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We’ve featured many incredible kitchens on Clever over the years. From genius storage solutions to eye-catching paint jobs—and everything in-between—there’s never a shortage of inspiration. It also feels like every year, we’re still just as impressed with what people can do with IKEA kitchen cabinets. With so many options for fronts and so many ways the Swedish brand’s products can be customized, it seems like a great idea to look to the brand for giving your kitchen an update. So we sourced five of our favorite kitchens that show off IKEA cabinetry, from just the bases to the entire construction. We highly recommend browsing these IKEA kitchen cabinets to rouse any inkling of your own renovation.
This Stylish London Kitchen Honors the Spirited Sculptor Who Once Lived There
Architect Anna Drakes, the founder of Space A, was called in to restore a grand Victorian town house in North London. Bringing the building to its Swinging Sixties glory days, she infused the space with ample color and texture. Updating the kitchen was one of the most impressive parts of the renovation, where Anna introduced a chic combination of dark green, pale pink, and glossy brass finishes. She used IKEA bases with custom MDF fronts in Puck by Little Greene. “The cupboards were sprayed in this custom shade that we picked really specifically,” Anna says. “We wanted to do something bold.”
This Lively East London Loft Is a Piece of Feminist History
Sophie Williams and Lawrence Brand mixed gold epoxy with the original factory floors for a kintsugi effect. Despite supply chain issues and contracting snags due to COVID and Brexit, Sophie now calls the kitchen one of her favorite parts of the home. Although the gray IKEA cabinets are one of the few subdued elements of the space, they perfectly fit in with the contrasting Ultra Blue pop of color that lines the rest of the home.
A Tiny Berlin Kitchen That Isn’t Shy About Mixing Patterns and Colors
Graphic and purple-veined marble counters, checkerboard floors, and color-blocked cabinetry shouldn’t look good together—in theory. Usually, just one of these features would be the sole pop among otherwise neutral decor. Yet, somehow, Yulia Yushchik stunningly combined all three in her compact Berlin kitchen. The unexpected harmony of the monolithic rectangles in Kelly green, baby blue, and peach happen by way of IKEA bases with Reform Match by Muller Van Severen fronts. Though the homeowner broke the unspoken small-space rule of keeping it simple, the kitchen doesn’t feel overwhelmed.
In This Edinburgh Kitchen, IKEA Cabinetry Is Unrecognizable—In the Best Possible Way
Luke McClelland designed tons of high-end kitchens for clients before he took on the task of renovating his own. Though the Edinburgh–based architect had just a fraction of the budgets he was accustomed to working with, he was determined to achieve an equally bespoke-looking result. To pull off that handcrafted vibe, Luke cleverly refined IKEA cabinetry. He used IKEA bases with IKEA Ekestad and Kungsbacka fronts and the Handle Studio Matt Black aluminum pulls. “There are all these companies that do bespoke fronts for IKEA units, but we just went to IKEA, and we saw these ones called Ekestad that are oak veneered and oak lipped, and nobody seemed to have used them anywhere. We always get asked where we got them,” Luke says.
Light Takes Center Stage in Munich Stylist Marvin Unger’s Home
Munich stylist Marvin Unger and his partner Stephan pack a lot of punch in their less than 300-square-foot apartment in the west of the city. The space is full of mix-and-match elements, some with the goal of storage, some with the goal of cost saving, some with the goal of fun. The kitchen itself is a mix of kitchen studio, custom-made, and IKEA cabinet fronts.
