kitchen makeover

I've been hankering after a new kitchen for the past couple of years. There have been times when I've wanted to rip down the kitchen cupboards with my bare hands, but I resisted. Just as well. With the husband taking redundancy earlier on this year, forking out for an entire new kitchen would be foolish. Not to mention selfish of me.

But I needed a change. So out came the Farrow & Ball colour charts.

Since the gorgeous wallpaper went up in the craft room last year, I've been scouring the house for a place to have the blue background paper. That sort of sums up my decorating technique really. Find something new and THEN find the perfect place for it.

Sitting in the kitchen having a cup of tea, I was hit by the blindingly obvious place for wallpaper. The one bare wall in the kitchen.
I've pinned lots of photos of open shelving on Pinterest, so that was another idea I wanted to see in my kitchen.

I told the husband, and he agreed. He's worked hard over the Easter weekend getting it all done.

We bought inexpensive shelving from the DIY shop, which were painted using the same colour as the walls.

The walls are a shade of white. Much as I love a pure white, I don't want it in my house other than on ceilings. Definitely not on my kitchen walls, I'd end up with snow blindness in the summer!
I love F&B whites because they are so varied. There are three in the house now, and each are different. White, but not quite.
The kitchen has been painted 'Great White', which has a slightly greyish tint to it.

Having three shelves is great fun. I get to display my very favourite cups and books without it looking messy. Much as I love the idea of open shelving throughout, there is something to be said for closing a cupboard door and hiding the mess. I'd rather pick out things that I love to see and make a feature of them.

Now my kitchen looks like this, and it feels as if it's brand new. I'm very happy. The husband did well!
I love how the colours of the chairs seem to pop out more. I thought they'd kind of blend in with the wallpaper but I was wrong.

I've not yet draped the fairy lights properly. We only decided on adding the third shelf last night, so I left them wound up while the husband put the shelf up.


I wasn't going to show the rest of the kitchen, because it's just the sink, oven, and various appliances. I'm ok with the red tiles, but I do want to get rid of them now. It's likely they will be pinged off and replaced at some point later in the year.
So no, I wasn't going to show the rest of it. But a lovely lady asked that I would, so I have. Just for her ;o)