Ideas for covering rear body elements

Hello everyone,

I am looking for a solution for the cladding of 80 cm carcass elements on the back. In my L-shaped kitchen, one leg is freestanding in the room, presumably a corner base cabinet (width 127.5 cm) and 2 60 cm elements, so a total of about 247.5 cm. Since there is only one single cover panel with an 80 cm dimension (62x80 cm), I probably have to place 4 pieces side by side, which comes to 248 cm, fixed with the "Kücheninsel Montagehilfen". How do you place the cover panels next to each other? "Knirsch" meaning without a joint or how...? I would of course have to shorten it, but that wouldn't be a problem since I would have the saw side of the last panel facing the wall.

I would be very grateful for tips!

You don't necessarily have to use the Ikea products for the back panel.
You can, for example, also use back panels with/without a design.
I had my niche back panels from them, once with and once without a design. Everything worked great. That way, you only need one continuous element.
Best regards, Robi
PS. I only measured and ordered once everything was in place, so you can order with millimeter precision and don't have to saw, etc.

What kind of look do you want?

In the lumber market and also in many hardware stores, there is various panel material cut to size, and you can also have the edges covered right away. However, it then becomes a huge piece to transport...

Otherwise, there are endless possibilities, off the top of my head: make a seating bar from the back wall, or cover it with plasterboard and wallpaper it, a cladding made of profile boards.... see the initial question.

Post some pictures of the rest of the room, then you can get a more concrete idea. You also have to find a solution for the back of the countertop.

Regards, Wolfgang

Thank you for the tips on alternatives.
- I would have liked a bar seat / counter, but unfortunately that is out because the room behind is too narrow and must remain accessible (door to the neighboring room)
- Alternative suppliers: of course, that is always possible, but getting material and colors identical to the IKEA parts is probably a gamble... that would give me a continuous cladding without joints, but most likely a different color. Besides, a 19 mm chipboard of that size must weigh quite a bit... I'll take pictures when I get further along

I built myself a substructure. The wood for it is from Hornbach, called WoodPro, and is a laminated wood. Therefore, it is very dimensionally stable and straight.

In the end, the substructure looks a bit odd, but there is a reason for that. If I had placed the last vertical strut like the other two between the two long horizontal pieces of wood, I would have had to connect the front-facing side panel exactly in the area where my panel joint is. Since the dishwasher stands in that area, I could do without the full depth of 60 cm, only needed 55 cm, and was therefore able to place the vertical support next to the construction... so everyone gained except for the appearance. Now it doesn’t matter anyway, the dishwasher is in place, and you can’t see anything anymore.

The substructure is then screwed to the cabinet at the original points.

I realized the cladding with side panels, which I cut to size using a plunge saw and guide rail.

The method to connect the parts to each other, which the IKEA expert already mentioned, I only applied at the front because I came to an overall dimension of about 86 cm, which I couldn’t achieve with side panels without having a saw edge. But since there had to be original edges on the right and left, the saw edge had to be in the middle of the material. For the back panel cladding, this saw edge is towards the wall, so it doesn’t matter there.










This was the "trick" to connecting the side panels when sawing is unavoidable:



I sealed the groove with white Clou wood filler.

So, I was at IKEA over the weekend and checked out in the showroom how they handle the cover panels - in this case actually "sides". (Of course) there is no open L, as I intend, but at least the islands where, for example, 4 cabinets stand back to back. In fact, the cover panels used there to clad the sides are simply butted together, it is hardly noticeable and is mostly flush. I think I'll try it the way with the kitchen island assembly aids, as described in my first post. Pictures will come after completion (but it will take a while )