Buffet Built in

I have always longed for storage space in the dining room. A place for dishware, display and table top lighting. Unfortunately, there is not enough room in my home. However, I have recently had the chance to help friends with ideas on a great niche in their dining room. Believe me, it is a GREAT niche, over 11 feet long and previous home to an overwhelmingly large, floor to ceiling, 70's wood built-in. Although it seemed we nailed down a great option from Ikea, I decided to research a bit more (yes, I tend to over research everything).

Dining room niche with built in removed:



Additional options:

Beautiful custom sideboard with rattan insets on the doors from Appletree Woodworks.
Free upper wall space for art and counter space for table lamps. Example from HVilleScoop.com
Sunset.com. A perfect match to their kitchen cabinetry. Add a narrow depth wine fridge, some glass front upper cabinets for stemware and there you have a swanky wine bar.
Sunset.com. Houses dishware, stemware, linens and pottery worthy of display. They might miss having countertop space.
Hoping to achieve a built-in look with Ikea's modular options, we were able to graph out the room adding upper and lower cabinets from their Effectiv line. The line is part of Ikea's workroom furniture. At 17 in. deep, it won't overwhelm the room like the previous cabinetry had.

Ikea - Effectiv Series
Ikea - Effectiv Series

The extra research has lent more ideas to this project. I hope my friends find them helpful. I look forward to revealing before/after photos once their project is complete.