Just because your kitchen is on the smaller side doesn’t mean you can’t make it as efficient and effective as possible.

A high-gloss finish can be achieved by having a local automotive shop repaint the cabinet fronts. The finish will be long-lasting, strong, and shiny.

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.

Overhead cabinets now can be easily swung open for ease of access. The kitchens are priced at IKEA’s usual retails. A 10 by 10 foot kitchen fitted with Sektion cabinets will range from around $1,300 to $2,200, excluding appliances.

The built-in cabinets at the entry include special storage for Ryan and Rory's running shoes. (They're both long-distance runners.)

For this kitchen, the architects paired slate-gray HPL (high-pressure laminate) cabinets by Henrybuilt, cool Basaltina countertops, with custom shelving and a white Corian backsplash.

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.

Raymond takes a break on the master bedroom’s interior balcony, which is cantilevered over the dining area.

Pros: Laminate is at the low end of the price range for countertops, is scratch- and stain-resistant, and comes in a tremendous range of colors. It’s also easy to install, making it a viable DIY option for the handy crowd. Cons: Because laminate countertops are created by layering pieces of plywood and plastic, edges can chip off easily, and the surface can even melt if too much heat is applied directly.

Guess used inexpensive graded pine plywood so that he would get heavy grain patterns on the surfaces. One of the main goals in the kitchen was simplicity. To that end, he opted for a poured-in-place concrete island. "We didn’t know if we could afford to do that, but we found a great subcontractor [Nate Francis of Countertop Creations] here who had never really built anything like that," Guess says. "Because he was interested in giving it a shot and adding it to his portfolio, he didn’t charge an exorbitant amount of money because it was sort of an experiment for him as well." The kitchen features a GE Profile refrigerator and KitchenAid range, microwave, and dishwasher. The sink and faucet are from Kohler. The project's builder was Joe Doherty with Custom Homecrafters of Austin.

“The walnut unit between the kitchen and dining room ties into the fumed oak floor,” Dubbeldam says. “The rest of the materials in the house—glass, marble, stone—were selected to offset the wood.”

At a seaside New Zealand house, the simple kitchen has strandboard cabinetry and an MDF island that conceals a fireplace at one end. The bright green cabinetry of the island are a happy pop of color that references the native greenery outside.

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.

In such a small space “you have to organize, and every piece takes a decision,” says resident Heidi Wright. The couple keep things they use less frequently, like guest bedding, in the higher cabinets.

Visiting a Manhattan apartment designed by Tim Seggerman is like sitting inside one of Nakashima’s cabinets, a metaphor realized most fully in an ingenious "library"—really a glorified cubby with a banded maple ceiling, conjured from a free space adjacent to the loft bed.

More traditional cabinet cup pulls from Ikea can still have a modern sensibility when paired with other sleek finishes.

Christine (at left), and Amanda (at right) chat with David’s sister Aroha Yates-Smith (center) in the kitchen.

Reilly slotted a utility room behind the kitchen to house the oven, an extra fridge, pantry cabinets, and the laundry. A Navajo rug that Reilly found at a local yard sale adds a touch of color. The countertop and backsplash are stainless steel. She found the counter stools at a local thrift shop. “I scour every secondhand shop and go to ever yard sale in the Hamptons,” she says. “Each piece is the result of weeks of searching.”

Custom millwork maximizes storage throughout the home. There is even a special location for the cat.

A USM credenza holds vinyl and booze. Music flows via a Pro-Ject Debut III turntable, a pair of Elipson Planet L speakers, and a Music Hall Audio amplifier. - Brooklyn, New York Dwell Magazine : July / August 2017

"The unassuming ink-toned cabinetry is lined with an unexpected burst of brilliant salmon pink; a punchy gesture that balances the strength of Tom’s artworks without overshadowing them," says Lynch.

There’s now a wood-paneled entry alcove inside the new front door, with a built-in bench, storage, and coat hooks.

With a stylish blue-and-white palette, Margot now radiates a sense of calm and tranquility.

On the opposite wall, a green mesh cabinet for shoes is paired with a wood and metal seating bench. The entry door also has a green mesh detail: a panel that's operable, so the smaller door can be opened when receiving packages.

A consistent wood palette makes the interior feel cohesive.

The residents love to entertain and cook, so 590BC worked to create a kitchen that was functional and aesthetically pleasing. "It is complex and considered down to the most minute detail, but still reads as simple and clean," Breitner says. Photo by Frank Oudeman.

In the family room, cabinets open up to create an office desk. The steps on the left lead up to a mezzanine space that serves as play space for the children and a sleeping area for guests.

At a renovated home in Nevada, cabinetmaker Ben Wilborn carefully matched the grain of the kitchen cabinets, and the homeowners paired the wood with modern stainless steel cabinet pulls.

“Try to group uses and find solutions that solve multiple problems,” Borowski counsels. As an example, Pozner cites the idea of having the loft stairs double as clothing drawers. Though he eschewed a handrail, preferring a cleaner look, Pozner says that the slipperiness of the stairs “remains a work in progress. We had grooves, but they hurt my feet.” The pair are now looking into heavy-duty felt treads.

The mahogany-paneled Poggenpohl kitchen system is original to the house. The kitchen opens to the living and dining area.

Here, laminate kitchen cabinets are topped with Corian in Glacier White for a fresh and fun color-blocked look.

The kitchen cabinets are custom-made from salvaged cypress.

Nadarajah decided to put windows where a backsplash might go in order to bring extra light into the kitchen. "The birch cabinets were custom-designed to be the length of a wok and the height of a cake dome," she says.

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

"The kitchen is pretty astonishing, really, considering it’s 40 years old," says resident Louise Jenkins. Large square tiles in green with sunflowers compliment the cabinets' natural wood finish.

The kitchen window was designed to look into the Goodchilds' daughter's home. Photo credit: Dale Christopher Lang PhD AIAP