The New Ikea Kitchen

Hi Everyone!

Happy Thursday loves.  Today’s post will be lengthy and photo heavy.  Hope you don’t mind. If you’ve been thinking about remodeling with an Ikea kitchen, this post is for you. Disclaimer: none of the photos are edited and they are all taken under Ikea fluorescent lighting conditions.

Earlier this week I took a little fieldtrip with my camera in tow to Ikea to check out their new kitchen system: SEKTION

Now I gotta be honest guys.  I’ve had to say my “woosaahs” and make peace with my frustrations over the timing of this release. See, we purchased and installed our Ikea kitchen in August when we moved into the bungalow, and they announced the introduction of the new line in September!  Had we known this was gonna happen we definitely would’ve waited the few extra months to take advantage of all the options available with SEKTION over the AKURUM line. While we are happy with our decision to go with Ikea, this new system would’ve allowed us to optimize so much more space in our tiny cottage kitchen. Ok I’m done ranting now, let’s get to the pictures.

I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect out of the new system, but I’m pleasantly surprised by what I discovered. The most immediate difference between the AKURUM and SEKTION are the cabinet and drawer customization options.  There are several new sizes available (skinny, wide, short, fat, etc), as well as a new drawer in drawer situation.

I love this customization option as shown in the pic above. To be able to integrate drawers and multiple styles of doors in one upper cabinet unit really allows you to take advantage of tons of storage solutions.  This is really great for if you take your cabinets all the way to the ceiling.  I love the cabinet above the doors in this example. They also had some with skinny drawers underneath the standard doors. I forgot to snap a pic of that. Sorry.

There are skinnier and wider drawers available now which are great for maximizing cutlery, spices, etc.  One new item of note is the introduction of the 36″ cutlery drawer. In the previous system 36″ base cabinet there was a divider in the drawer which made it two 18″ drawers, like so..

The new 36″ single drawer is an IKEA exclusive design that you can’t get anywhere else, or so said the saleslady.

Another thing I noticed is pantry and unique storage opportunities…both freestanding and integrated atop of countertops. This is so great guys.  How many people out there don’t have the luxury of a walk in, or any, pantry for that matter. I love that these allow you to capitalize on a bit of floor space, OR save your floor real estate and integrate a food storage (and appliance) system into your cabinet design if space allows.

One of my fav new features is the incorporation of open shelving options for lower cabinets.

This is totally my style and we incorporated a bit of open shelving with the AKURUM system into our kitchen plan as you know

I would’ve loved to have these options when we were designing ours. I love the look and styling of the ones available with SEKTION.

Another thing of note is the completely new design of the interior fittings and makeup of the drawers and storage…even the hinges are different with SEKTION.

The interiors of the drawers are now supported by glass sides and dividers.  The old drawer system looked like this

With that being said these two systems are not meant to be interchangeable AT ALL.  If you have the AKURUM system and need parts or pieces now’s the time to stock up as they will only be available while supplies last until October I was told.

Speaking of interiors, a really nice new feature is the option for black brown interiors now

I think this option is a game changer. Previously the only options were white and birch, and if you chose dark fronts you were faced with the white peekaboo’s when the doors were closed.  This didn’t bother some people, but it bothered the hell outta me. I actually painted mine black along with my doors and open shelving so I wouldn’t see it. With the new darker interiors you don’t have to worry about that little detail.

Also a game changer: they brought back the oak butcherblock!!!

This is a good thing. When we were planning ours we were told there was an issue with the manufacturing of the oak so it was discontinued.  Our choices were birch or beech.  We chose birch.  But I wanted oak. Also of note, the names of them are different. Now they are HAMMARP and previously they were NUMERAR. And,  I could be wrong but they look slightly thinner to me. Our countertops are thicker than this. There’s also a walnut wood veneer laminate option that looks great.

Id keep this to a sideboard or other non countertop scenario though. Only because Id worry how it will wear under daily kitchen abuse.

From an aesthetics and display viewpoint it was nice to see a few islands with waterfall detail, as well as a kitchen with contrast

Sidenote: Id be all over this if it had a marble top. Looking for something like it at the moment.

A few other things to mention is the new counter depth refrigerator that’s available now, as well as the plethora of options for under cabinet and in drawer lighting. I do wish they had a white shaker style cabinet front, but they only have the shaker style in birch.

As you know we opted to splurge on Semi Handmade doors for our AKURUM cabinets.  We did this because I really wanted a shaker style cabinet with no seams and that I could paint whatever color I wanted. We chose the DIY Shaker paintable doors.

*Update: Ive been in touch with the folks over at SemiHandmade and was told they are all ready to go with the new SEKTION system, so if you are thinking of going that route they can accommodate it.  They’ve also got new door styles and colors available now too*

And in case you didn’t already know, there are a few brass hardware options.  I posted one on IG a while back, and here’s the other. Other than that there aren’t any new hardware or countertop options that I noticed

A couple more pics I grabbed

So . Many. Drawer. Options.

Hope this post was helpful. Dana also visited her store the same day as me and shares her thoughts as well. Have you been to see the new SEKTION  yet? Until next time….

Xo-Shavonda

Posted By: Shavonda Gardner · In: interiors