The kitchen renewal begins

We're doing it ... renovating the kitchen that is.  After a year and a half of living in this house and doing not much since we moved in, lots of discussion and floor planning, we've hit the go button and are renovating the kitchen.  Completely!



What we started with

What we currently have



Where we're heading ... I can't even give you a great mood board for this as it's in my head.  But, the elements are white cabinets, stone bench tops, a walk in pantry, glass splashback with picture shelves for art and cookbooks and our existing beautiful bamboo floorboards.  And hints of aqua and turquoise to bring in that beachy vibe that I'm aiming for in the whole house.  In my head it looks beautiful ... let's hope it turns out even better!  Phase 2 will include turning our super wide window into a pass through out onto the deck. But that's going to wait until we rebuild the deck.

What we'll be doing (other than retiring sentences that start with the letter W)

• Pull up the bamboo flooring which Handsome Handy Hubby laid himself
• Pull out the existing kitchen ... everything is going
• Move the arch which leads to the lounge about 20cm to the right and square it at the top
• All new appliances - pyrolytic oven, induction cooktop, glass range hood, dishwasher, double door fridge & freezer, undermount sink
• Ikea cabinets all round with lots of drawers
• Building a step in pantry
• Re laying the floors

The layout and spacing will be similar.  Floor plan to come ...

It's going to be interesting as we're doing all the work ourselves and so it's going to have to fit in around work and family commitments.

Will there be disagreements?  Yes.  I'm a planner, a scheduler, a list maker.  Handsome Handy Hubby is a wing it kinda guy.  So, my calendar of when things are going to happen freaks him out, and I've just got to take it one step at a time and not expect it all to go to plan.

How will we keep ourselves fed while we have to kitchen?  The fridge will relocate to the laundry, the washing up will get done in the laundry tub, and we'll be eating a lot of BBQ and salad ... thank goodness we are doing this in summer!

Both of us are thankful that we've waited a year and a half to do this. Why?  Because we've gone through a number of ideas for the layout and finishes over this time and finally come up with what we believe will work for function, look fantastic, cause as little disruption as possible when doing it ourselves, and keep the costs down as much as possible when doing a full kitchen renovation.

Let the chaos begin!