Kitchen Overhaul Part 1

We're currently undertaking a DIY project on the kitchen which hopefully will make a big difference. However, I won't be able to reveal it to you until I reveal the kitchen transformation to date!

 Let's remind ourselves what the kitchen started out looking like before we did anything:

There were no integrated units in the kitchen at all (aside from the sink area- though calling this integrated is a stretch). It was mainly just odd bits of furniture- if you wanted to politely embellish one might call it a 'freestanding' kitchen. Ultimately, since an old lady lived here before us and we knew the work required, I pass no judgement, we just knew we'd need to start again.

In the interim, before the builders moved on to the kitchen and studio, I tried my best to work with the kitchen space and make it feel as habitable as possible. This mainly consisted of stripping layers and layers of wallpaper and vinyl stuck to the walls. Yes, that's right, vinyl. There were also some fairly nasty carpet tiles and since carpet in the kitchen doesn't float my boat, the flooring was ripped up too.

Here is my attempt at a, shall we say, 'bohemian' freestanding kitchen. You can see bits of vinyl behind the toaster. All very classy.

The sideboard was a Salvation Army find which I attacked with some Farrow & Ball and used to store all our pots and pans. The IKEA bookcase/cabinet we already had and housed our glassware etc for a period. The wallpaper had a Liberty print feel so I just left it to cheer the place up a bit. Or at least that's how I recall it, we likely just got fed up of stripping the walls and couldn't be bothered. But flowers make everything look better so just look at the pretty flowers and ignore the rest.

Obviously, as with the majority of this project, things had to get worse before they got better. Cue, demolition of the wall separating the kitchen and Studio to create a large opening.

Fun right? The mounds of rubble were the best- it was almost apocalyptic.

You'll see there was originally a sort of built in cupboard/larder shelving within which the washing machine was housed. Whilst built in storage is sensible, the configuration was odd and not hugely practical. So we decided to rip this out too and house the boiler in this location.

Here is what the kitchen looked like once mostly stripped out:

We had the joiners create a facing round the opening to mirror the existing door surrounds.