Glossy cabinet side panels… and other miscellaneous tasks – but mainly the side panels.
After the backsplash was installed, but before we completely finished the project with caulk… (because, you know, we have to break things up like that) Spencer and I continued with some other tasks in the kitchen. We installed the glossy white side panels, fixed a drooping cabinet cleat, installed the vent hood, and finished installing the rest of the cabinet handles.
Now, I don’t have any photographs from us transporting the panels or figuring out how many/what size panels we needed – because it wasn’t a very photo-worthy moment. Actually, transporting probably would have been, but I wasn’t pausing to capture it at the time. Just imagine: us + vehicle + large cumbersome object sticking out of said vehicle = fairly common renovation situation.
Anyway, back to the side panels. We had four locations for the panels – one side of the upper cabinets, one side of the refrigerator, one side of the pantry, and the back of the island. (The upper cabinets & pantry butted up against walls, so they didn’t need two panels and the other side of the fridge cabinet couldn’t be seen very well.)
Clamps are your friend. The panel is covered with a protective blue plastic, btw.
I don’t necessarily recommend installing the panel with a full cabinet but hey, we had been using the kitchen. Just screw the panel from the inside of the cabinet with screws that are short enough.
We needed to maintain a factory edge on any visible sides. When cut, you are left with a raw edge that can not be easily covered. Fortunately, the only cabinet that needed more than one exposed side was the small piece for the upper cabinets. (You could possibly see the underside of the piece – I don’t know who could really see it… maybe Izumi our cat would appreciate the attention to detail.)
Before attaching the panel to the side of the refrigerator, we noticed that the cabinet above the fridge was sagging a bit.
The culprit was the lower cleat, so we shimmed it out with a few strips of composite board.
The refrigerator before the tall panel was installed:
And after. We attached the panel to the upper cabinet & let it just hang from there – there is really no good way to temporarily attach it to the refrigerator itself. We did made sure that the panel was flush to the door opening (Yay preplanning!) Oh, and here you can see the tall cabinet on the far side of the refrigerator, which didn’t absolutely need a panel.
We purchased the largest cover panels that Ikea made for our project and trimmed those three panels to the appropriate depth with a circular saw (the sawhorses we purchased for the making the countertops were useful once again). We were able to salvage the unused cut-off-edge of the pantry tall cabinet (because it was the thinest piece) and get the panel for the upper cabinet.
The cover panel extending all the way down to the floor instead of stoping at the toe kick level. We wanted to do this for two reasons: One, to mimic the look of the refrigerator piece and two, the floor sloped so badly in this spot that the toe kick really wouldn’t extend high enough to meet the cabinet base – in other words, we needed to hide the discrepancy.
While we were at it, Spencer attached the electrical for the vent hood. I have to say, the shoes on the countertop makes me cringe! Also, I’m not quite sure why he has a hammer in his hand in this photograph.
All hooked up & ready for it’s own “cover panel”:
And while we were doing miscellaneous things, I installed the rest of the cabinet handles.
Ikea has a plastic template that helps with consistently positioning the handles on each door. (You get to decide which position you like best.)
There were two sizes of this particular hardware. We chose to use the longer handles for all of our cabinets. Unfortunately, this particular hardware was discontinued with the new cabinet change in the beginning of 2015. I really like this simple, modern design and would have used them elsewhere.
We also made sure to actually attach the cabinet lights.
…and after. The raw edge of this panel looks jagadey because we had to cut it with a jigsaw. The countertop was not flat on the bottom, and as a result, when we went to tip the panel into place – it got caught on the bumps. I will also add that a jigsaw (maybe just our jigsaw, idk) is not a very precise tool. We are not big fans of hiding a mess with trim, but this case may be an exception.
…and with the addition of bar stools.
Oh, and if you’re wondering, the sides of the island will be covered with concrete waterfall edges. We were just taking a breather from pouring the countertops and will finish them at a later time.
How did you attach the finish panel to the back of your island cabinets? The back of the cabinets seems too flimsy to screw though.
Construction adhesive!
What is the depth of the cover panel you used on the fridge side? In the UK we seem to only be able to get cover panels that are a maximum of 62cm x 240cm, which won’t be big enough for the fridge we are looking at using. Thanks in advance.
Our Ikea kitchen was the last year, I believe, of the Akurum system: currently the new style is Sektion, so I am not sure how much knowing the size of our cover panel will help… but I am pretty sure it was 36×96 inches. Currently, at least in the US, the largest cover panel Ikea sells is 36×96 inches (which is roughly 91x243cm). We used the full height of the panel (96in or 243cm) for the fridge + a “over fridge cabinet”. At the time, we purchased the largest panel they offered.
I have the same panel we are using for the kitchen island. Any suggestion how to hide a gap in bottom? Contractor cut it wrong leaving 1 side with a gap before floor?
Hmm, it depends on how wide the gap is at the bottom. I would try quarter round or cove moulding to hide the gap (wood or pvc works well). If moulding is just not the look you are looking for (we tend to shy away from trim/moldings in favor of a modern look), then you might just have to re-purchace the panel and have it cut properly.