Installing the Ikea Cabinets

Once the cabinets were put together, they were pretty easy to hang on the rails.

Once we hung the upper cabinets, we decided it would be fun to install our 1930's Art Deco light fixture that we purchased from Ebay.

Next we installed a ledger board along the wall on which the bottom cabinets will rest.

Ikea cabinets come with adjustable legs.  These were very useful because our floors were not level at all.  These legs allowed us to perfectly level our cabinets without having to use shims at all.  It was very easy to do.

We also purchased the beech butcher block countertops from Ikea.  Once the cabinets were installed, we cut the countertops to the size we needed and placed everything together to make sure it fits.  We even installed some of the cabinet doors on the upper cabinets.

Next, we need to finish the countertops.  The natural wood looks nice, but we think a darker color would look better with the white cabinets.

Starting to Install the Ikea Kitchen

Ikea had a really good sale, so we decided to purchase our kitchen cabinets from Ikea.  We've always liked their kitchens, and we liked how affordable they are.  We've bought other furniture and things from there before, so we knew the quality would be good.

Everything from Ikea comes packed flat and must be assembled.  Its all designed to be very easy to assemble and comes with good instructions.  

 

Kitchen cabinet boxes assembled and waiting to be installed.

Ikea provides rails which are attached to the walls.  The top cabinets are hung from these rails.  This makes the installation of the upper cabinets super easy, and makes it very simple to hang the cabinets perfectly level.

We decided that its best to first paint the window frame before trying to hang cabinets next to it.  It took one coat of primer and two coats of paint to paint the window frame. 

Now we can start hanging the top cabinets.  The top cabinets get installed first, and then the bottom cabinets get installed.

Priming and Painting the Kitchen

Next, we needed to prime and paint the kitchen.  Once we do that, we can start installing the kitchen cabinets.

We wanted to paint the walls a bright and cheerful color.  The kitchen cabinets are going to be white, so we wanted to have a bright colored kitchen to make it more interesting.

The color turned out to be even brighter than expected.  Hopefully, it will look good with the cabinets.