I went to Ikea in search of a plant. I left with kitchen cabinet drawers.
Every time I visit Ikea I take a look at the as-is section. Most of the time there’s nothing to be had, but sometimes, they might have the very thing you need.
Last you saw it, the coffee bar was still missing it’s drawer unit (bottom middle) as well as the upper glass doors. Why you ask? Cause that stuff was expensive… The drawer unit alone was $232 before hardware. Ouch.
That was until I walked into Ikea on a fateful Friday night, and spied this fellow happily sitting in the as-is department with an $85 price tag.
It was a complete drawer unit EXACTLY the size that we needed for the coffee bar. In perfect condition, fully assembled. I don’t know how poor little drawer unit got to the as-is, he clearly wasn’t a floor model as he didn’t have any handles, nor had the cabinet ever been attached another cabinet (as it didn’t have any holes drilled through it). I frantically texted El Granto at home confirming that yes that was the size we needed, and then I ran to the check out, having my own “Start the car!” moment.
When I got home, we tried to figure out how to get the drawers OUT of the cabinet, as I actually already had the exact same cabinet frame already installed in the kitchen, and just needed the drawers. However they just wouldn’t come out! After goggling it, I finally discovered that there are two little tabs (one on either side) of the bottom of the drawer. If you press both tabs simultaneously towards the sides of the drawer and lift up and out, your drawer will come unattached from the drawer slide.
El Granto then removed the drawer slides from the cabinet frame and installed them in our coffee bar and slid the drawers back in place.
Using our cabinet handle template, El Granto attached matching handles, and our coffee bar was finally starting to look somewhat complete.
With the new drawers, open wood shelving and filler panels all complete, its looking pretty good. Progress baby!
Have you ever scored anything amazing in the as-is section?
I might add: Beware of the drawer slides. They have a lot of sharp parts. I almost lost a pinky finger in the process of putting the drawers in place after installing the slides. (“almost lost” may be a little of an over-reaction… but I certainly got a good slice.)