Don’t forget to watch our Ikea kitchen tour video on YouTube! Scroll down for “before” photos.

Ikea Kitchen Tour

When I was planning our kitchen remodel, I scoured the internet for a good Ikea kitchen tour. Viewing an Ikea kitchen tour from those who braved the trail before me really helped me understand the design process. Since Ikea kitchens are modular, it’s easy to adapt any Ikea kitchen tour to your own family’s needs. Aspects like affordability, layout, storage space, and design style all must be considered. Please keep in mind that this Ikea kitchen tour is what worked best for our family. Your needs may be different, and that’s totally fine!

Mid-Sized Ikea Kitchen Tour

As prosperity abounds, Americans have historically turned to “more more more”. Bigger houses, bigger and bigger kitchens. However, there’s a growing movement of Americans who are starting to prefer smaller, minimalist kitchens. I always thought I’d want a bigger kitchen, but I’m loving the size of this mid-sized Ikea kitchen tour. It’s large enough to have plenty of counter space for working. However, it’s also small enough that it’s still very quick to clean and navigate.

Affordable Farmhouse Sink

A farmhouse sink was a “must” for me, but originally, I didn’t want to buy Ikea’s version. I searched high and low, and the cheapest farmhouse sink I could find were tiny ones, starting at $600+ (and go well over $2k). Even though I didn’t totally want a divider in the middle, the Ikea Domsjo sink was the right size, and we paid just around $250 for this big beauty. Domsjo has since been discontinued, but in its place is a similar Ikea farmhouse sink called Havsen.

Maximizing Counter Space

Coming from a rental with pathetically little counter space, room to sprawl out while cooking was majorly important for me. The previous owners had the kitchen laid out in a highly ineffective design, with very little counter space. (See below) However, by moving the oven to the other side of the kitchen, we were able to create two huge stretches of counter space, as well as an effective triangle galley layout. (More on that on the Ikea kitchen tour below.)

Thoughtfully Designed Cooking Area

Don’t glaze over the cooking area on this Ikea kitchen tour. So many people make the mistake of butting a stove right against a refrigerator or wall. To me, having space to put utensils, plates, and spices while cooking is massively important. It just gets to hectic and messy to rely on counter space in other areas of the kitchen. This Ikea kitchen tour has 15″ of counter space on either side of the oven, although I would have loved to fit 18″. We considered moving the stove to the left to have a 30″ stretch of counter space, but again, a wall would have inhibited the stovetop cooking process. (Think things as simple as saucepan handles not having anywhere to go.) In the end, I think we made the right choice.

Motorized Waste Drawer

This is super childish of me. Before we had the kitchen in this Ikea kitchen tour, I used to visit Ikea and absolutely have to demo the motorized waste drawer every single time. It’s way too much fun to pass up! You just bump the drawer front with your knee or hip, and the drawer automatically opens. This feature comes in handy when you’re working with raw meat or your hands are messy, and you need to throw away packaging, egg shells, etc.. I’m not a fan of exposed trash cans, and the ones that go under the sink just aren’t big enough for me. This was the perfect solution. There is room enough for a trash bin, as well as a recycling bin in back.

Cabinet-Front Dishwasher

Don’t be fooled by the quick images of this Ikea kitchen tour. We did, of course, put in a dishwasher — and we love it! One of the major bonuses of Ikea’s kitchen system is panel-ready dishwashers. This way, you don’t have stainless steel chopping up the flow of your cabinetry. This feature comes especially handy in smaller-than-massive kitchens like ours, where a continuous, linear flow is huge to the overall aesthetic of the kitchen.

Ikea Kitchen Tour Organization

No Ikea kitchen tour would be complete with organization breakdown. Designing your own kitchen can feel overwhelming, but with Ikea’s modular system, it’s a breeze. Here are a few features that make this Ikea kitchen tour feel way bigger than it actually is.

Drawers Over Doors

I emphasized this as well in my Ikea SEKTION Cabinet System review, as well. Choosing cabinet drawers instead of doors will change your life! It’s probably my #1 tip in this Ikea kitchen tour. Think of it this way. If you have doors with shelves, you’ll have to remove everything in front first if you want to access anything in the back. If you even know what’s back there, right? We’ve all been there. With drawers, you just pull it all out, and viewing and choosing is a breeze.

Cabinet Space for Days

We all only have so much square footage. We think so horizontally, that we rarely consider what we can add vertically. On this Ikea kitchen tour, we chose tall cabinets to draw the eye upward and emphasize our 9 ft ceilings. (And we can still add more on top, if we choose to.) Since access up high isn’t super easy, we keep items up there that we seldom need to access. (Bulk ingredients, rarely-used cooking appliances, etc.) For centuries, most houses were much smaller than we have now, and vertical storage was common. If you’re dealing with a smaller footprint like this Ikea kitchen tour, building “up” instead of “out” will make your life a lot easier.

Triangle Galley Kitchen Layout

I did a lot of research before finalizing the floor plan for this Ikea kitchen tour. I’m no pro, by any means, but it was pretty obvious that the previous owners botched any semblance of a functional floor plan pretty badly, so I didn’t want to do the same thing. The square footage in this Ikea kitchen tour is a super goofy size — it’s much wider than a normal galley kitchen, but just narrow enough that adding a kitchen Island is questionable. While we could have added a narrow island, I really wanted the kitchen to feel wide open and accessible. In the end we made the right choice. Being able to easily pop from the sink, to the stove, to the fridge, to the sink again makes working in this kitchen so enjoyable. An island, as trendy as they are right now, definitely would have chopped that up. (Nor did we really need more counter space.)

Ikea Kitchen Tour Summary

I hope some of this Ikea kitchen tour helped you think through your own kitchen layout! Whether you’re remodeling or not, there are easy ways to incorporate minimalism and organization into any kitchen floor plan. In the end, keep up with cleaning and narrowing down the clutter is what will give your kitchen an airy, peaceful feeling.

Don’t forget — this is what our kitchen looked like before our remodel!

If you’re curious how our Ikea SEKTION cabinets have held up, be sure to check out our in-depth review of the Ikea SEKTION system.

What tricks do you utilize in your kitchen to make it your sanctuary?

Disclaimer: We’re not professionals or experts on this topic, so all we can do is share our own personal experience in hopes that it helps you in your journey! We always recommend consulting with the pros directly.