That New Kitchen

I mentioned briefly a little while ago that we were getting a new kitchen put in our house. Well it has well and truly been done [much to our great satisfaction] and I've been wanting to do a post about it ever since. I've been waiting for an opportunity to get a good photograph of it [you know, all shiny and sparkling clean and looking more like a showroom than a home, that kind of good photo]. But alas, the stars have not aligned in my favour and I don't think the showroom-perfect-kitchen gods are going to shine down on me any time soon. So I'm not waiting any longer. Besides, with these two in it, it's a perfect kitchen photo, in my book.

We knew as soon as we moved in that we wanted to change the kitchen in this house. It was dated, but the real problem was how very dark it was. There was not enough natural light coming in, the floor was dark, the pine cupboards did nothing to improve the situation and the bench top was a dark pink colour. We opened up more of the outside area to let more natural light in, which helped. And we painted the bench top white, which also helped. But it was still dark, and the stove was on it's last legs, and there was no pantry, and then when we found out I was pregnant, Charles was adamant that we needed a dishwasher. Ok we didn't need it, but it would be nice to have.

On it's way out.

In the end we decided to invest in a new kitchen, and make this house into something we truly loved. I guess for us it was also a commitment to staying here, as we had questioned many times whether this really was where we wanted to be. A dark and unappealing kitchen was working against this place. We also did our sums and worked out how much we were prepared to spend on a kitchen, as a percentage of the property value [our research suggested 4-6% of property value would be reasonable] and that significantly changed how the new kitchen would take shape. In the end it was the perfect amount - anything more extravagant than what we did would have been out of place in this little old house of ours.

A work in progress.

So this is what we did. White laminate bench tops, matching white cupboards [too much white?], a black kickboard, a pantry, a new gas stove and oven, and a dishwasher. Oh and a light olive-ish splashback, to add some colour without losing the light. And we absolutely love it. It has created such a light-filled space in what was such a dark area. The best part is, it has changed how the slate floor looks. The old pine kitchen brought out the brown in the slate tiles, whereas the black kickboard really brings out the grey, and the splashback brings out a greenish colour that we hadn't even realised was there. It is such a magnificent treat, having a new kitchen. We love being in this space. We just need to change the blinds and the lighting and we'll call it done.

Done [almost anyway].

And here's the perfectly imperfect kitchen photo. It really is the heart of the home and I love being able to share it with these two. We also wanted to get rid of the old kitchen in the most sustainable way we could [since it was still a perfectly functional kitchen], so we put an ad for it in the local paper, free but collect at your expense, and it was gone the next day. Waste not want not.