Sunday 17 January 2010

Our Kitchen

Well I have been promising to do this for ages but here, finally, are the pictures of our kitchen in its (almost) finished state.

I don't have any photos of how the kitchen was when we first moved in. Basically the whole flat was painted jade green and lemon yellow with silver woodwork which may well have been the height of fashion in the early nineties but would have been quite something to try and live with so the first thing we did was to give everything a coat of brilliant white paint just to make it a bit more bearable.

The walls were originally yellow and the chimney breast was jade green but this is how our units used to look with the walls already white (there is a lot of mess in these photos as we were just embarking on doing the room up!)

We haven't made any alterations to the layout so this has been very much a facelift on a budget rather than a complete renovation but I am so pleased with the results:

Our Freecycle Danish chairs have found a temporary home
in here but will be replaced by our eBay bargain G-Plan chairs once I have done them up.


We still need to get the door on the washing machine
- one of the many finishing touches still to do!



I love these hanging plant pots from Rockett St George that I was given for Christmas.
We never had much room on the worktop for fresh herbs but now we have our own hanging herb garden!


As I say we have only given everything a facelift but it feels like a completely new room and it has been done on an absolute shoe-string. My favourite things are:
  • The Ikea Docksta table which we got from Freecycle. This was serendipity at work as we were going to budget to buy one the very next month from Ikea.
  • The lovely engineered oak flooring which was second hand from eBay (this meant Mr Crafty had his work cut out getting all the old glue off but we saved hundreds and it looks a darn sight better than the old vinyl complete with cigarette burns that we inherited from the previous occupants).
  • The worktop made from reclaimed oak by Lidster and Son and sourced via eBay.
  • The Cole and Son Cow Parsley wallpaper bought half price on eBay.
  • Our metro tiles - half of which again were an eBay buy and the rest we bought new to match.
  • The blackboard cupboard - currently covered in messages from the friends we had to stay at new year - I am loathed to rub these off!!
  • The dresser unit which I used to hate but I now love thanks to removing the cornicing to give it cleaner lines, the colour (Farrow and Ball's Blackened) , the shaker handles (another eBay buy) and the wallpaper lining inside the cupboard.
  • The hanging herb garden (as above)
We still have the odd bit off filling to do and the cupboard door needs to go on the washing machine once we have the right hinges. I am also amassing plates and pictures to go on the wall over the radiator by the table but for all intents and purposes it is job done.

Hope you like the pics!

12 comments:

  1. It looks GORGEOUS! And I adore that wallpaper. I actually walked past a house near us before Christmas and happened to notice (well, they had their shutters open!) that paper on the wall. I've been actually been trying to pluck up the courage ever since to put a note through the door ask where they got it from!
    What a great way to start the new year with such a nice kitchen.

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  2. What a change - and so thrifty. I like your freecycle finds! The cabinets look so much neater white! I absolutely adore blackboard paint and have done a few small things with it myself. There is lots of inspiration in your post - I am intrigued by the upside-down herb pots. How do the plants stay in there? Well done, anyway!!

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  3. gorgeous! I love the yellow, its such a change to the room! I love it all! and yes, I'd like to know too, how do the pots work?!

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  4. Wow, it looks completely amazing!!! Well done you two. The wood is lovely and i adore the cow parsley :)
    You must be thrilled x

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  5. Oh Meg it looks so fab – lovely and bright! Loving the cole and son paper too :)

    And you have the upside down plants! They're on my to buy list for our kitchen (the cats currently try to eat anything that's at floor level!). Jealous now ;)

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  6. Wow. I'd seen the upside down planters before but they didn't really do it for me. But after having seen them in your kitchen, I'm seriously thinking of getting one - or maybe three - for mine! I'm also loving the splash of yellow.

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  7. Thanks for all your comments! The planters are very clever. They have a reservoir at the top wich keeps the plants watered and the plants are held in by mesh and a ceramic ring. Ingenious design.

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  8. It looks great - love the metro tiles too.

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  9. Hey Meg. What size are your upside down plant pots? Just looking at the site now and trying to decide which size is best! :)

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  10. I got the extra small ones. I also got the extension cables to go with them because unless you have very low ceilings you definitely need them. All they come with is the loop of wire attached to the pots. The long wire they are hanging on is the extension cable. Enjoy!! x

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  11. Thanks! Yours look about the right size - and that means x small is just right too! (And cheaper than the medium ones too!) :)

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