DIY kitchen makeover part 1 - Billy becomes built ins

Redoing a kitchen can be a pricey affair.  After doing rough costings for completely replacing cabinets, changing door fronts verses painting with a few new inserts it was a no brainer to go for the painting option.  Even with an Ikea kitchen as the replacement it was considerably more expensive.  Our cabinets were a non offensive style with not too much chintz about them and the doors were in reasonably good shape, good enough to take paint.


The counter tops had been replaced by the previous owners so they didn't need changing. Although the granite would not be my choice its practical and still desirable in our area (gotta think about that resale value!).  

We switch the function of the rooms when we moved in; the previous owners had the space adjacent to the kitchen as a TV/family room and then the dining area through and arch way in the kitchen which was effectively part of the sitting room. We now have a large eat in kitchen/dining area and a TV room off the more formal sitting room. For us it seemed logical as we spend most of our time in the kitchen area.

Saturday morning craft activities

It made sense to tackle the dining end of the room first; the built ins along the end wall could store kitchen items whilst I painted the kitchen cabinets.  There are 4 Billy bookshelves with plain flat trim in between. 

Spacing out the cabinets

I choose the slightly deeper 15" cabinets as its a long room. We decided on 4 as that was the best fit for the space.  The tricky bit was attaching trim to the top and making it appear seamless with the doors which we wanted at either end.

Door on left with replica trim on center cabinet

Trim surrounding cabinets

After caulking, filling and painting the joins are now seamless(ish).  I did an extensive online search to determine the best paint to match Ikea white, apparently its Valspar Dove White.  Its pretty good, not exact. If you want an exact match I would recommend taking a shelf into HD or Lowes and getting them to color match it.  NB. the trim we used came already primed, winner!

We are so pleased with the end result. They are Tardis like in the amount they can store. So much so I need to get thrifting to fill a few empty gaps.

The handy husband installed recessed spot lights and a new fan, we opted for the same one as we have in the bedroom from Minka Aire.

Finished trim

If you are considering adding a 'Billy built in' I would strongly recommend getting the doors. We opted for the full length doors with glass inserts (link here).  You can hide even more junk behind them; one side we have the router and all those nasty cables hidden & the other the girls craft/coloring supplies.

   
It is a night and day transformation. It is now a light, bright and modern functional space.  What a relief to get rid of that hideous yellow! So here is the before and after. You can just see we also squared off the arch into the hallway.

Before

After

 Yes you can spy tools still lying about!  There are always snags to complete (trim around new sliding door).

If you want details on how to convert the bookshelves or any other info get in touch.  

Part 2 of the kitchen makeover to follow soon...