Before & After: An Industrial Kitchen Created with IKEA Cabinets

updated Apr 14, 2020

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You know when something doesn’t quite fit. For Violaine and Gaëtan, the style of their country kitchen just wasn’t a reflection of their preferred industrial style. A Belgian architect now living in Montreal, Gaëtan designed the new kitchen himself in his spare time. They sold the old cabinets, tiles and appliances on the internet and grabbed a hammer to start renovating. The result is unique and simply gorgeous.

(Image credit: Marie-Lyne Quirion)

It took two months to complete the project and a lot of determination. Having to deal with an the non-straight floors is not an easy job. In general, Gaëtan was inspired by the Danish furniture brand Vipp. The cabinet doors are from Ikea (Akurum; Sektion in the US). To customize them, they applied a resistant black matte electro-paint coating on each of them and capped them with the same finish as the metal appliances. Gaetan hired metalworkers Atelier Gris to do the work.

(Image credit: Marie-Lyne Quirion)

The countertop is Portuguese marble. The vintage glass pendant lights have been painted over with black matte paint. The room features beautiful DIY pieces like the open shelving and the table, also designed by Gaetan. The metal of the shelves are the same finish as the cabinet doors.

(Image credit: Marie-Lyne Quirion)

For some sections of the metal sheves, he built small “windows” to protect certain items from dust and kitchen grime. Atelier Gris did the metalwork and the wood (walnut, identical to the table) was cut and installed by cabinetmaker Nicolas Côté from Niconova. The black matte finish faucet from Kohler matches the lower cabinets and the open shelving as well.Gaetan designed the table in the same height as the counter so it could provide extra space for food prep.