Ikea Upgrade: The SemiHandmade Kitchen Remodel - Remodelista
LA creative director and designer Sarah Sherman Samuel and her husband, Rupert Samuel, thought nothing of tearing out the cabinets in their LA bungalow with their own bare hands. Photography by Sarah Sherman Samuel. As Sarah explains The genius part is that at Ikea you can buy the cabinets without the doors and drawer faces so then by getting those at SemiHandmade... ...you end up with beautifully crafted and high quality doors and drawers but it s still less expensive than a custom kitchen It s like the ultimate Ikea hack Sarah puts a cabinet door in place. Sarah chose SemiHandmade’s DIY Shaker design, which is made of maple with MDF inset panels (and is called DIY because the wood is untreated and unstained). The cabinet doors freshly painted in Farrow & Ball’s Pigeon await installation. Rupert assembles the Ikea shelves. SemiHandmade ships its designs across the country and is planning to set up showrooms near some of the largest Ikea stores (it’s currently in Burbank, California, two miles from Ikea). The company reports that most clients spend $5,000 to $10,000 on its doors, panels, and drawer faces to complete a room. Sarah’s high/low approach extends to the fixtures and finishes: The apron sink is from Ikea–the Domsjo; $185.99–while the counter and backsplash is Calacatta Gold marble. “I’ve always wanted a kitchen with marble countertops,” says Sarah. Further departing from Ikea, Sarah chose a high-end faucet in a brushed bronze finish: Brizo’s Solna design, which has a hidden pull-down spray wand at the tip of its spout. Sarah test drives her own designs on the new counter. Here’s a glimpse of the kitchen with the new handles in place–Sarah says she waited for months, until her father was visiting, and got him to install them. The kitchen opens to the living room and dining area. SemiHandmade supplied the bar front; the stools are from Organic Modernism.