Considering the cost of having someone do the assembly, I'dput some time and a little money into diy. I've assembled IKEA cabs with a friend. It was simple and straightforward.

Here's a video to get your self-confidence moving. Remodel Your Kitchen with IKEA and Save Money! (youtube.com)

"hidden third cabinet"

Do you mean the drawer within a drawer?

If you do, many people really dislike drawer within a drawer, myself included. Why do two motions to get something when you can just do one. I prefer having 3-drawer stacks and 4-drawer stacks, which gives you flexibility for storing different items.

Most of my clients get to love the Ikea assembly it is easy after the first 3 . As for different doors IMO defeats the wholepoint of saving by going IKea . You get a good 25yr warranty and honestly easy to install if you can follow directions. Take your very detailed plan showing every measurement to IKea they will help you design the space , deliver all the parts and have some fun really pretty easy to do.

I'm trying t save the countertop is possible. It's nice granite that's not in the budget right now.

As for diy, I can assemble the cabinets, but I'm not very handy and I'm worried about installing them on the wall. I guess I can lookup someone on thumbtack to do that part.

For the pantry tall cabinet, I like to put in the microwave, coffee maker in it instead of counter, anything narrower won't work. Currently there is an electric wall oven there so hopefully I just need to use the same outlet and won't need an electrician.

If I can keep the counter top, the sync will stay, it's not in a bad shape so that's fine.

"the drawer within a drawer" : I have to think more about it, I see how it can get annoying but I really like the look.

And thank you all for your help, keep them coming. I have no idea what I am doing

For the doors I really like the look do BODARP, but I want it in white. Good material, non glossy. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

I liked Voxtorp but not crazy about their handles, feels like an office not a home to me.

There's not enough info to provide useful/knowledgeable comments on the layout. Anything we comment on right now will be based on guesses. We need to see the various measurements, etc. See the Featured Answer of the "New to Kitchens? Read Me First!".

Post a to scale floor plan here on graph paper mark every window , doorways where those lead. Every measurement clearly marked posted here in nepg format in a commen t DO NOT start anothe rpost . My advice do not use the IKea planner it will make you crazy. I have high gloss Ikea cabinets in the opic I love them they are so easy to keep clean . I run a catering biz from this kitchen and the cabinets are 16 yrs old in that pic . UNless you want to keep the exact layout you have there is little chance of saving the counter but we need pics and the plan

This is the current sketch. and a few pictures of the space.

The dark brown part is the living room, one of the cabinets (the last one on the left) is on the living room flooring not the kitchen.

The changes I am considering and love to hear feedback on:

1- removing the last cabinet. I will lose some counter space but I will no longer have a cabinet in the living room.

2- getting a range and getting rid of the old cooktop and oven, using the corner cabinet as a pantry/appliance closet to put the microwave, and coffee stuff in. I'm keeping the rest of the appliances (Fridge, dishwasher)

3- I like to keep and reuse the countertop to save on costs. doing the changes above means getting it cut and edged again which might be challenging.

Question - what will you do if the countertop is broken while someone is attempting to remove it in order for it to be reused? Most contractors will require you to sign a waiver of liability related to any breakage that may occur during removal/storage/reinstalling of the countertops (plus, travel if the granite needs to be stored offsite).

My understanding is that it will depend upon how the granite was originally installed as to whether you will be able to have it removed + reuse it. If there was a lot of silicone (or whatever type of adhesive) used when the granite was originally installed, it will make the project much more difficult.

Depending upon the variables involved, unfortunately, the cost to remove and reuse may exceed the cost to simply replace. I am in favor of keeping items out of landfills (and saving $!), but sometimes it’s not possible (although, a portion of it could still be used for a bathroom vanity - or as a folding shelf over washer/dryer in laundry room - or something else that requires a smaller piece if the original slab of granite is cracked during removal).

Second question - are the cabinet boxes in good shape? If yes, you could replace the doors/drawer fronts (plus, have new drawer boxes made + add roll out trays to bottom cabinet boxes = more functional). This could be an option if your granite is too difficult to have removed.

1. Ikea cabinets are supposed to be great quality, and you like the look of them. Don’t open the can of worms of shopping elsewhere. You will only find crap. Instead google Ikea installers in your area to see what other prices you can get for install.

2. Listen to Dani regarding countertop reuse. I was shocked when I saw your pics and how good your cabinets look. Hard to tell from a pick but they seem like old yet sturdy boxes, not RTA cheap crap. I’d look in to keeping them and getting new drawer and door fronts. Could be the most cost effective way to get a new look, good quality, and keep your stone. If the current configuration doesn’t work for your storage needs, tell us why and maybe we can help you work around it.

The cabinet boxes are in pretty bad shape.

