To be radical, or not to be

Ian and I have spent a lot of time at Ikea over the last couple of weeks. Since getting a catalogue through the door I've been drooling over their kitchen and bedroom storage systems. Being a hoarder I have a special fondness for boxes, folders, drawer inserts and anything else that reduces clutter and makes things easier to find. We were really hoping that we would find a kitchen that we liked the look of so that we could use their storage systems, but hadn't anticipated finding 2.

I'd always had my heart set on a country kitchen with either wooden or white cabinets. In fact until we actually bought a house I couldn't imagine even being interested in something more modern. One of our options is oak fronts for the cupboards and that would definitely be the safe way to go. Unexpectedly Ian and I both fell in love with a kitchen that neither of us could have dreamed that we would like - the shiny black one pictured below. I even liked one with lime green cabinets, but wouldn't go as far as buying it.



Unfortunately there are lots of reflections from the clutter (and really horrible blinds) - I think you actually have to stand in it to get the full effect.



Despite being black it has a really bright and clean feel because of all the shiny surfaces, although I can imagine that it would be a bit like buying a white car - every little bit of grease and dirt would show up on the doors. We also have the problem that we're intending to knock down the wall between the kitchen and dining room. If we had wooden worksurfaces and a wooden floor then the pine dining room table would match, but how would we furnish the rest of the dining room? More black units? Would anything else match?

Ikea have some great kitchen designer software that you can download. I've designed the entire kitchen, but we can't make a decision as to whether we should go with the safe wood option or be radical and modern with the black.





Decisions...