What did your kitchen look like before the renovation?
As you can see from the before photos, the kitchen needed a bit of love. It’s definitely not the worst kitchen I've ever seen, but it wasn't to our taste. We only just purchased the house and we brought it with the intention of renovating it and turning it into a home that we loved.
What inspired your renovation?
We had a pretty clear idea when we brought the home of what we wanted to do to it. I get a lot of inspiration from watching reality renovation shows and also a couple of Instagram pages.
What kind of look were you after?
I really love the Scandi-style. I love all the natural colours and the clever ways you can bring in colour through accessories. I also really like the Hamptons beach vibe, so we combined the two to create something that we loved.
Have you done any renovations before?
Yes, we renovated our last place pretty much from top to bottom over the 12 years we lived there. We laid vinyl flooring throughout the whole house as it’s so easy to keep clean, and one of our sons has asthma and allergies so we really wanted to get rid of all the carpet throughout the house.
We also painted and redesigned the whole kitchen and bathroom. I’m lucky that Scott, my husband, is handy as he did a lot of the renovations himself. It was definitely a mission renovating while living there and so this time we made plans that we would renovate before we actually moved in.
The renovation process
The kitchen renovation was relatively quick and easy for us, we knew what colour scheme we wanted to go with before we even started: white, white and white.
The big decision was what colour to paint the VJ panel wall – do we go subtle, or do we go bold? We settled on navy.
The kitchen itself is quite large and we were happy with the practical layout and everything was still in great condition, so we decided just to get new facing for the kitchen cupboards rather than replacing everything.
We definitely wanted a stone benchtop, so we got the guys from Verto kitchens to come out and measure up and give us a quote. Other than that, it was just deciding on lighting and appliances.
We kept the oven and cooktop as they were in good condition and we wanted to keep the cost down. We did purchase a new kitchen sink and tapware, though.
How long did it take you?
Around two weeks, plus extra to paint and do the lights and splashback.
Biggest challenge?
Renovating before we moved in was a great benefit, but also a challenge. It was lucky that we were able to stay at my parents’ house, but we both work full time, so we only had weekends to get things done. The kitchen was actually one of the quickest and easiest parts of the house renovation. Also, it was a challenge trying to stick to budget!
Budget breakdown
New cupboards: $2500
Stone benchtop: $2500
Sink: $800
Ikea pendant lights: $350
VJ panel plus paint: $200
Splashback: $300
Kitchen blind: $300
Tap with water filter: $290
I did a lot of research on prices and brought most things online. The main places we shopped were Cheap Tiles and Bunnings.
All up, we spent just over $7000.
Favourite part?
It’s hard to pick a favourite, but I love the $115 pendant lights from Ikea and the navy-blue wall!
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