If you have been following my home account on Instagram, (@seasonservehome) you will know that our kitchen renovation has really been making progress. In just a few weeks, we had the kitchen demolished, fireplace removed, electrical wired, and have had new drywall going up. It’s been dusty, noisy, and a bit exhausting, but I am so pleased with the progress made to date and I know it will be so amazing once our dream kitchen is complete!
In today’s post, I wanted to reveal our choice for kitchen cabinets and our countertops. There were a lot of factors that were considered for selecting both of these finishes and I wanted to share these with those who are following along!
Options Explored for Kitchen Cabinets
Choosing our kitchen cabinets was probably the most difficult decision that we made with our kitchen renovation. There are so many companies that offer kitchen cabinets (at varying price points!) and there are so many designs to choose from.
We began looking for local companies that offer custom cabinets due to the odd layout of our kitchen and my specific needs/wants for our dream kitchen. However, when we got quoted our entire kitchen renovation budget for just the cabinets, the journey on looking for custom cabinets ended swiftly.
While the cabinets were beautiful and really high quality, there was no way we could justify spending our entire budget on cabinets alone. Additionally, timelines for building them from scratch were very long– over 8 months for some companies– so that was not going to work for us.
So instead, we decided to go with IKEA cabinets through a local company called IKAN Installations. IKAN works on sourcing IKEA cabinets and installing them in your home. In working with them, we learned that IKEA cabinets are super durable, versatile, and can be customized to our very own needs. Plus, the price was much better on our budget!
Kitchen Cabinet Style Selections
From the many IKEA kitchen cabinet styles that are offered, we mixed two cabinet styles into our kitchen design– AXSTAD and ASKERSUND.
AXTAD Cabinets
IKEA’s AXSTAD kitchen cabinet style is just want I wanted for our kitchen. The modern shaker style is perfect for our transitional design style that we are going for in our home. It is much sleeker than traditional shaker style cabinets, but they have just enough detail to add some interest to the kitchen.
We decided to do our upper and lower cabinets in the AXSTAD cabinets with a white finish. I’m all about bright, white, clean looking kitchens, and this totally hit the mark. However, rather than having an entirely white kitchen, we decided to add some glass doors from the AXSTAD line into our upper cabinets. These display-like cabinets are great and we can add decor pieces with a bit of colour in there to add some interest. And of course these coloured decor pieces can be swapped out seasonally to mix things up.
ASKERSUND Cabinets
To add a bit of design interest, we decided to mix in these gorgeous ASKERSUND cabinets in with the AXSTAD cabinets. We selected the Light Ash finish on the ASKERSUND cabinets to add a little natural west coast feel to our home and kitchen. We only added the ASKERSUND cabinets on the exterior of the the new peninsula that is being built as this will add a bit of coziness to the sitting room that is adjoining to the kitchen.
Kitchen Countertop Selection
When choosing our countertops, there was only one material that we were considering: quartz. Quartz is an incredibly durable, low-maintenance material and resists stains. It also comes in a wide variety of colours, so there are tons of ways it can be used in design. Despite all these pros, quartz does come with a higher cost per square foot, but I think that it is totally worth it.
We chose the Aterra Blanca quartz countertop from Caesarstone. This creamy white quartz has discreet light taupe veining across the slab, so it is not too busy visually. I love that the veining is taupe rather than grey as it offers a bit of a different vibe and feel compared to “marble-like” countertops that have been popular over the past few years.
These countertops were sourced from a local supplier, Paterson Countertops Ltd., in Victoria, BC.
What’s Next?
This week our kitchen prep is being wrapped up to begin cabinet installation next week! After that, new floors will be put in and the countertops will be installed. Again, I am so impressed with how fast things are moving (knock on wood 🤪)!
I hope that you enjoyed this update and feel free to ask me anything about this post in the comments below! Stay tuned for future updates here on the blog to see what flooring we chose, and all the fun design finishes like our sink and faucet, cabinet hardware, etcetera.
That is coming along quickly!
Yes, we are so happy with progress so far! Thanks for following along Carissa!
These are all so gorgeous! They all have their own charm, which makes it hard to pick. I’ve actually chosen my countertop a long while back, though- Quartz! And after reading this article by Caesarstone I was pleasantly surprised to see the costs fit within my budget. I’m going to think long and hard about what cabinets would best fit a white quartz countertop, any thoughts?
It looks so beautiful and attractive.
Thank you, Tom!