Ikea kitchens as an island, how to cover sides

[Lambzig]

We are ordering an ikea kitchen this week and six units will form an island (three back to back). Looking online, it seems we can only get cover panels that are the depth of the unit, so there would have to be a join on the side of the island.

Continuing the worktop as downstands is a possibility, but will cost an extra £1000, which feels a bit painful. However, I don't want to sit looking at a bad join that I think spoils the kitchen.

Has anyone had this problem and found a solution at all?

I think it looks best if you use matching doors fixed to the back and sides of an island.

You can get ornamental trim panels for the job but they are surprisingly heavy and expensive for slabs of laminated chipboard.

If your units have backs made of hardboard, you can even pull it out and hinge the doors on the back, and access the cabs from both sides.

Do something unusal maybe? Lovely tiles? Cheap sheet of hardboard painted a gorgeous colour? Map of your favourite place? Poster of Justin Bieber?

Oh that could work thank you. We have cupboards back to back forming the island so it's already doors at the back. Not sure they do the doors in the right size though.

The 600mm doors are actually 597 so you will have 3mm space - but that's negligible - IKEA metod carcass are (unusually ) 600mm deep - so a standard door would work - but it's worth mentioning on this thread in case anyone else wants to do the same - that most UK carcasses are 560 or 580 deep - so if you intend to do this you will need a spacer between the carcasses at the back - also, remember this may affect the worktop size too!

I think you will need a bit of careful measuring with your chosen kitchen. On an island, the door and drawer fronts are usually recessed inside the worktop a bit so spills and crumbs fall past them. You then have the thickness of the door at each side of the island to add on.

Depending on manufacturer, doors are available in a variety of strange sizes, as are the panels intended to go on the fronts of appliances. You could whizz a strip off the edge of a door to make it narrower, I think it would not show if you did it on the middle edge(s). It is easier to cut solid wood stiles than laminate, where cut edges tend to chip. It might be easier to lose a slight gap, or hide it with a pillar or bit of trim.

I generally love my ikea kitchen but the cover panels on our peninsula are wafer thin and chipped after less than a year. Might tile them, really like that idea

How about wine racks covering one or both sides completely? Ikea ones should fit, height-wise at least, and you can extend worktop to overlap extra island width.

Iheart , why didn't I think of the bieber solution?

Kitchen is very minimalist so I don't want something wacky and wine racks feel a bit cumbersome.

Looking at them, I am not sure doors are going to work. I am going for handle less with a groove opening at the top which means they can't be cut down without looking odd. The cupboards are 60 deep and a bizarre 37 deep, so the side will be 97. Doors come in 60 or 40, so it would be 100. Bit of an overhang on either side. I can't quite picture if it will work.

I suppose I can try it as the whole kitchen has to be put together before templating the worktop, si I could always order extra doors and take back if it doesn't work.

What finish are you having? is there any alternative supplier that does something very similar (which supplies panels) that you could match?

If the cabs total 970mm, the thickness of the doors either side will add about 30 to 40mm.

Weird that Ikea don't make doors for 500mm units.

Why not use cover panels? The long ones for tall cupboards can be cut down to various sizes, although I have to say that I personally would continue the work surface to the floor. We did that (with our cheap wood admittedly) and it looks lovely.

Thanks Piglet John, that's true, so it would only have a couple of cms over. I will ask the kitchen fitting builder what he thinks, he has an amazing eye for design.

Ikea used to do a 50, but this new system only has 40 or 60. Drove me mad planning the kitchen as I needed a 50 really.

Teddybee, I am coming round to thinking it's probably best to put in the downstands. It is just painful that the worktop is going to cost more than the rest of the kitchen put together including appliances and my ridiculously expensive choice of cooker extractor.

If you're going minimalist the downstands will look fabulous though. I'm sure I'll get over you not going for my Justin Bieber suggestion