Our kitchen renovation: before & after
SHOP OUR KITCHEN: *Solid Oak Worktops - Worktop Express | Dulux "Rich Black" (cabinet paint) | Topps Tiles Metro White Tile | *Topps Tiles Berkeley Charcoal Tile | *Habitat Boyd Light | Butler Sink | Matt Black Tap | *La Redoute Hiba Oak Shelves | *Dowsing & Reynolds MODERNIST Large Knurled Knob | *Dowsing & Reynolds SKYSCRAPER Knurled Handle | All plants - Homebase | Accessories - *Matalan / *La Redoute & Homesense
I can’t believe I can finally say this but our kitchen is DONE! Apart from a few final tweaks (we’re ordering a piece of raw oak to have fitted as a bar table, as well as ordering a couple of prints and putting up a hanging plant pot), but aside from a few finishing touches we’re complete! I couldn’t wait to share the final result with you all (I’ll of course share the bar area once that’s complete too but was itching to share this for now!).
So; how it all started.. one weekend I was on Pinterest (of COURSE it started on Pinterest!), but I was looking at black kitchens and had the idea to upclycle and paint our kitchen cabinets. I pitched the idea to Ben and he said he didn’t mind the idea and we’d think about it, and by the Sunday I’d bought the paint and started work on the cabinets (your girl knows how to sell in an idea haha!).
When we moved in we said we wouldn’t touch the kitchen or bathroom for a year or two, as although they were slightly dated and not to our taste, they’re the most expensive rooms in the house to renovate and we just didn’t have the budget so we decided to leave it.
Until that weekend; 6 month into our home journey I thought about upcycling the cabinets - “just a coat of paint and a change of handles” she said.
OUR KITCHEN BEFORE:
What we kept: The only thing we really kept, other than the layout of the kitchen, was the kitchen cabinets (bar the top ones we removed). I decided to upcycle the existing cabinets to save money, we used Dulux 'Rich Black' as the paint, and switched handles to Dowsing & Reynolds ones (they're super hard wearing and look SO expensive!).
What we changed: What didn't we change haha! The original plan was to just upcycle the cabinets but oh how that changed!
We replaced our old worktops with these beautiful Worktop Express Oak Worktops (best decision we ever made!), we changed our old sink for a butler sink (found this one in the sale from Tap Warehouse and we love it!), I ordered this bargain matt black tap on eBay for £25 and we also swapped the top cabinets for these gorgeous La Redoute open shelves (read more about our open shelves and how we style them HERE!).
Oh, and we also changed the wall & floor tiles aka the biggest change of our renovation! For the wall tiles we opted for these White Metro Tiles from Topps Tiles and for the floors we went for these stunning Berkeley Essence Tiles in 'Charcoal' from Topps Tiles - I adore these floor tiles, they make such a statement & make me so happy every time I'm in the kitchen!
OUR KITCHEN AFTER:
SHOP OUR KITCHEN: *Solid Oak Worktops - Worktop Express | Dulux "Rich Black" (cabinet paint) | Topps Tiles Metro White Tile | *Topps Tiles Berkeley Charcoal Tile | *Habitat Boyd Light | Butler Sink | Matt Black Tap | *La Redoute Hiba Oak Shelves | *Dowsing & Reynolds MODERNIST Large Knurled Knob | *Dowsing & Reynolds SKYSCRAPER Knurled Handle | All plants - Homebase | Accessories - *Matalan / *La Redoute & Homesense
THE WORKTOPS:
Well; that idea then turned into “well what’s the point of having nice painted cabinets with new handles if we’ve got our old worktops?”, which is when we started looking for new kitchen worktops - I asked you guys for your recommendations for amazing worktops that don’t break the bank, Worktop Express came back as the top recommendation by far. With so many of you using them, we luckily have a store near us so we popped down and picked up a samples of the Solid Oak; we worked our for our whole kitchen with delivery and upstairs it would cost £380 which I thought was an amazing price!
We’d set aside a Saturday to head down to Worktop Express and order our Solid Oak worktops, then on the Friday I was in touch with the marketing team who very kindly placed our order for us which we were so overwhelmed with! We’d set aside the money to purchase them (I still think £380 is a bloody amazing price as I thought for the quality and finish they’d cost so much more - they look amazing!!).
