I won’t even tell you how much time I spent yesterday in the studio just standing around and pondering floor design decisions. It’s embarrassing. After wasting too much time trying to make a decision, I finally decided that things might be clearer if I could see some cabinets in place Did. So I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening putting together the long front wall base cabinets. The wall is clearly far from finished, but just seeing this little progress makes me so excited to finish it!!
This studio has been here for many years in the process of being completed, during which time we have explored so many different options for cabinetry in this room. From full DIY to IKEA to RTA cabinets, we explored just about every other option and combination imaginable.
In the early days, when considering IKEA cabinets, I ruled them out for one reason. The wall was to consist of lower and upper cabinets and a tabletop workspace that stretched across the wall.
And the standard desktop height is 30 inches. IKEA Sektion cabinets are designed as kitchen cabinets and have a standard height of 36 inches.
In the end, I decided that I didn’t need this wall to create a long desk area, so I decided to store it from wall to wall. However, due to the placement of the windows (specifically based on my 30″ high wall-to-wall desktop), I’m still limited in what I can put here, and I can’t put 36″ high kitchen cabinets. yeah. fit.
But the great thing about IKEA cabinets is that the actual cabinet box is only 30 inches tall. If used as a kitchen cabinet, purchase legs separately to raise the height and cover the legs with long toe kick pieces that hide the legs. So without the legs, the cabinet would be a very simple box, 30 inches tall.
It still doesn’t work on standard 30″ tall desktops. A countertop would have to be added, increasing the height by at least 3/4 inch. But also the doors and drawers cover the edges of the cabinet frame, so you can’t put the cabinet directly on the floor like this. Having doors and drawer fronts close to the floor is not only completely unrealistic, it looks strange.
So you don’t need to use IKEA legs to add a few inches of height, but you should plan to raise the cabinets at least 2 inches off the floor. Any solution should not only add height, but also give the bottom of the cabinet a clean, purposefully finished look.
There are certainly some drawbacks when trying to use IKEA Sektion cabinets as anything other than kitchen cabinets. But there are also some distinct advantages. So in one day we were able to assemble 7 base cabinets. Building these cabinet boxes from scratch would have taken several afternoons and evenings to get this far. In short, using IKEA cabinets has great advantages.
And just as I thought, taking my eyes off the floor and focusing my attention on a completely different project helped clarify some decisions on the floor. Combining some of yesterday’s ideas, I decided to make the main part of the room borderless, add a border for the back door, and use solid colors for the bathroom and warehouse floors. So it goes like this…
In Addicted 2 Decorating, I share my DIY and decorating journey of modifying and decorating a 1948 Fixer upper that my husband Matt and I purchased in 2013. Matt does most of her work because she has MS and she cannot do physical labor. I do my own housework. You can learn more about me here.
I hope you will join me on my DIY and decoration journey. If you’d like to follow my projects and progress, please subscribe below to get new posts delivered to your email inbox. That way you don’t miss anything.