If the countertop breaks then I've done my best. I feel like it's a waste to not at least try and keep it since I like the pattern and it's one less decision to make. I sent pictures to someone to get a quote and he said it's quartz. I still like to keep it but it might be too much work. He is gonna get back to me with a quote.

I like the idea of saving it for something else.

Your counters will break or they won’t. You won’t know till the work is done, but those are face frame cabinets. They will probably support the counters in place while demolishing the fronts and just slide in the new boxes. At any rate, you are right, you deal with it if it happens. If you like your counters and want to keep them, you don’t buy new counters until you know you need them.

You aren't going to find anyone to pull a counter and replace it for any amount of money that you would consider reasonable. It is cheaper to do new basic stone.

You are being penny wise and pound foolish. IF you cannot afford to have Ikea assembled and installed, and want to keep the current stone, in a BAD configuration, then you are not even close to renovating something. You need more money saved, to eliminate the issues you are trying to bake into the whole here. Ikea is the cheapest thing going, but that only works if you do the whole up right, and DIY the whole thing yourself. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5647040/white-shaker-battle-ikea-vs-the-rest-of-the-cabinet-world

I agree with @minardi. If you are balking at IKEA prices you may want to wait a bit and save before you spring for a full remodel.

We just installed a basement bar with IKEA. Straightforward - 8' long, 2 upper cabinets, 2 lower drawer stacks and 1 trash pullout (beverage fridge took the rest of the space). Looks great.

HOWEVER.

We DIY built the cabinets, then called the IKEA contractor to install. They won't do it if you touch anything.

SOOO we had a contractor do it. I imagine for DIY handy people who have the saws etc. it would be fine, but they had to add blocking in the wall to mount the uppers as we didn't have studs in the right spots, plus cut all the fillers, toekicks & trim. Even though we had already assembled all the boxes & drawers, it still cost us as much if not more for the contractor to do it than it would have if we'd had the IKEA contractor do it all.

In hind sight it was probably better that we had our own contractor do it, as we made some changes (didn't use IKEA in-cabinet or under-cabinet lighting, and instead installed some govee lights) but if I were doing an IKEA kitchen I would probably just spring for install.

I did order & install my own hardware as well.

We also checked a custom shop & home depot. Custom cabinets were going to be about 2.5 times what IKEA was. Home depot was about 1.5 times more.

And, I agree that the hidden drawer is not that great. We have one in the trash drawer which is fine, but we didn't install the other one we bought.

What IS great is the drawer lighting.

Some info is missing on your layout as well as a sketch of the entire floor.

See below for the info missing from the layout.

The sketch of the entire floor lets us see how the Kitchen relates to the rest of the home. It doesn't have to be to-scale, but it should accurately show how the rooms relate to each other and should include all interior & exterior doors. In addition, it will help us see how traffic flows in, around, and through the Kitchen. Label the front entry and family entry. The family entry is usually a garage or side entry, but it might not be. It's helpful to know which door you use to bring in groceries.

To clarify, I don't think the kitchen is in a bad configuration. I am considering getting a new countertop . But it seems like a waste to me (not just monetarily) because I like the existing stone and to me it seems straighforward to make one cut into the current counter.

If it turns out to be a hassle, then I'll get a new countertop.

I got a quote from two custom places, one was more than double what ikea + assembly is, one was cheaper than ikea but I didn't like the quality of their cabinets.

I know ikea is not the best cabinet, but I like how it is modularized and how I can change some parts as needed.

@anj_p "cut all the fillers, toekicks & trim" don't they come precut?

@Katie no, they come in standard lengths. You need to cut them to your project.

For example, we trimmed each upper cabinet separately. Some people might have 3 or 4 cabinets in a row that all get trimmed out, so they would have to be cut differently.

Same with toe kick. We had 1 cabinet, fridge, 2 cabinets & then turned a corner. All that had to be cut.

Fillers are all created from end panels, so all of that had to be cut specifically for our configuration.

Rails (if you use them) also need to be cut. So do counters (if you use IKEA counters).

Saying IKEA isn't the best is not really a fair statement. IKEA is consistently rated as one of the best if not the best RTA cabinet you can get on here, specifically because a lot of things IKEA does standard are extra elsewhere (for example, everything is soft close - you pay a lot for that feature in other cabinet lines).

Is IKEA better than fully custom high end cabinets? No. But for what they are it's hard to get better value/quality for your money. If you found a custom place cheaper than IKEA I would be VERY wary.

Medallion Silverline is great cabinet line....their paint is the same as the Gold and Platinum series. Heres a kitchen I did in 2020....similar layout to yours, a bit smaller. Her price was $22,750 installed. Included: Medallion Silverline cabinets, quartz countertops, hardware, tile backsplash, demo, soffit removal, electrical, plumbing and cabinet install. This was done April 2020 when prices were hadn't increased yet. Figure 15% to 20% more now.