THE TILES:
Next up was our biggest change - the tiles!! Our house has always been a little mismatch from the previous owners decor, we had a different floor in the kitchen, hallway and downstairs bathroom and I wanted to have the same flooring throughout so it was more concise!
We opted for the Berkeley Charcoal Tile from Topps Tiles and I cannot tell you how happy we are with the tiles! They look so beautiful and reflect the light SO nicely! We’ve had so many comments about them; both from you guys online and anyone who has visited since the Reno (even the DPD lady commented the other day haha!).
I love that when we first walk into our house the tiles are the first thing you see - they make me so happy every time I look at them! Topps Tiles VERY kindly sent us the floor tiles in exchange for coverage and pictures - but we’d had our heart set on these tiles for quite some time and would have bought them regardless - I can honestly say they’d be worth every damn penny because what a beautiful statement they make!
As for the wall tiles, we opted for a White Metro Tile; we wanted something classic - I went for white as they brighten up the room so much and really open out the space! We went for white grout too for a clean finish - I couldn’t be happier with the finished look! (The metro tiles were also from Topps Tiles, we paid for them but they were discounted).
REPLACING THE TOP CABINETS WITH SHELVES:
Another big change for us was removing the top cabinets, the cabinets before we painted them were quite a dark wood and I felt like they really closed the room in and made it feel smaller than it was. We decided to remove the cabinets and replace them with open shelves and I think it was one of the best decisions we made in that room!!
The space to me looks so much bigger and brighter now we’ve removed the cabinets (especially as they went up to the ceiling and I felt like it made the room look shorter!).
Also I cannot tell you how many people told us not to loose the cabinets as we’d loose too much cupboard space, but it was honestly the best thing we did! If you have a gut feeling about something, just do it!! Regardless of what anyone else thinks!
I don’t think we’ve lost much space as we can still fit all of our plates and glassware on the shelves which is what we had in the cupboards before. It’s also good because it’s made us have a clear out and get rid of crockery and glassware we weren’t using!
THE CABINETS:
The idea was to always keep our original cabinets as we didn't have a budget to replace the whole kitchen (plus I knew a lick of paint would completely change them so thought it was wasted money!).
I found the shade "Rich Black" from Dulux and instantly fell in love, it's got a lovely rich, blue undertone and was the exact shade I was looking for! We bought the Easycare Kitchen paint in Matt which is washable and wipebable!
I wanted to update the handles, a friend of mine recommended Dowsing & Reynolds and oh my GOD I couldn't recommend them anymore! There hardware and handles are amazing - such good quality, hard wearing and they look SO expensive (how much of a difference has painting the cabinets and changing the handles made?!).
Our long handles are the: SKYSCRAPER Knurled Handle (*gifted) and our circle handles are the: MODERNIST Large Knurled Knob (*gifted)
THE LIGHTS:
We didn’t actually have any kitchen lights before, just a bare bulb - we left it as we didn’t plan to do anything to the kitchen. But when we decided to go ahead with the renovation; I spent AGES looking for the perfect lights - I initially wanted something quite industrial but just couldn’t find anything I loved!
When I came across these Habitat Boyd Lights I just KNEW they were the right lights for the kitchen! I wanted matching lights for both ends of the room and I love how they look - I think they complete the kitchen so beautifully and I’m honestly so happy with the final result!
It took around 3/4 weeks in total, we had to move our whole kitchen into the lounge and were without our worktops, sink and oven for a few days which was stressful but we worked around it and we’re finally putting the kitchen back together - it feels so good to have everything back to the way we want it; and I’m so excited to be able to use our beautiful kitchen now!!
The dust was a bloody mare and I absolutely admire anyone who lives through a renovation because it’s such an upheaval! But oh my GOD was it worth it!!
I feel like I’ve rambled a lot but then again there was so much I wanted to cover! I loved dressing the room (always my favourite part), and I’ll link everything I can underneath all of the pictures so you can shop anything you’d like!
If you have any questions or would like to know anything else then please leave a comment or DM me! xo
*Gifted / discounted items from La Redoute, Topps Tiles, Dowsing & Reynolds, Habitat and Worktop Express. All opinions are my own, images by Amber-Rose.