Homeowner Halved Her Kitchen Remodel Costs With This IKEA Hack

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Kris Scholten faced a familiar dilemma when her built-in kitchen appliances began to fail, and her cabinets started to show their age. However, the steep quotes for a full kitchen remodel were far beyond her budget.

“The quotes for a kitchen remodel I received were in the $30,000 range, and I simply could not afford them. I am not handy and cannot do the DIY either,” she explained.

Rather than settling for a dated and dysfunctional kitchen, Kris found a creative, cost-effective solution that refreshed the space and maximized storage.

Kitchen – Before Remodel

The heart of Kris’s kitchen woes began with a broken built-in microwave, a wall oven on the fritz, and cabinets that fell short—literally—of her storage needs. The cabinets, while still in good condition, ended at an awkward gap below the ceiling, wasting valuable storage space and contributing to the kitchen’s outdated feel.

Enter IKEA ENHET doors

Undeterred by the high cost of a traditional remodel and her own lack of DIY skills, Kris turned to IKEA. Looking around the store, she stumbled upon the ENHET kitchen cabinet doors. The ENHET series, known for its flexibility and modern design, offered the perfect blend of style and practicality. What sealed the deal was the size of the doors. They were a perfect fit for her existing cabinets.

That was game-changing: keeping her existing cabinet frames and installing new IKEA doors on them. She got the look of a new kitchen at half the price.

Adding upper cabinet extensions

To make it all come together, Kris hired a contractor. She commissioned him to make wooden cabinet boxes that could be mounted on top of the existing upper cabinets. Kris tailored the cabinet plus extensions to the right length for the ENHET doors.

The addition effectively extended the cabinets to the ceiling, providing additional storage space and also creating a more custom, built-in look. Crown molding was added to the top of the cabinets to give the built-ins a polished finish. He then painted the cabinet extension with a Sherwin-Williams paint formula that matched the ENHET doors.

New doors on old cabinets

The transformation continued with the removal of the old cabinet doors, which were replaced with the new IKEA ENHET doors. The shaker style of the doors introduced a timeless aesthetic that instantly modernized the kitchen. Kris made the practical decision to forego another built-in microwave, opting for a freestanding model that could be easily replaced if needed.

New fridge-top cabinet

An entirely new ENHET cabinet was installed above the refrigerator, further enhancing storage options and maintaining the cohesive design.

Hidden Drawers

While the base cabinets also received the ENHET door treatment, Kris chose a unique approach for the drawers. She decided to keep the existing drawers concealed behind ENHET doors, allowing for a more streamlined design.

Kitchen Refreshed

When it was all done, Kris’s kitchen refresh turned out better than she imagined. The move to use IKEA doors on existing cabinets was a stroke of genius, and it gave her the modern, shaker-style kitchen of her dreams, complete with tons of storage for less than half what she had been quoted.