Design Details: The Kitchen
The second post in a midweek series where I plan to go through every room in my home to work out why the space works and explain what I've done.
When we moved into our house, the kitchen was brand new. The house had been renovated by the previous owner but circumstances had meant they had to sell, so it had never actually been used. It was perfectly acceptable - cream base and wall units, a central island and big cream stone tiles on the floor. It wasn’t really my thing, if I’m being honest but I knew that I could make some changes to it to make it work for me - we certainly couldn’t afford to spend money on it due to our now massive mortgage so I had to get creative.
So, that’s what I did. I removed the wall cupboards and sold them on eBay, painted the base cupboards and swapped the handles. I bought a huge Persian threadbare rug on eBay for £135, sold the island and replaced it with a table. I added a neon light over the chimney breast, wall lights where I’d removed the top cupboards and had a local timber yard cut me some oak shelves to measure. I brought in plants and art and added a central wooden chandelier light and the whole thing was transformed. They were only small changes, but they made the biggest difference.
A year or so later, I decided to take it a step further and replaced the worktops. The worktop was brown granite and the room doesn’t get much natural light, so I swapped it for white quartz stone. I also removed the cupboard doors (again, sold them on eBay) and replaced them with plywood ones. Over the next few years, I gradually made changes to the space, never really big ones, just small, until it became a room that worked for me. I spent SO MUCH time in the kitchen and as my own style evolved, I wanted it to FEEL like me so I tried several (okay, maybe four ha) different cupboard colours until finally, I settled on a pale yellow which works perfectly. My kitchen has now remained the same for almost two years which long term social media followers will find miraculous, I am sure, with no intention to change. Yes, it might have taken seven years but I got there in the end!