I just looked through Houzz and IKEA Fans and although I couldn't find your medium brown IKEA cabs with your particular Corian choice I did see kitchens that had IKEA and corian. They looked great!

I was thinking though it should also depend on what you want to stand out in your kitchen if anything. I think a kitchen should be a strictly utilitarian room so I don't want a stand out star, but I know many do. If you don't think either are particularly flashy maybe you can go with some fancier lighting to liven things up.

I'm in the process of redoing a kitchen in a second home. We put in IKEA ADEL Beach cabinets and the counters are a Caesarstone (Dreamy Marfil), which is a creamy color with a little bit of veining (it reminds me of the limestone we have in our basement kitchen at home). I have all custom cabinets in our main house, and quite honestly, I think the IKEA cabs are great. I wanted a sleek look for this kitchen, so didn't want a busy granite. I also need counters that can take heat, so corian was not an option (the countertops in this kitchen were actually a white corian before we pulled them up, and they had a lot of marks from hot pans/plates).

Have you considered one of the silestone, caeserstone or other man-made products? I never liked the speckly ones, but I was surprised at the options now.

I also think the backsplash, lighting, flooring, paint color, etc all make a huge difference in the total effect of the space. It's like putting on a basic black dress. If I wear flip flops and no make up, it's not a very impressive look. :-) If I wear nice shoes, make-up, and jewelry my 17-year-old might be seen with me.

It's so easy to get caught up in "high-end" everything, and then question whether your kitchen will look bad by comparison!

I know there are Corian fans on GW, so hopefully some will weigh in. For me it works just fine in a bathroom (except where aforementioned teenager left her flat iron on and left a slight burn mark--which someday I will buff out), but I'd be worried about the abuse it would take in my kitchen!

At least my IKEA here has very good prices on Silestone or Caesarstone, uusally a special for around 60.00/sqft. Last time, it included a fairly solid white and a solid cream like limestone.

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