Hackers Help: IKEA kitchen problem – how to lower it?

I write to you all the way from Milan, Italy in desperation, because I don’t know where else to turn…

Me and my future husband made the big step and just bought a house. I have to say that the moving period has been stressful but the biggest problem has been the kitchen… We have had it created by the IKEA staff and I really love it… there is only one issue. The counters are too tall; the base unit that would contain the sink and the oven need to be around 86cm tall to allow the window in the kitchen to open and my husband won’t budge on the issue he wants the window to completely open.

Photo: IKEA.com

I have looked in your archives and found a project to make the kitchen higher, is there anything to be done about making them lower?

Photo: IKEA.com

Thank you so much for your input! Maybe you have a solution so that I can get my lovely kitchen!

***

Hi Mandy

Congrats on the new house. Exciting times! 

And sorry to hear of your IKEA kitchen problem.

The IKEA METOD kitchen base cabinets are 80cm in height. And with the countertop, depending on what you use, it will go up to around 83 – 84cm in height. This is just the cabinet, not including the legs. IKEA METOD kitchen legs are 8cm (adjustable down to 7cm). To keep the kitchen under 86cm, I can see  two ways to go about it.

1. You cut down the side panels to, say, 74 cm. Add 8cm for legs and 3cm countertop. It’ll be up to 85cm.You can use this tutorial to guide you in shortening the cabinet. At this countertop height, unless you’re shorter in stature, you’ll need to stoop a little to use your sink. 
2. You omit the legs or find shorter legs from other kitchen suppliers. Do not use the cabinets without any legs as the bottom of the doors/ drawers may scrape against the floor. If you fail to find alternative legs, build a wooden frame (or ask your local carpenter to) spanning the depth and width of the said kitchen cabinet bases and perhaps 3cm in height. Then sit the cabinets on top of the frame. A variation of this would be to use the same countertop material and wrap it around the 2 cabinets, something like this. The example shows all 4 sides of the BESTÅ wrapped in pine wood. You could do the same to the sink and oven cabinet, just to give them a little lift off the ground, so the drawers/ doors can be opened easily.  

I’m not sure how your kitchen design is, but if you’re just modifying the sink and oven base cabinet, those two cabinets will look stumpy next to cabinets with legs.

Good luck on your kitchen planning.

Jules 

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