Budget Kitchen Makeover

From this...

This kitchen had a coal wet back fire which had burnt though its flue and was dispersing ash throughout the house.

The wall paper was dated and the joinery looked tired but was in a sound condition.

The floor vinyl was dark and as the kitchen was situated on the shady side of the house and never received any sunlight it made the room feel gloomy.

There was not enough bench space and the fridge was in an akward position beside the back door, this also made the room look smaller.

The aim was to lighten the space, make it more bright and cheery, create more bench space, remove the coal fire, and resite the fridge.

This was achieved by removing the floor vinyl and sanding and polyurethaning the existing timber floor boards.

The coal burner was removed and all the ash that went with it! This allowed for more space along this wall and the joinery was moved to make room for the fridge.

The existing wallpaper was removed and replaced with a fine vertical squiggly line textured wallpaper. This has yellow and blue stripes in varying depths of colour. A subtle pattern that would not dominate the space.

To this!

The cupboard doors were removed an the carcase of the joinery was repainted in a dusky blue. This colour enhanced the existing timber door fronts and made them look warmer, and worked well with the existing yellow formica bench top. The ceiling was painted a crisp white as it had been severely discoloured by the burnt out flue. New spot lights were added to the ceiling making the space brighter.
	A simple indian cotton blue and yellow check roman blind was made for the kitchen box window to keep in the heat at night.
Overhead cupboards were relocated from the opposite wall and remaid adding a wine rack and open shelves with a new laminated timber top. All this was done for a minimal price. Most of the work was done by the owners so this meant that they could afford to purchase a new timber bench top. The largest outlays were the wallpaper, the new timber bench top and the sanding and polyurethaning of the floor.

A lot can be achieved with a little imagination.