Rehab Diary: An Ikea Kitchen by House Tweaking - Remodelista
Founder of the blog House Tweaking and mother of three, Dana Miller has a thing for renovating houses that she classifies as “underdogs.” Photography by Dana Miller. With two hands-on renovations under her belt, the former pharmacist and her husband, Steve, an engineer and DIY expert, opted for a simpler life when they traded their 2,700-square-foot McMansion for a 1,600-square-foot dilapidated 1950s ranch house in Cincinnati. Three years later the nearly completed project features a game-changing kitchen–Ikea cabinets included–that’s the Miller family hub and, no doubt, one of the nicest rooms in the neighborhood. When the couple bought the house, the kitchen was enclosed and the ceilings were only eight feet high (scroll down for Before shots). Staring at the underside of the roof, Dana and Steve came up with the idea of introducing a vaulted ceiling and installing skylights, completely transforming the look of the space. The new design is anchored by a nine-foot-long, walnut-topped island. The vaulted ceiling is paneled with tongue-and-groove pine. Dana knew that she wanted a “tuxedo” kitchen: dark lower cabinets to ground the space and white upper shelves and cabinets to keep things light. The kitchen is in constant use–that’s Dana and her young daughter. The island’s walnut counter provides a warm contrast to the Kashmir white granite counters in the rest of the kitchen. “I really wanted the kitchen to feel like an extension of the living space instead of a kitchen thrown into a living room,” Dana says. The Ikea cabinetry is a mix of two styles: Ramsjö base cabinets and Lidingö solid and glass-fronted upper cabinets, both with Värde nickle-plated pulls. One end of the kitchen serves as a home office. In the upper glass-fronted cabinets, Dana uses an assortment of baskets, bins, and boxes for storage. On the back wall, to keep the room from feeling crowded, Dana introduced open shelves instead of upper cabinets. French doors–added in place of a window–connect the kitchen to the backyard. Dana worked closely with the staff at her local Ikea in Cincinnati to design the kitchen. The Millers’ 1958 ranch house. The kitchen was originally walled off from the living and dining areas. A view of the kitchen looking toward the front door. A view looking toward the dining area. “One thing we liked about the kitchen was the window above the sink that looks out onto the backyard,” says Dana.