I can’t even tell you how much time I spent yesterday in my studio standing and staring and pondering the floor design decision. Shameful. After wasting too much time trying to make a decision, I finally decided that maybe things would be clearer if I saw some cabinets in the area. So I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening installing the base cabinets for the long front wall. The wall is obviously far from done, but just seeing this little progress makes me so excited to get it done!!
This studio has been sitting here half finished for years, and during that time, I considered many different options for the cabinets in this room. I considered everything from completely DIY to IKEA to RTA cabinets, and just about every option and combination you can think of.
Earlier, when I looked at the IKEA cabinets, I ordered them for a reason. I plan on this wall consisting of lower and upper cabinets, and a desk top work space that spans the entire wall.
And the standard height for desktops is 30 inches. IKEA Sektion cabinets are intended to be kitchen cabinets, which are a standard height of 36 inches.
Eventually I decided I didn’t need this wall with a long desk, so I opted for wall-to-wall storage. But because of the window placement (which I determined specifically based on a 30-inch tall wall-to-wall desktop), I’m still limited to what I can fit here, and the 36-inch tall ones kitchen cabinet no. fits.
But the amazing thing about IKEA cabinets is that the actual cabinet boxes are only 30 inches tall. If you want to use them as kitchen cabinets, you buy the legs separately to increase the height, and then cover the legs with a long piece of toekick that hides the legs. So without the legs, the cabinets are just basic 30-inch tall boxes.
They still won’t work for a standard 30-inch high desktop because you still have to add a countertop, which adds at least 3/4-inch to the height. But again, cabinets can never sit directly on the floor like this because the doors and drawers cover the edges of the cabinet frame, and having a door or drawer front close to the floor just isn’t perfect. impractical, but it is also. it seems strange.
So while I didn’t need to use the IKEA legs that add a few inches to the height, I had to make a plan to raise the cabinets off the floor at least two inches. Whatever the solution, it should not only add height, but also give the bottom of the cabinets a clean, finished, intentional look.
There are definitely some drawbacks to trying to use IKEA Sektion cabinets as anything other than kitchen cabinets. But there are also some specific benefits. I mean, I had seven base cabinets put together in one day. If I had built these cabinet boxes from scratch, it would have taken me several afternoons and nights to make this progress. That’s a big plus of using IKEA cabinets!
And just as I thought, taking my attention away from the floor and onto a completely different project helped clarify my decision on the floor. I decided to combine a couple of ideas from yesterday and go without a border in the main part of the room, while adding a border to the back entrance, and to use a solid color in the bathroom and storage room floor. So it looks like this…
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has MS and is physically unable to work, so I did most of the work at home by myself. You can learn more about me here.
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