Kitchen Inspiration

I love Ikea. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Ikea saved me from mom burnout on more than one occasion.  When I was a new Mom with four little kids, we had just moved to Vancouver and Ikea became my haven. It was where I went to have forty-five minutes to myself - Ikea has free babysitting!  I would wander around, basking in the quiet, gloriously alone and would just look at the displays - the only things I ever remembering buying were toy storage, tea lights and big packages of napkins. 

Fast forward a number of years, and Ikea's free childcare paid off for them in spades.

Before deciding which direction to go with my own kitchen, I did A LOT of research. Our kitchen was the part of the reno that I looked forward to the most. Being a design show junkie, I had watched with interest as Colin and Justin and Sarah Richardson and others used Ikea kitchen cabinets to create beautiful and functional kitchens.

Sarah's House on HGTV

I found some great resources on other blogs as well.  Vanessa from Decor Happy has some great pics of Ikea kitchens.  I've also seen a recent post on Aubrey & Linday's blog too.

And if you are looking for a great how-to on navigating the Ikea kitchen experience, Carol Reed from Creed has two excellent posts here and here. I couldn't have done my kitchen without Carol's tips - in fact, I followed her guides pretty much exactly. I also found a fantastic Vancouver sprayer/painter and a paint supplier through a comment posted on Carol's second Ikea post.

It was a bit of a process and certainly a lot more work than hiring a kitchen designer.  But using Ikea saved me a ton of money and that allowed me to splurge on some other items that I probably wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise (like beautiful Caesarstone counters) and stainless appliances.

I couldn't be more thrilled with the end result.
Stay tuned for more pictures.