Carlos thanks for the mention

On the built in coffee machines, I know 3 people that have them installed and none are overly happy. I know someone who actually removed one and put a steamer in instead, as they couldn't get it to function as well as the counter top one they had.... but she never uses the steamer either though.

Don't know if this idea is any good to anyone - Papa Goose can doubtless say if it is practicable or not.

In our (almost 40 year old) 'Ideal Home' bedroom the fitted cupboards (don't log off, I'll get to kitchens in a minute) covered floor to ceiling, even in rooms of different heights. The doors themselves could be hinged at different points onto the side 'walls'. To avoid a gap when the door was hinged higher, there was a deep drawer which ran on casters beneath it. On the end wall a 'Blende' ('panel') was fitted which covered the space up to the ceiling. (looks a lot better than it sounds here!)

I wonder if a similar result could be achieved in a kitchen merely by making the doors taller than the units - i.e. reaching up to the ceiling, with a 'Blende' at the end of the row. The 'roof' of the units would then be an extra shelf.

back in the states the opinion I often heard is that IKEA kitchens are actually of very high quality and best of what IKEA offers. I actually considered buying one but was lucky enough to know a guy who custom built kitchens and also head a good opinion of them.

On that thought I ran to the kitchen, opened up the cupboards and had a closer look. Wow, what a slick idea Longbyt..!! I would think one only needs to create a type of frame at the front (for the doors to stop on) and at the back (which a backing plate could be attached).

If you are thinking of adding these doors to existing cupboards then I don't know quite what you mean.
As far as I can see, our doors are simply hinged as normal, in three places on the tall cupboard doors, two on the small ones. The only difference from other doors is that they extend above the normal cupboard. For this top 'compartment', here is no backing, the 'back' is the wall behind it, though one might want something different in a kitchen.

If you want to come and look, we don't charge very high prices for a viewing.

Interesting idea. My only comments would that getting the doors made larger might need an additional hinges to take the extra weight and the shelf would be very high-up. Fine if you are tall, but my wife is only 5'5", so the space at the top would end up being a bit of a loss.

I imagine that in CH you'd also end up paying through the nose for such an extra "perk"...

Well, about ~12 months later (since starting this thread), we're in the new house and the kitchen looks great.

Most of the workers in the house asked about it and were surprised when we said it was from Ikea. The people who put the kitchen were real "profis" and did a great job with the exception of one screw that is cross threaded.

Let's see if it lasts the course...

Congratulations! Enjoy your new home!

be very careful.

I don't know about you, but when I'm in the IKEA shop I spend most time thinking about how to improve stuff. What would happen if I cut this thing in half and inserted this and added this sort of thing. IKEA sometimes looks like Christmas for the DIY man. But quite often when you actually try to put things together in a different way than intended, things will go wrong. It often starts with the material, which is often more rubbish than it looks and will splinter or disintegrate when you take a power saw to it or drill holes where there aren't supposed to be any. Sometimes the surfaces will also resist being painted and sometimes the solvent in the paint will dissolve the material to which it is applied. The screws that IKEA uses are utterly non standard and it can be quite difficult finding something similar if you want to keep in the same style so you sometimes end up replacing them all which might mean re-drilling all holes. And God forbid that you actually try to fit a decent working lock to an IKEA cabinet. Smaller things you can improve, of course, such as fitting decent handles without too much hassle. Worse still is trying to get information on IKEA stuff, such as what material is this and is it actually possible to saw this bit off and drill holes in this bit without having to come back for a second cabinet tomorrow to start over. Staff are mostly not interested and in the rare case that you find one that is this is and actually makes phone calls for you, this is not the type of information IKEA likes to share. So my conclusion is, there are other stores that have stuff that is more fun for the DIY man. I am quite happy with Bauhaus stuff by the way. And the Brocki is good too and more fun.

Pictures are worth a thousand words..

Yeah... that'll come in about 12 months' time... give a guy a break - I've just moved house and we're still getting settled in.

I have heard of a number of people in the US who chose to buy the IKEA cabinet 'boxes' and had someone custom make the doors. They were able to save a ton and get their custom look. The cabinet boxes are totally obscured by the countertop anyhow, so to me the quality difference between plywood and pressed board was irrelevant. They will both support the countertop!

We just finished my dream kitchen here in the US (and are now moving to Lausanne, hence my being on EF!) and I spent a lot of time on the GardenWeb website. Not sure it would be helpful to you in terms of options, but might be helpful in terms of ideas. I got a lot from it. Good luck!

eh?? Ikea sell pack of there screws etc, they even have vending machines for them by the large item pick up areas.