Midwest Makeovers: IKEA in Liberty - A Food Blogger's Kitchen

We recently asked followers of our Bring IKEA to Kansas City Facebook page if anyone had already remodeled their kitchen with IKEA products.  One such follower, a food blogger named Johnna, reached out to share that she was just finishing up her new IKEA kitchen.

John shows Mike how the kickboards are installed.

 So we took a trip out to Liberty and met our friendly contractor, Mike Tingler, to visit with Johnna and her husband John, to get the details of their IKEA experience. Following are some of the questions we thought to ask them and we hope you'll enjoy the answers as much as we did!

What was your timeline for the project?

Well we took about two years in total to put together the vision of our perfect kitchen. We made several visits to stores and other places to gather ideas and slowly the plans began to take shape.

Once we knew exactly what we wanted, things moved very quickly. It took about a month to put everything into the kitchen planner, pick up our order and install everything and finish the work. The cabinets took 2 days to assemble.

Which store did you use?

We used the Minneapolis store. We were in the store for 2 1/2 hours the day we purchased our cabinets.  The best part was that we got to pay for our purchase in the cabinet department, and then their warehouse team pulled all of the pieces. We actually had 172 cartons and they all fit just fine in our mini-van.

Countertop from the Folger's Factory & lots of storage options.

What was the overall cost?

Our IKEA purchase was $3500, and we used an additional $2000 to purchase our lights, tile, knobs and sink. Our counter tops were reclaimed from the Folger's Factory. We did all the work ourselves which saved quite a bit.

What prep work did you have to do?

We completely demolished the old kitchen, which took some doing, and cleaned everything up. We also used the kitchen planner ahead of time to make sure we had everything planned perfectly.

Were you able to find exactly what you were looking for?

Yes, we were able to check their inventory before making the 7 1/2 hour trip so that gave us some comfort.  What we didn't know we could do was order an extra piece that we needed (which wasn't in stock) and have it delivered to our house. It only took a few days to get to us and made things so much easier.

Glass subway tiles from the Carpet & Tile Warehouse in Merriam.

How would having an IKEA in your home town made a difference?

We would have felt much more comfortable about buying our products. It can be nerve racking not knowing for sure and having a 7 1/2 hour drive to return anything.

What do you like best about your new kitchen?

I really love the storage options. As a food blogger I am so happy with having everything in just the right place. I never before would have considered a Lazy Susan, but mine holds all of my cast iron cookware and shows no signs stress. It's really great!

Custom glass knobs really added a lot of class to this kitchen.

What advice would you offer someone who has never purchased from IKEA?

A lot of people don't realize that IKEA is designed to work with all kinds of styles. It's what they are really great at. You can take pictures of things you like and mix and match designs at IKEA to get just the right look for you.

It also means that you can use your own appliances or other things like lights and tile to customize your look even further. Design versatility, accessibility and functionality are all the qualities you will find with IKEA products so feel free to dream up whatever works for you.

Also, the kitchen planner works great, but I advise people to make sure they save their plan to their laptop and at least make sure the lap top is in their car or bring it in with them just in case they don't make it into the IKEA cabinet department's system.

IKEA cabinets really provide versatile storage solutions.

 Another great tip is to make sure you measure your appliances if you aren't using IKEA's appliances as the measurements would be different.

Johnna is a Living Foods Chef, Certified Nutritional Education Trainer and fan of real food who loves helping folks learn to eat healthy. Visit her blog to learn more about her at In Johnna's Kitchen.




 



Do you have more questions for Johnna and John or do you have your own remodel story to share? Leave a comment below!



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