Details:

• Cabinets: Ikea Adel Blanc, Lansa handles
• Countertops: Ikea Laminate
• Backsplash: 30cmX30cm tiles
• Sink: Ikea Boholem 96cm
• Faucet: Ikea Elverdam
• Dishwasher: Siemens (but I don’t know which model number)
• Cooktop: Sauter sti 764 (induction)
• Microwave: Siemens hf23056eu
• Fridge: Siemens ki34va20ff
• Oven: Siemens hb760550f
• Hood: de dietrich dhd765x
• Shelf for glasses: Ikea Ekby Tony
• Light fixtures: Halogen spot lights with SS rims.
• Stools: Ikea Ingolf
• Flooring and paint: builder’s choice, we just left what was already here.

Cost of cabinets (sink and faucet included) was around 2800 €.

Cost of appliances was around 2600€ (thanks to amazing discounts DH gets at his old job).

Labor cost: 500€.

Total cost: Around 7000€ (including accessories, lighting, cost of new caisson for hood vents, stools, plus plumber fees for moving radiator).

We live in a 200-year-old (maybe older) building in a small French city. This building burned down around three years ago. Insurance paid to have it rebuilt, but following French protocol, the builders did not install a kitchen. So, when we bought it a few months ago we started from scratch. Our friend is a professional kitchen installer, so he helped us with the cabinets and then my husband basically did the rest (backsplash, lighting, new caisson for hood vents).

I didn’t want the hood at all, but considering the way our kitchen is open to our living room, I’m starting to think it was a good idea. The induction stove is awesome; I had never used one before, nor even knew what it was and I love it. I also started out wanting a custom countertop, but when we considered our budget and our plans for this apartment, we just decided to go with standard laminate, and in the end, I’m glad we didn’t spend thousands of euros on the countertop, I like the one we have just fine.

Below are before and after pictures. I have a picture of the Ikea-online-program generated plan, but I have to figure out how to convert it to jpg and then I'll post it to show how close the plans are to the results.

Finished:

Before:

During:

On another blog an American couple renovated a kitchen in Berlin open to the LR in a similar way, and their neighbors said they had "Americanized" it. Can I ask what your French neighbors think of your new kitchen?

Also, (I"m really nosy but we get so few Euro kitchens on here!) I tried to figure it out but I'm probably wrong...which door is the fridge???

Is this too weird or could you post a pic with the fridge door open? Even when I watch "Brit coms" on PBS I can't figure out how one copes with those dorm sized fridges.

Or if you don't want to that's okay. (I know I'm nuts.) :)

i 'spect the fridge is to the left of the oven?

i agree, as Americans we have way too much STUFF! i know i do. probably why i love seeing a simple,crisp looking kitchen!

Responses to questions follow:

scrappy25- Yes, the little shelf where the cereal, flour, rice and sugar canisters is was custom built. It had to be done like that because of the "fake cabinet" which hides the water heater behind those two doors. Our friend who installed the kitchen is amazing, he figured this all out and made that little ledge by the sink possible. Since the building is so old NOTHING is right angles, but I think he did a pretty good job concealing that fact.

gitananoel- The small handles are 24 cm (9.4 inches) , the bigger ones are 44cm (17.3 inches). The Lansa handles come in 5 sizes, we could have mixed them all up, but just chose the two most useful sizes for uniformity's sake. As you can see we use the dishwasher handle as a place to hang our dishtowels, so convenient. (I just looked online and I don't see these lengths available on the American website, there are still many different sizes, but not these, strange, unless I'm doing the conversion wrong or something.)

biochem101- When a kitchen is open to the living room it is literally called "une cuisine am�ricaine," and, since I'm American everyone thinks it is very appropriate for us to have a kitchen like this! Our friends and family seem to really like the fact that it's open, but, really, with our limited space and the way the room was already set up to be a kitchen/living room combo, we really had no choice, so, yes, therefore, I am a living stereotype!

We obviously don't have room for a real dining table, so we're going to get a table that serves as a coffee table and has a mechanism which allows us to unfold it to twice the coffee table size and to raise it so it can serve as a "real" table when we have guests.

Here is a picture with the fridge door open:

It's really not that small! Everything fits: lots of bottles, leftovers, condiments. We live in town, so I can just get whatever I need on a daily or every-other-day basis.

morton5- As for paneling the fridge, I wasn't here when the guys did it, but you just buy the whole cabinet from Ikea, plop the fridge inside and the hardware that comes with the fridge and the Ikea cabinet means that it all lines up and is really like a built-in fridge. I asked my husband, he said it was really easy and can't remember if the special installation kit was sold with the cabinet or the fridge. The fridge is a special fridge made to be built into cabinets of this size, it was heinously ugly before getting paneled, and weirdly sits above ground inside the cabinet box. Here are a few pictures of the way the fridge is installed:

I am very happy to answer any other questions regarding my kitchen or our "Ikea experience."

Very nicely done!

For those curious to know what 7000 Euros is in American dollars, it's about $9800 at present exchange rates. That's an incredible bargain for the kitchen you created, ponette.

Beau! Cuisine ! Magnifique! merveilleux !
If I remember correctly you and your DH were worried
about the Hospital look. You also had to search for Tile
in Europe as it is harder to find than in the US. I had
been so curious to know how you had been coming along.
I am thrilled to see it is amazing. You have a beautiful
french kitchen. I love the shelves beside the oven, the
elegant backsplash, the hood and especially how you
handled the window. Lovely sofit your DH must have built.
No pristine hospital. Instead you have a classy, fresh
crisp, functional kitchen in a wonderful French city.
Now a toast!
Félicitations.
~boxerpups
I love what you did with the backsplash.

They could do that over here (as far as I'm concerned anyway) and 'skip' a finished outside. It SHOULD make a fridge less expensive. Then ALL cabinet makers could simply sell 'Fridge Cabinets' so everyone's was part of the woodwork. It's been mentioned countless times on here how ugly that appliance is, unless you get FD. AND the issue with black sides on SS doesn't make people happy. A Fridge Cabinet, and a fridge that sits up in it, is the perfect solution.

Thanks so much for sharing!

Bon Appetite! :)

I lived in France a long time ago, majored in French literature and I'm still in love with Louis XIV chairs with escargot feet. I'll be doing a American version of "French country" that I call "California French."

It just goes to show you how small spaces can be an asset.

Felicitations!

In the living area, you could get an electrician to bring that cable cord inside the wall to the TV.