Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a fabulous Halloween yesterday and hopefully feeling fresh. We’re talking about something awfully fun: IKEA CABINET HACK. But the best part? You don’t have to do too much ‘figuring out’ with this hack…these companies do all the heavy lifting for you!! It’s. Awesome.
Before we start let’s chat about some options you have for cabinetry when renovating a kitchen. The most expensive kind of cabinets you can put into your home are fully custom cabinets (which gives you THE MOST flexibility and customization). It’s a great thing to splurge on if you have the budget and there are some awesome companies that do fully custom cabinetry, like Unique Kitchens and Baths (which Emily is using for the farm), or you can ask the GC for your project if they do custom cabinetry (which is very common). So, those are the most splurgy, then the cheapest option would be to either a. paint your cabinets if they’re salvageable (obviously) or b. get stock cabinetry (VERY affordable & with the quickest turnaround because they are mass-produced and ready to ship). One of our FAVORITE budget-conscious options, however, is the IKEA cabinet box paired with the custom cabinet front. This way, your kitchen can be much more personalized and customized, while still keeping the cost down. There are SO many cool companies that do this now, and we’re excited to share all the awesome options with you in this post. Consider this your one-stop IKEA cabinet front shop.
Semihandmade
We LOVE Semihandmade over here and have used them many times before. Velinda used them in this client’s custom kitchen on a builder-grade budget. We also reached out to Semihandmade themselves to get some more info on their product. Here’s the Q&A below:
1. Can you tell us about your cabinet assembly?
Semihandmade doors are made to fit most IKEA kitchen, bath, and media systems. You buy the cabinets from them (IKEA), and the fronts from us (Semihandmade).
2. Can a customer request a custom cabinet paint color?
Customers can purchase our DIY doors and paint the doors themselves for a truly customized look.
3. What is unique about your cabinetry that you’d like our readers to know?
If you are renovating on a budget, nothing elevates the look of a kitchen or bathroom project more than Semihandmade doors paired with IKEA bases. It’s the ultimate design-on-a-dime combination.
4. Do you specialize in a specific style of cabinetry? What styles do you offer?
Semihandmade has both traditional and modern door styles. Shaker doors are typically associated with traditional looks and come in a multitude of color options. Our Supermatte Slab, Beaded, and Quarterline collections have a more modern feel and are available in various finishes. Classic Walnut and our rich woodgrains provide a whole different look, and can be either traditional or mod depending on the treatment, surfaces and hardware paired with them. There are literally options for everyone — 45 in all!
5. What is the typical pricing for your cabinetry?
Depending on the style, Semihandmade doors range from equal in price to IKEA, to 30-40% more.
6. Are your products sustainably made?
Semihandmade doors are made in the United States, and meet or exceed all mandated government standards.
Kokeena
Sara used Kokeena cabinets for her kitchen, here’s what she had to say: “First, their panels are all wood, and you can really feel the quality when you touch them–my dad was super impressed (it’s hard to impress my dad). Secondly, they’ll send you cabinet fronts painted whatever color you want. I choose one of their pre-selected colors, but if you have a dream color in mind they’ll make you cabinet fronts in that color (rather than sending you unpainted cabinet fronts that you then have to paint yourself). Working with them has been nothing short of a pleasure, and it’s just nice to work with small companies run by awesome people.”
Lots of good things from Sara, now let’s hear from the brand themselves:
1. Can you tell us about your cabinet assembly?
All of our doors come grain-matched, bored, and ready to be installed on IKEA’s SEKTION, AKURUM, PAX & GODMORGON. We also offer hardware from our pop-up shop. Hardware shouldn’t be an afterthought when installing new cabinetry.
2. Can a customer request a custom cabinet paint color?
Yes! We’ll send you a sample for your sign-off before painting your project, so you can make sure it’s perfect.
3. What is unique about your cabinetry that you’d like our readers to know?
We started Kokeena because we love design and we wanted to bring that love of design to everyone. Our mission is to help homeowners and designers who care deeply about design create the kind of kitchen or bathroom or any room in the house that they or their clients can fall in love with over and over again. Using IKEA’s system as the foundation, paired with high-quality, well-designed doors from Kokeena allows our customers to do just that—with the look of custom cabinets coupled with cost savings.
4. Do you specialize in a specific style of cabinetry? What styles do you offer?
We offer numerous styles and collections. We have painted wood doors (collections: The Minimalist, Slab Door, Modern White Paint), real wood (collections: The Woodsman, Panel Door, Plain Sawn Walnut, Natural Finish), the standard (Slab Door, Rift White Oak or CVG Fir, Natural Finish), the craftsman (Panel Door, Clear Vertical Grain Fir, Natural Finish), textured laminate (The Slabtown, Slab Door, Textured Laminate), and townsend (the newest from Kokeena, the Townsend Home Collection features an organic selection of nature-inspired neutrals. A curated collection of blue and green hues and their go-to color staples for kitchen cabinetry).
5. What is the typical pricing for your cabinetry?
It depends on the project and project size. If you’re just kicking tires and want to know what things cost, it’s a good idea to start by downloading our price sheet or our estimator Excel worksheet. If you have general questions while you work through your project, please email us at talk@kokeena.com.
6. Are your products sustainably made?
Absolutely. Kokeena is committed to sustainable business practices that benefit the consumer as well as the planet. While our practices and methods change and evolve over time, what’s constant is our dedication to sourcing products and materials that allow us to deliver uncompromising quality without compromising sustainability. Kokeena specifies low-impact paints and finishes.
We are committed not only to the use of sustainably harvested wood, but also to sustainable practices in materials used during production. Steps are taken to minimize wasted material during the making of your doors. Many of our doors use wood grain veneers glued to a green ply or fiber backing. The glues used by Kokeena in this process are low-VOC.
Reform
Velinda used Reform for her client’s kitchen remodel and had some awesome things to say: “If we’re gonna talk about saving on materials, we’ve gotta talk IKEA ‘hacks’. Instead of going with custom, the outdated/not-ideally functioning kitchen cabinets were replaced with IKEA, but the door & drawer faces were a bit more sublime. Reform offered faces for IKEA that were not only reasonably priced, but had a style that actually completed the vintage-inspired look (and cut down the need/expense for hardware thanks to integration and push-to-open features!). We were obsessed with how the flat panels of their Basis design were anything but boring due to wood detailing and two-tone pulls. The linoleum vibes (and color options) were perfect for this design. The colors we selected were Pistachio for the base and white for the upper cabinets. Reform established the look of this kitchen… hiding the budget boxes below beautifully.”
James Home Renovation 