“Home idea with IKEA”: a kitchen that breaks the rules

Ugnė, our hero for this week, believes that living without rules is much more interesting. She is looking for challenges not only when spending time in nature, but also when returning home. Therefore, the kitchen in her small apartment is just as interesting and unique as Ugnė herself.

Meet the heroes!
These two charming girls have known each other for quite some time, as they are both IKEA co-workers. However, Kotryna is visiting Ugnė at home for the first time. Not just visiting, to be exact. The interior designer came here to renovate her colleague's kitchen.

Before the renovation
While living in a one-room apartment, Ugnė often faced a lack of space. Her kitchen cabinets were too small to fit all the items she needed, there was no dining table, and the worktop was too narrow to pursue cooking as her newly discovered hobby.

Kitchen in the hallway?
Due to lack of space, Ugnė's kitchen is located in the hallway. But it does not matter at all. Even more, our interior designer claims that using the available space with creativity and not necessarily for its original purpose is a great idea. Only when installing a kitchen in a non-standard space, it is important to plan it carefully. Maybe the free online IKEA planning tools can help?

When creating the new interior, Kotryna had three goals: to make more space for cooking, to provide a comfortable dining and working place, and to meet the expectations of the host. Ugnė likes neutral colours, so her new kitchen features RINGHULT fronts in light grey, while her love for nature is reflected with sustainable furniture and other solutions.
 

“In small kitchens, we often ask ourselves what is more important: having a bigger hob or leaving more free space on the worktop? The right answer is... Decide according to your cooking habits. Ugnė needed more room for preparing the food, like chopping, mixing and kneading. She never cooks in more than two pots or pans at a time, so I chose a hob with only two cooking zones and a smaller sink (with regard to the new dishwasher) to leave more empty surface on the worktop.”

Inside matters most
Besides the properly selected appliances, organising helps to free up the worktop as well. With MAXIMERA drawer dividers, VARIERA shelf inserts, glass containers or boxes, the kitchen cabinets become even roomier, so all items can be hidden inside instead of cluttering the worktop. The neat fronts in Ugnė's kitchen also hide a dishwasher that helps her not only to save water, but also to avoid the annoying dishwashing by hand.

More room for work
During the quarantine, Ugnė works from home. Therefore, the NORDVIKEN dining table is placed by the window to take up less space and to take advantage of natural light. At the end of the working day, the drop-leaf table can be extended to accommodate more guests (when the restrictions allow to have ones).

More room for fun
When Ugnė wants to take a break from work, she can turn on the TV, listen to music or open a book. The new BESTÅ storage combination has replaced the old bulky desk and now holds all the items she needs for entertainment at home. SELSVIKEN doors match the colour of the walls and kitchen fronts, so the cabinet looks neat and merges in perfectly.

“The more sustainable solutions at home, the happier the planet. Therefore, Ugnė's kitchen features a mixer tap with an aerator and a water-saving dishwasher. The SPORUP rug is made of 320 recycled PET bottles, and more than half of the materials used for ODGER chairs come from recycled plastic.”