After two years of me complaining (snarky pants 5,000) that I wasn't happy with the state of affairs Adam and I are finally getting a chance to redo the WHOLE damn thing! SAY WHAT! It's been a bit of a process to figure out what we want and to save up our pennies (pence?), but we're finally here. If you are considering taking the leap I thought it would be helpful for me to share our step by step guide. No matter what, choosing and installing a kitchen is a nightmare, but there are some things you can do to make the process smooth. Here we go...

1. DO SOME INSPO PLANNING 

It is really easy to like freaking everything online but it doesn't match your home aesthetic or color scheme. I found the best way to figure out what is a must have for your home is to start by pinning. Just pin a TON of kitchen or ideas you love. From here you can then find consistencies of what you have pinned that you really want to incorporate. For us, those themes were: wooden countertops, subway tile, fun storage, black and white tile and a neutral palette. Below are some snaps from our inspo board over at @thefuzzybee

2. RESEARCH KITCHEN STORES

We had a couple options for stores from Ikea to B&Q. After looking at stores and researching reviews we felt really comfortable getting most of our kitchen from Ikea and loved the aesthetic of everything. I also researched tiles separately and received samples in the mail. After some research, we settled on our vintage subway tiles and black and white tiles from Tile Giant. 

3. BE PREPARED AND DON'T MAKE OTHER PEOPLE DESIGN FOR YOU 

The next step is to sit down and choose all of your top and base cabinets, appliances, and design your kitchen. I found the best way to start this process is to physically go to Ikea and select items/touch them. I then also collected all their Ikea magazines on kitchen planning. This allowed me to choose the products in person and plan out the measurements and details of everything we wanted. 

Once we had picked everything out and had the drawings of our kitchen done we scheduled an appointment with an Ikea designer who went through our design and made sure everything looked ok with the cabinets we picked. This was super helpful and she walked us through the ordering, shipping, and installment process. We are putting the kitchen together ourselves but it was helpful to have these options in front of us!

HOT TIP: The one tip we got from our Ikea designer was that people come in all the time with NO IDEA of what they are doing and having researched nothing. We were like the most organized humans she had met. It made our kitchen planning process really easy and less anxiety-ridden that we had done the prep work to be there. 

We will be posting back here mid-project as we are ordering all the parts this weekend! Let me know what you think and if you have any tips of your own that would be helpful! GAH SO EXCITING! 

 Plus some items we want for our own kitchen here >>>

1. Domsjo Sink 2. Hot Pads   3. Plate Holder  4. Black Chairs 5. Glass Jar  6. Step Stool 7. Black Lamp 8. Fruit Stand 9. White Trash Bin 10. Knife Rack 11. Dish Dry Rack 12. Sink Chopping Board