Yes, that is a bad layout. It has very little usable counter space. Keeping stone is NEVER EVER a cheap choice. It costs as much, or more, than buying new budget stone. Plus, you are imprisoning yourself to a 25K paid labor cosmetic redo, rather than a 40K DIY functional redo.

You need to just STOP. Learn more about kitchen design. Get some DIY skills under your belt. In a year or so, you will have saved more money, learned a whole lot more, gotten more skills, and will be better able to approach a change. A change that it really sounds like you are not that motivated to make, since you want to keep so much of what you have. In fact, why don't you just paint what you have to tide you over until you are ready to make the major changes that need to happen. Join the Kitchen Cabinet Painting Experts group on Facebook and follow the Guides. You can DIY a paint job for under 2K, and not have to change out the counter. Then, after you've lived with it, you will know why it's not a good layout and why you should be looking at making real changes.

If you say the layout is bad I'm open to suggestions given the size of the kitchen.

But something like "you just need to STOP" is not really helpful.

As I mentioned above, I'm open to changing the countertop and after getting a few quotes that's the most likely route. I do feel like it's a waste (and not just monetarily) to throw out something which has a lot more life left. I'm not going to feel bad to trying to be more sustainable.

@Buehl Sorry I missed your question about the whole house plot earlier.

That doorway leads to the bedrooms.

Here is the plan, kitchen is in the middle: (top of the layout if the backyard)

I am open to suggestions for a full renovation too, I do however like the open flow of the kitchen

If the price of Ikea hurts your wallet, then you are not going to be able to afford a 80K (average cost) full kitchen renovation. Not without a bigger budget AND contributing DIY labor.

How much do you want to spend? Realistically? How much labor can you contribute? Realistcally? Without being realistic with yourself here, you are just spinning wheels going nowhere dreaming of impossible to accomplish things.

Budget is up to 30k but ideally around 20k.

I do like the Ikea cabinet boxes specially the modularity of it.

I have given up of the possibility of saving the counter after a few quotes and conversations. I got 1400$ quote for remove, cut, reinstall but the risk of it not fitting doesn't seem worth it to me anymore.

The ikea cabinet quote I got without the countertop was about 7.5k, and with 4.5k installation, that makes it 12k. I don't see a reason to go above this unless there is a functionality improvement. Honestly the lower the better and I prefer to spend more on the countertop.

I am looking for countertops now, so far like the quartzite, but I have to go to see a few in person.

I am learning as I read and search.

You want a 12K countertop on top of 12K boxes? Something is very wrong with those priorities. Laminate or Group A granite would be more in your desired budget range.

A kitchen is not just 20K of cabinets and counters. That is maybe half the cost. Or less. There is demo costs, disposal costs, electrical, plumbing, floors, lighting, backsplash, drywall repair and painting. Appliances too. That is another big ticket. You cant just buy half a kitchen, and not fund the other half that makes it actually work. Something is going to have to give here.

I want to keep the fridge, and the dishwasher, already ordered Cafe induction range to take advantage of Costco sale.

I am not saying I want to spend 12k on a countertop. I am saying I want a nicer than the very basic countertop because I care more about that than having custom cabinets. say 6k.

so I have 12k cabinets including demo, 3.3k range, 4-6k countertop if I don't change the electrical, then It's about 21k which fits in my budget.

I am open to making more changes including electrical, plumbing, etc IF I see a benefit. that's why I asked for full renovation suggestions too.

I haven't heard anything yet though. Just have heard that the kitchen is bad with no alternative suggestions and that something is wrong with my priorities.

It would be helpful to hear why it's bad and what should change. Like if money was no object, what should change?

I have no idea what is the ideal solution, if I get feedbacks on that, I can tweak it based on my needs and budget

That is not a realistic budget for a kitchen redo, even if you are a plumber and do all the disconnects and piping/shut offs yourself, plus the rest of all the labor.

You are not understanding what goes into the scope of work here. Or what labor costs are currently. HGTV is finctional drama. It is not a documentary.

I appreciate your efforts to help, but for the sake of practicality, Let's set aside the budget conversation. I haven't seen one episode of HGTV btw, I assume it's TV show or channel.

What would be helpful is:

1- What is so bad about the current design? how to improve it?

2- If the current design is not salvageable, how would you redo it?

Keep what you have now and paint. My friend took the doors and drawer fronts to an auto painting shop and had them sprayed.

https://www.stylemepretty.com/living/2016/05/12/how-to-make-a-1950s-kitchen-remodel-feel-like-a-total-chefs-paradise/

This is just sad. Someone is going to go broke and ruin their house keeping up with the Joneses. Savings in the bank will trump neighbor envy.

@Monique

I wonder how you arrived at the figure that $80K is the “(average cost) full kitchen renovation.”

HomeAdvisor reports the average costs was $26,790 in 2023. That information appears in HGTV magazine 😊