Have you seen custom toe kicks on Ikea Sektion kitchen cabinets? Maybe you’ve seen them and you had no idea you were even looking at an Ikea kitchen. Most people are shocked when I tell them my kitchen cabinets are all from Ikea.
I’m going to show you how I added my own custom toe kicks to my Ikea kitchen cabinets. Oh, and guess what? They are easily removable!
If you already know everything about the Ikea kitchen cabinet system click here and go right to my tutorial. If you haven’t invested in an Ikea kitchen but are just planning and seeing if it will be able to look how you want it to look, read on.
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Ikea Sektion kitchen cabinets standard toe kicks
Ikea kitchen cabinets come with two types of toe kick connectors. One system attaches to the legs and the other system attaches to the frame of the cabinet.
Why does Ikea use two toe kick attachment systems?
The first toe kick attachment, the one that attaches to the cabinet support leg, is for recessed toe kicks. The other attachment style allows for a more decorative baseboard or toe kick. The kind of toe kick you would find on a piece of furniture. It places baseboard flush with the face of the cabinet doors and drawer fronts.
If you look closely you can see that the Ikea toe kick extends in front of the dishwasher. The dishwasher still opens and closes without any issues. The leg clips allow me to easily remove the toe kick if I ever need to pull the dishwasher out.
Ikea offers a huge selection of different color toe kicks for their Section kitchen cabinets. The one I added matches the stain color I chose for the island. You can see how custom my Ikea Sektion kitchen cabinets look by combining trim on top of standard recessed toe kick.
The second Ikea Sektion toe kick cabinet attachment style
On the perimeter cabinets I didn’t need a recessed look but I also didn’t want the standard flush style their Forbatta baseboards made.
I wanted the perimeter cabinets to have a similar trim style as the island toe kicks. The island trim consists of a 5/8″ square trim with flat stock underneath. The 5/8″ has a 1/4″ reveal on top of the flat stock. In order to do this on the perimeter cabinets I would need the 5/8″ to be 1 1/2″ deep to accommodate the thickness of the drawer fronts – even then it would need to attach to the front of the cabinet somehow. Enter Ikea part #139205.
These brackets attach to the back of the toe kick with screws. Then slide onto the cabinet frame. Once in place you screw from above through the bracket and into the cabinet frame. The toe kick is held in place – perfectly aligned so that the cabinet drawers and door fronts still open and close.
I love that the brackets allow the baseboards to be removable. I can’t remove the trim I attached directly to the island (at least not without destroying it). The only exception is under the sink and dishwasher where I used the Ikea recessed toe kick.
DIY Custom Ikea Sektion toe kick tutorial
Let’s get this cabinet upgrade going! If you like my toe kicks and want yours to look just like them follow these steps. Otherwise, improvise using the spare part #139205 and your own trim designs.
Supplies to add custom toe kicks on Ikea Sektion kitchen cabinets
- Ikea spare part number 139205 – you will need two per cabinet. As far as I know, you can order spare parts for Ikea products with no charge. Select “adapt existing product” and enter your shipping information. You may be able to find them on third party sites.
- 5/8″ x 1 1/2″ mdf boards. You need 1/2 of one of these boards ripped lengthwise to go along the top
- 5/8 x 4 1/4″ mdf baseboard this makes up the flat stock or face of the baseboard/toe kick. You will need to sandwich two of these boards together in order to get the thickness you need for the baseboard to still attach to the cabinet bracket and sit proud of the cabinet drawers/door fronts. Try to buy at least one that will be the entire length of your cabinets so you don’t have to splice two boards together on the side you see. It’s okay if the backside is made up of multiple pieces. In fact, you could technically just use a small spacer piece under the brackets.
- 1″ brad nails
- 3/4″ pan head screws
- Sandpaper 220 – just to sand smooth the mdf after you cut it
- Wood filler I like this one and the pink one
Tools you will need
- Sander
- Drill
- Phillips head drill bit
- Table saw
- Miter saw/chop saw
- Tape measure
Cut your boards
Step 1: Cut your 5/8″ x 1 1/2″ top pieces
Measure the lengths of your cabinet bases and cut your baseboards accordingly. For the piece that is 5/8″ thick by 1 1/2″ deep, rip the piece down the center. It may be slightly less that 1 1/2″ that is okay.
Home Depot sells really long lengths of this trim. I bought a 16′ length and didn’t need to splice my base. Ripping it down the center gave me just under 1 1/2″ to work with.
Step 2: Cut your flat stock for the toe kicks
For the two boards that make up the flat stock, cut them the same length.
Measure from the base of the cabinet to the floor. Subtract 5/8″ and set your table saw to cut this depth. For example the height from the floor to the base of my cabinet is 4.5″. The stock basebaords are 4 1/4″ tall. 4.5 – .625 (5/8″) is 3.875 or 3 7/8″. I set my table saw to 3 7/8″ (measuring from the fence to the inside edge of the cut blade). Then I ripped my baseboards to that depth making sure to remove the rounded top profile that I don’t want.
Run your flat stock boards through the table saw. Then nail the two boards together so that they become twice as thick. Two nails every 2.5-3 feet should be enough. If you really want to over do it, use wood glue too.
Okay, honestly, I used my Ikea Bodbyn decorative baseboards for this because I already had them. However, I added a piece of 1/4" on top of them to get the thickness that I needed and hide them. If I were doing this from scratch I would sandwich the two 5/8" baseboards together like I am telling you. Which is why my pictures show the gray Bodbyn bases.
Step 3: Attach the top board to the flat stock
Attach the 5/8″ x 1 1/2″ piece to the top of your sandwiched boards using 1″ brad nails.
I painted the top board before attaching to my cabinets. This made getting my kitchen put back together much faster – since the drawers had to be removed to insert the new toe kicks and would have had to stay removed until the paint was dry if I painted them in place.
Step 4: Attach the Ikea brackets
You can see on my old Ikea Bodbyn Forbattra decorative toe kicks (they call them plinths) the bracket sits right on top of the base. There aren’t any complicated measurements you need to know. The hardest part is spacing them along the backs of the baseboards (and that’s super simple).
To install your custom toe kicks on Ikea Sektion Kitchen cabinets, first remove the bottom drawers from your cabinets. Doors can stay on. The drawers come out very easily by extending them all the way out and then lifting up.
Ikea instructions say to lay the toe kicks in front of the cabinet bases and mark where the brackets will line up – spacing them two per cabinet base. I only used one for any base smaller than 2′ wide that is also connected to other bases.
Once you have them lined up, set the brackets on top of the backside of the baseboards. Using your 3/4″ pan head screws, attach the brackets to the back of your custom toe kicks that you made for your Ikea Sektion cabinets.
Then slide the brackets onto the cabinet bases and screw them into the cabinet frame with the 3/4″ pan head screws.
That’s it.
Disclaimer: Working with power tools and DIY projects can be dangerous and post inherent risks. While we work hard to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of the tutorials along with the information displayed on this website, Hambels Get Real cannot be held responsible for damages or losses sustained or incurred in the course of your project or in the use of the item you create.
