Our IKEA Cottage

I’ve been trying to figure out what to do about the kitchen. We’re not planning to renovate the kitchen until either the fall or maybe even as late as spring of 2009. But I still want to have as much of it planned as possible while working with our contractors so that I don’t have to undo any of their work later on. It’s an odd little kitchen. The ceilings are so slanted that it’s not going to be easy to have wall cabinets above the base cabinets. Plus the placement of doors and windows restricts us somewhat.

I love the fact that this cottage was built in the late 30s. I wish I could redo the kitchen in a really retro design. But that would require either custom cabinetry or very expensive cabinetry. Either way, that doesn’t work on Kev’s budget. So I’m sticking with IKEA kitchen cabinets with Stat doors. At least I think that’s the plan. I have time to figure it all out and - who knows? - maybe by fall, IKEA will have some new doors. I plan to paint most of the walls in the cottage white and have a very white-on-white decorating scheme - similar to what Jane Coslick is doing with her Tybee Island renovations in Georgia.

I really did want to keep the kitchen true to its era… and I wanted to use an old table in Kevin’s dad’s basement with a porcelain top. It’s one of those old black and white table tops with chrome legs. But I don’t think that I’ll have enough room for it. It would fit but then our guests would be squeezing into their chairs! Plus, there’s so little storage space in the cottage as it is that Kevin suggested that we make an island out of cabinets and a countertop. I tried to lay out all of the rooms last night using Adobe Illustrator. (Hey! I’m a graphic designer and a web designer, not an architect. I used the tools of my trade!) I made a photo gallery of each layout below… outlining where the IKEA furniture will be placed in each room. Of course, things could change. We’re still working on the bathroom and will tackle these other rooms later on… so anything can happen between now and then.

[Show as slideshow]

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