When we bought our house in 2010 we had an 11 month old baby and after having completely renovated our previous property we didn’t feel like another project. We wanted something nice to move into without having to do any work to it. We paid top price for our house so we couldn’t justify any major changes.
The kitchen had been redone by the previous owners, there is nothing wrong with it but it has never been 100% to my taste. The floor is black, the units are dark wood and there is even a black mosaic strip going round. The whole kitchen looks very dated now,
A couple of months ago we had a leak under the kitchen floor which meant is has to be replaced. This has given us the opportunity to have a bit of a kitchen makeover. Our kitchen units are Ikea, naively I thought I could to go Ikea and buy replacement doors, this would have been a great and inexpensive option but unfortunately Ikea changed their door sizes a couple of years ago, so that option is really out of the question.
We don’t want to spend a lot of money on new doors in case we ever decide to have an extension or decide to knock through the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. So after carefully considering all our options we decided to get the kitchen doors resprayed. I’m convinced a lick of paint will completely transform the room.
The plans
New style
I’m super indecisive. I spend hours trailing Pinterest and browsing interior magazines for inspiration, everything looks great, but then again everything looks amazing in Pinterest, doesn’t it? I love contemporary style but I also want to make sure we don’t go for a colour that will look dated within a couple of years. I’d like to steer away from white or off white and with coloured units being quite popular at the moment there is a lot of inspiration out there. Aqua blue, teal or dark blue are quite strong contenders at the moment although I also like green.. decisions, decisions..
Floor
Our new floor is being laid this week. The black tiles, which we all really dislike, will be removed and replaced with wood effect porcelain. Much to the tiler’s despair, they are being laid herringbone style which I’m super excited about and can’t wait to see the end result. Herringbone style flooring is very popular at the moment and it really suits contemporary style.
It looks stylish and we got a good deal on the tiles. But remember fitting herringbone is harder to get right than regular brick-style, more time consuming, and therefore more expensive.
Handles
Depending on the unit colour we go for, we might either leave the handles as they are or respray them in copper or brass. Copper and brass are really on trend at the moment and they really complete the contemporary look. Respraying the handles will be an easier option as it’s easier to do and it means we don’t have to make holes or cover holes where the existing handles are.
Lighting
We haven’t really thought if we will be changing anything about the lighting in the kitchen. At the moment we have spotlights and it would be nice to maybe have a couple of pendant lights over the breakfast bar but we need to think about it properly.
So watch this space and I should hopefully be able to show you my new updated kitchen in a couple of weeks.
