Saturday 1 February 2014

Home | Kitchen Candy

After a few days off from the Blogging Marathon that was the 21 Day Detox I'm excited to be back and talking about something completely different....our house!

Now if you guys have been reading along for a while you'll know that Dan and I bought a house back in September 2013. Aaaaannd, we still don't live there! I know, crazy.

It was previously rented out to students so was in a pretty bad state when we bought it. We knew there was some stuff that was out-of-date and needed to be done straightway like the plumbing, central heating and electrics but then there was one area I thought we could just live with.

I present to you la cucina, la cuisine.... the kitchen (and laundry/utility room).




We always knew we would tear out the laundry/utility but we thought that perhaps with just a little TLC (e.g. Damp Treatment) we could live with the kitchen for a couple of years and save up for "The One".

And then we realised the existing kitchen just wouldn't work for us. There is plenty of storage but no room for a Fridge/Freezer or Dishwasher (Princess Daniel doesn't wash up, but he does load and unload the Dishwasher very nicely, so for the sake of my sanity a Dishwasher is an Essential Appliance in our house).

So it was back to the drawing board. There was still no room in our budget to completely re-do the kitchen but we could scale down a couple of other areas and give the kitchen a £1500 allowance for a little face-lift.

And then the pinning/researching frenzy happened.

I love the look of a mix-match colour scheme, grey base cabinets and white uppers. I like open-shelving and clean, bright, white spaces. Our kitchen is North Facing and doesn't get a lot of natural light so some brightening treatment was a top priority.

Just so you can picture it all. This is my ultimate Kitchen Candy.








All Images Courtesy of Pinterest.

Got the gist?

So here's where we are with the big old kitchen re-vamp.

So far we have:

- Removed the upper cabinets and tall larder
- Steamed off the old lining paper
- Had the room re-skimmed
- Had new spotlights fitted
- Had new flooring fitted
- Bought and built an island
- Bought new worktops
- Bought new sink (we're using the existing tap)
- Had the plumbing adjusted to accommodate a dishwasher
- Primed the lower cabinets ready for their paint job
- Bought new handles for the cabinets
- Mist coated the new plaster work

There's still a big old to-do list to go. This weekend I'm painting those lower cabinets. The decision-making on the colour was extensive but we got there in the end!

I can't wait to come back with some before and after photo's.

In the meantime, a little house-tour will be going up on YouTube. I have lots of friends and family who don't live in Bristol so it's nice for them to see what's occupying all my free-time. It's a "warts and all" kind of tour, set your expectations low!

What are you guys up to this weekend? The sun is actually shining in Bristol today, it feels like it just rained for the whole of January, and I want to go out and hug those Vitamin D rays!

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