Ikea

To keep costs down elsewhere (the house was built for just over $118,000), architect Brun and his partner Lizmarie Esparza specified Ikea kitchen cabinets and a black refrigerator, which is less expensive than stainless steel. "It was really important that the kitchen opened up to the outside deck. Its designed in an L-shape with an indoor-outdoor table," Brun says. "The idea is that when you open the door, there's a continuous environment connecting the inside with the outside—it's as open as possible." Gordon purchased the hand-crafted solid teak antique table from Indonesia.

Planning more storage was critical. “We used custom fir plywood doors to make the Ikea cabinets under the marble countertops special,” Lexie says of the kitchen. Joining simple white chairs around the dining table are red Tripp Trapp high chairs from Stokke—the same model Casper had as a child.

Sarah Magill and Copa, her golden retriever, relax in the kitchen of her home in Kansas City, where an eco-quartz-topped island can be used as a dining table—one of the home’s many adaptable features. The Akurum cabinets and handles are from Ikea, as are the Franklin folding bar stools, and the appliances are compact models from Summit.

Pippa (left) and Maisie (right) play in the kitchen. Though Hale and Edmonds would have preferred Bosch appliances, a deal at Ikea was too good to pass up. They purchased all of the cabinets and appliances (a combination that earned them 20-percent off the total) for a mere $4,700.

The kitchen features Ikea Sektion cabinets and Whirlpool appliances. The dining area contains a table from CB2, a George Nelson pendant, and Eames molded fiberglass chairs that were picked up at the Alameda Flea Market.

In the sleek kitchen, the white Ikea cabinet uppers seem to disappear into the wall, while the bases get a distinctive custom walnut wrapping. Flanking the cabinets are open bookshelves, which provide secondary function as a spacial divider for the children’s play area. A Dornbracht faucet sits on a slab of Vermont Olympian White Danby marble, which is also used for the island and backsplash.

Inspired by Danish furniture brand Vipp, Havart overhauled Ikea Akurum cabinets, electro-painting them with a resistant black matte coating. To create a streamlined effect, he capped the cabinet doors with the same finish as the metal appliances and added handles.

For the kitchen, Tyler hired David Restorick, a furniture maker and friend, to build an island for storage and to wrap Ikea cabinets with oak for a customized look. He also built a staircase that doubles as display space for Tyler’s vast collection of colorful cookware by the likes of Finel, Copco, Cathrineholm, Jens Quistgaard, and Stig Lindberg.

The Viking range and Bosch refrigerator in the kitchen are paired with Ikea lights and cabinets.

In the new space, small-scale, 24-inch appliances from Fagor are incorporated into Ikea’s Applåd cabinetry.

The cabinets are from Ikea, the range is by GE, and the Jenn-Air refrigerator is tucked unobtrusively into the pantry wall. The troweled concrete floor was poured in place by the builder, Peter Knudsen.

In a centuries-old building in Montreal, Belgian architect and designer Gaeten Havart undertook a DIY kitchen renovation that makes the most of inexpensive materials. These simple cabinets and modern cabinet pulls are from Ikea and painted with a matte black finish.

Minimalist design can sometimes be a mystery, like modern kitchen cabinets that have no visible hardware. However, a quick little push on the edge of a cabinet can reveal an interior spring mechanism that holds the doors closed.

The client wanted to be able to prepare meals efficiently. A red steel pegboard backsplash lets him easily access cooking utensils. The cabinets are Ikea.

The room is outfitted with IKEA cabinets, an oven by Miele and a cooktop by Gaggenau.

In the kitchen, the couple found barely used appliances instead of new ones to save money. The cabinetry and butcher block counters are from Ikea.