Ikea hybrids proving to be appealing, priced right
Swedish Door puts personal touch on Ikea cabinets with stylish fronts, accessories
A 30-something Ottawa couple, one in high-tech and the other a doctor, wanted a new kitchen that didn’t look big box, but didn’t break the bank, either.
Enter designer Kim Teron, who called on Swedish Door. It took her clients “less than 15 seconds” to choose the year-old local company’s white and fossil grey shaker fronts to go on Ikea cabinets. The cost difference over all-Ikea was only about $3,500 more.
“It brings it up to a custom level without having the custom cost,” said Teron, who added that the Swedish Door product looks and feels high end and comes in an endless variety of profiles, materials and colours with finishing touches to match.
Skipping custom cabinetry in the project, which turned a dated sunroom and cramped galley kitchen into a large, airy living space overlooking the Rideau River, helped pay for showstoppers like the massive island that looks like it’s floating thanks to LED-lit niches to stow electronics.
“It allowed them to take their budget and spend a little bit of money on some really fantastic finishing details, like a solid walnut countertop which looks over-thetop,” Teron said.
Launched by House of Fine Carpentry’s Paul St-Germain, Swedish Door’s Industrial Avenue showroom offers a dizzying variety of cabinet and drawer fronts and matching accessories, from floating shelves to crown moulding to range hoods. They work with Ikea’s range of cabinetry for new projects or updates to kitchens, office and entertainment units and wardrobes.
“Think of Ikea as the iPhone — we’re the app,” St-Germain said. “Ikea has their cabinetry system, we have a complementary system.”
The payoff is “a customized kitchen at a fraction of the price.”
Creating products that complement Ikea’s offerings is a growing trend, from fast-growing California company’s Semihandmade’s cabinet doors to Etsy vendors selling cheap-and-cheerful decals to brighten up furniture.
Swedish Door began when a customer came into St- Germain’s House of Fine Carpentry wanting custom glass doors with a distinctive pattern of two overlapping half circles to match her Grimslov cabinetry from Ikea. Meanwhile, St- Germain was setting up his own state-of-the-art finishing shop because his existing supplier couldn’t keep up House of Fine Carpentry’s demand to finish custom kitchens and millwork.
St-Germain realized that he could do what companies like Semihandmade are doing while saving customers the cost of the exchange rate and cross-border shipping — although he’s now shipping around the world. He’s also looking to expand his concept across Canada.
Swedish Door offers services for kitchen updates or total replacements. They can refinish existing cabinet doors (if they’re in good shape) with fresh paint, replace existing doors, or supply doors, either real wood veneer, solid wood, lacquered high-density fibreboard, thermally-fused laminate or high-gloss panels, to fit Ikea cabinet boxes.
The potential choices are endless, from ash to zebra wood to the look of reclaimed barn board or stainless steel,
Designers, renovators or DIYers can use the online Ikea kitchen planner, send their design to Swedish Door, and get a quote. It could be as little as 30 per cent more, but depending on the options, adding Swedish Door fronts to Ikea boxes will likely add 40 to 60 per cent to the Ikea-alone price tag.
Display kitchens in the Industrial Avenue showroom include a bespoke-looking kitchen with white upper cabinets contrasting dark blue lowers with those crossbow glass doors and a panelled range hood, a modern kitchen mixing high-gloss white lowers and rift-cut oak uppers and range hood and a traditional kitchen of stained maple.
“It’s Ikea on the back, on the front, it’s Swedish Door,” St- Germain said.
Chad Simpson of Optimize Interiors has used Swedish Door for 10 projects and has five more on the go. He says the product fits his growing “semi-custom” niche. Those hybrid projects range from outfitting the kitchens, bathrooms and closets of a high-end new home to being called on by an architect to customize an existing kitchen.
Ikea has the competitive price and quality compared even to some so-called custom cabinetry and is easy to grab right before an install or when changing a design on the fly instead of waiting for weeks, Simpson said.
But there are limited options when it comes to door styles, finishes and items to customize a design, which is where Swedish Door — which he says has high quality and a quick turnaround — comes in to help “achieve a custom design on a more modest budget.”
“I do get people who want me to install a generic Ikea kitchen, but more and more I’m getting people who want to go the semi-custom route,” Simpson said. “Who doesn’t like to save money, but still have all the unique elements of the design they want?”
LOOKING FOR MORE IKEA HACKS?
semihandmadedoors.com ■
The California-based company with a host of hipster adherents says that “thinking outside the (Ikea cabinet) box is our thing.” Since 2011, it’s faced almost 10,000 kitchens, bathrooms, and closets in the U.S. and Canada, expanded the variety of doors it offers to more than 50 and created products made of everything from reclaimed barn board to skateboard decks.
vangarde.ca ■
Concord, Ont.-based Vangarde Cabinet Design & Factory Inc. says it offers aftermarket cabinet fronts and accessories that fit Ikea kitchens. The company says Ikea has sturdy three-quarter-inch thick cabinet construction, quality Blum hardware, an extensive range of interior organizers and abundantly stocked mega warehouses, but “finally, there is a choice for more desirable cabinet doors and accessories for your Ikea kitchen.”
bemz.com ■
Founded by a Canadian transplanted to Stockholm, the company makes covers for Ikea sofas and chairs (even if they’re discontinued) plus cushion covers, bedding and curtains to match, all sewn-to-order from textiles ranging from simple cotton and linen to luxe velvets and designer prints. It even has an online design guide for creating looks ranging from Scandinavian Country to Urban Living using Bemz products on existing Ikea furniture. It offers free fabric swatches and ships to Canada.
prettypegs.com ■
Inspired by liking an Ikea sofa, but finding the standard legs ugly, a Swedish couple makes legs for the chain’s chairs, sofas, tables and storage furniture ranging from traditional to playful and in a plethora of colours. There’s also a blog on customizing Ikea furniture. They ship to Canada.
Etsy.com sellers ■
The U.S.-based online marketplace for everything handmade and vintage has a cornucopia of items designed for Ikea furniture, from slipcovers for couches and chairs to upholstered cushions for benches and peel-and-stick decals to jazz up boring sideboards or even kids’ bunk beds.