Two days ago, I went to Home Depot and bought a whole bunch of small trim so that I could add a trim design to all of my IKEA Veddinge doors and drawer fronts for the studio cabinets. Yesterday, I returned all of that trim. ? After giving it some thought, I decided to order Overlays for these cabinets. I hate that I didn’t make that decision until yesterday, because now that will delay the completion of my cabinets. But I really like the idea of using precise laser cut designs to dress up these cabinets over cutting a hundred little pieces of trim and trying to glue them on precisely. I’ve done that before many times, and it’s doable, but I just want to try something different this time.
So if you’re new to this studio project, this is what I’m working with. I have a long 20-foot wall with lower IKEA Sektion cabinets the full width of the wall, and then on the outer sections, I’ll be adding 60-inch-high upper cabinets which will cover the areas of the wall without wallpaper.
I’ll be painting the doors and drawer fronts after they’re trimmed out, so I haven’t been in a hurry to get those put on just yet. But here are the details of what I bought. All of the #2 cabinets are 30-inch-wide, two door cabinets with shelves. The #3 cabinets are 36-inch-wide, three-drawer cabinets. And the one #4 cabinet is a six-drawer, 36-inch-wide cabinet.
After looking at all of the Overlay designs, I’ve decided to go with the Anne panels, which look like this…
I’ve been trying to decide exactly how I want the Overlays to look on my cabinets. I decided almost immediately that I didn’t want a separate Overlay panel for each individual door and drawer front. I think that would start to look too busy on such a long wall with so much going on. So I know that at least for the four double door cabinets, I want one Overlay Anne panel to cover both doors, cut in the middle so that the doors will open properly.
But beyond that, I don’t know. I’ve come up with three different options for the drawer sections, and I can’t decide which one I like the most.
Option 1 – One panel per section
This is what I had initially thought just to keep things from looking too busy. I planned to use one panel (which I’ve shown in darker pink/red because my cabinets will all be painted the same color after the panels are attached) per cabinet section. That means that one panel would span the double door sections, as well as the three-drawer sections, and the middle six-drawer section.
I know it’s hard to see the detail on a mock up of such a long wall, so here’s a peek at just the left half of the mock up, which shows the full panel on all three types of cabinets.
I was sure that’s what I wanted until I saw the mock up, and now I’m not so sure. While I didn’t want it looking too busy, I almost wonder if that’s too plain. So then I tried something different for the drawers.
Option 2 – One panel per door section, large drawers treated individually
I like that this one mixes things up a bit. This gets away from that plain, everything-the-same look that Option 1 gave me, and I don’t think it looks too busy. I wasn’t sure about that middle drawer section (those drawers fronts are only 5 inches high), so I tried out using the same size panel on those as are on the larger drawers.
And once again, here’s a closer look at just the left half where you can see the design on all three types of cabinets.
But I did notice that they sell Anne panels that area very short (like 3 inches high) and very wide, so they’re for things just like my middle drawers. And that leads me to…
Option 3 – One panel per door section, all drawers treated individually
I decided to give it a try, and I really like it! I love those small center drawers, so I really do like the idea of them being seen by having their own individual panels.
Here’s a closeup look at just the left half showing the three different cabinet types.
So I think those are the three options, with my favorites being #2 and #3. I just can’t decide! It’s that middle cabinet with the six drawers that is the big question for me, and it’s because if I do individual panels, the corners on those really short panels would necessarily have to be a different (smaller) size than all the rest of the panels just so that they can fit on those short 5-inch-high drawer fronts. And I’m just not sure how I feel about that. Would that look cohesive? Or would those smaller corners stick out and not look like they belong?
Obviously, whatever I do on this long wall will be replicated on the other wall. But that wall is simple since there are no sections with really short drawers. Tell me your thoughts!
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.
