pebbled texture and I think it’ll hold up well. It’s being delivered this Friday along with our new kitchen cabinet doors.
Here are my Sketchup images of the new kitchen – hopefully to be finished in April:
All that’s there in reality right now is the floor and the walls (Benjamin Moore’s “Tropicana Cabana”). Andrew, Bingo and I decided to pose for some pictures while the walls are still bare:
And with the new floor:
It’s a good thing only the walls are bare, otherwise this website would attract the wrong kind of attention
I love your kitchen design!
I have a very similar wall color in my kitchen. It makes me smile. =)
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your kitchen is going to be fantastic! great job with sketchup. i want to learn that.
i have an ikea kitchen too, with the cooktop over the oven.
when we went to install it. they wouldn’t fit. we called the store + they said, oh the oven cabinets are the wrong size for our new ovens, so you can’t have the cooktop directly over the oven. well, that’s the only place we wanted it, so my husband cut a few pieces of the cabinets + it fit! so you can get it to fit, but it won’t fit unless it’s cut.
I love what you are doing with your kitchen! I am doing the same cabinets!!! They are my favorite.
I love your wall color choice and the tile backsplash,..very fun!!
I love your kitchen!! My hubby and I are in the planning stages of our kitchen, but definitely want a checkerboard floor. We are leaning toward something similar to what you chose and I was wondering how you like the floor now that you have been living with it for a while. Any thoughts about it? Thanks!!
Hi Heather,
Thanks! The floor has been OK – but it’s definitely not maintenance free. It needs to be periodically waxed to look nice and shiny, and that’s something I don’t often find the time to do. Also, while it’s soft and that’s kind of nice for long periods of standing, I have found that it dents fairly easily if you drop something heavy on it. But it was very inexpensive and it really works with the era of my house. I regret going with the speckled look – I thought it would hide dirt, but instead, it just looks kind of dingy. But bright white and black would also be very hard to keep looking good – and with two kids and a dog, that would be a losing battle!