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After 20 years in the same house, Mom is finally getting the kitchen remodel she so desperately deserves and needs. The whole outdated room is going to be stripped and redesigned from scratch. There will be lots of decisions to make over the next month, but she called this morning to ask about cabinetry. And here's where we're hoping Re-nest readers might be able to help her.
IKEA. European off-gassing standards, high quality hardware, and a good blend of modern and traditional choices. Plus, it's DIY. I did an entire kitchen (with the help of the folks over at IKEAfans) back before I moved.
view grlwprls's profile
I'm almost done with DIY'ing my IKEA as well. And there's a door to fit almost any style...and the drawer base cabinets (like those shown in the picture above) are great for accessing everything.
view Thorofin's profile
here are a couple of options if she does not want to do it herself...
bamboo is obviously an excellent green product. she could have cabinets made from bamboo... another product which is sort of interesting is Paperstone... www.paperstone.com there are not too many color options, but i've seen a kitchen done using this and it looks pretty nice... i am also using it in a project i am working on. also, depending on the budget, you can look into laminates... laminart has some nice things. (if you use a laminate you can spec wheatboard and zero formaldehyde adhesives...)
there are many options for countertops... concrete is simple and durable, terrazzo (might be more on the expy side...) also, any sort of cermanic tile is considered green. you just have to make sure the installer uses adhesives with low voc's... fritz tile is another cool product that uses recycled glass and looks similar to terrazzo...
hope this helps!!!!
view ashleyfsu's profile
oh yeah... and any wood products that are fcs certified, although i think it could get pretty expensive...
view ashleyfsu's profile
Hire a local cabinet maker to custom build your kitchen. Do you know any carpenters? They can lead to someone who builds cabinets if they don't do it themselves.
Work with them on the materials and make sure that you guys use ply that is sustainable and not made with the nasty stuff.
Commercial cabinetry will be very expensive. Ikea has some traditional styles but if green is a priority you can do better than having materials shipped from Sweden. Not to mention Ikea uses non green chemicals in their products and it takes a little diy to get everything to fit right.
view art's profile
I think you can do better than IKEA too. Even if the formaldehyde standards are good, chipboard is still a bad solution because of all the glue in it. Plywood is better from this point of view, as some posters have already suggested.
For benchtops, you might want to consider this product recently featured: http://www.bottlestone.com/
view hughbert's profile