Studio Progress: New IKEA Cabinets Purchased, More Of The Mural Installed, and A Slight Change To Salvage A Floor Board

If you missed yesterday’s post, then the information in this post may be a bit confusing. So you may want to read yesterday’s post first. But if you’re all caught up on the change of design for the studio cabinets, then let’s move on.

First up, I got two more panels of the mural installed! I had ordered two extra panels just in case something went wrong with the eight that I originally needed. Nothing went wrong during that initial install, so I had these two on hand and got them on the wall last night.

I posted that photo on my Facebook page last night to see if anyone had any clever suggestions, but the majority said I just need to buy the extra wallpaper. *Sigh* They’re right, of course. So that’s what I did. Unfortunately, since this is a two-piece mural and not regular wallpaper, I had to buy two more rolls because the strip that I need for the left comes from Panel 1 of the mural, and the strip that I need on the right comes from Panel 2 of the mural. Of course. 😀

But it’s fine. The wallpaper is ordered, and in the meantime, I can get those windows trimmed out. That will go a long way towards giving this wall a finished look.

So what about those missing floor boards? With my change of plan for this wall, many of you remembered that I had been short one floor board in finishing the long 20-foot countertop. (You can see how I made that countertop here.) I had spaced everything just right so that those missing pieces would be in the far back corners at each end of the countertop, and hidden by the upper cabinets. Without those upper cabinets, those areas with missing pieces would now show.

I called LL Flooring to see if I could buy just one piece. Nope, I can’t. Did they have any samples I could have? Yes, but their samples aren’t full floor boards. They cut those boards into much smaller pieces to give out as samples. So if I needed just one more full piece, I’d have to buy a whole package of flooring.

I just couldn’t bring myself to do that. It’s not that it would break the bank, but it’s just the principle of the thing. 😀 I mean, if I absolutely couldn’t find another solution, obviously, I’d have to do it. But I wanted to make sure I had exhausted every other possibility first.

Well, I found a solution, and all I have to do is entirely change my plan for the office area cabinets. Just kidding. 😀 I will be making a change, but it’s not huge. This was my original plan for that wall, with two tall cabinets flanking the window, and a desk area in between.

Then when I decided to go with IKEA cabinets instead of building my own, I decided to eliminate the desk area (since I have an actual desk in the room) and fill in that open desk area with more cabinets.

So the plan was to have four lower 15-inch-deep cabinets installed so that they sit away from the wall a few inches, and then put a countertop over the whole span of lower cabinets, and then put the upper 15-inch-deep cabinets on top of the countertop flanking the window and installed right against the wall so that they sit back a few inches from the lowers. Those uppers were going to be open shelves. You can see the lowers installed with the countertop started (the original countertop that I made incorrectly) in the picture below.

So when I was trying to figure out a way to salvage a floor board for the other countertop, I remembered that I had saved a picture of an office done with IKEA cabinets from House With Home, and the whole arrangement looked similar to what I had in mind…with one change.

Since I messed up my first attempt at this countertop (more about that here), and it has to be redone anyway, making this small change will be super simple. And making a much narrower countertop that sits between those two end tower cabinets will free up just enough of the floor boards for me to finish up the long 20-foot countertop. And since I’m using 15-inch-deep cabinets as lowers and uppers in this section of the room, I like the look of Katie’s end cabinets (i.e., not separated by a countertop) much better than my original plan. It would be different if I were using 24-inch-deep lowers.

So with these changes that I’m making, I needed more cabinets from IKEA. The two cabinets that I had planned on using as upper cabinets on the long mural wall are now being moved to the area just inside the door coming from the breakfast room.

But I needed more cabinets to go with them to complete the wall. I decided to keep things simple and just stick with all cabinets with shelves. Since they’ll all be 15 inches deep, I didn’t see any need to have drawers since drawer boxes would just take up valuable storage space, and it’s less likely that things will get lost on the shelves in the back of a 15-inch-deep cabinet.

So the cabinets will be 60 inches wide and 90 inches high, plus I’ll add the same base as I added to the rest, as well as crown molding. The 40-inch-tall cabinets that I already have will go on the bottom, and then new 30-inch-tall cabinets will go on top of those, and then the top will be finished off with 20-inch-tall cabinets, giving me a total of 90 inches of height.

And while I was at it, I also ordered two 20-inch-high drawer units to incorporate into the two end cabinet towers in the office area, as well as doors for the two upper cabinets I already have. So the finished look will be something closer to this…

Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.