Modern Country Kitchen Makeover...

I've been (very pleasantly) over-whelmed with the number of emails I've had about our kitchen, after showing its dramatic DIY makeover on my Summary of 2010 at Modern Country Style. Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know what you'd love to see more of.

I whizzed through showing our kitchen makeover briefly in July but I think the time has come to unpack the whole makeover process more slowly in response to your requests.

As a kind of enticement of what's to come in future posts, I'd love you to come with me and let me show you around our old kitchen.

Coming? Great!

Here's the first peep, through the old dining room door....

There, in all its orange glory, is our old kitchen. To be kind to the previous owners (the 'before' photos are from house details pre-purchase), I think the wall colour is more of a sunset gold. But to me, it screams ORANGE!

I'm not an orange fan. Oranges, yummy. Highlighters, maybe. But walls? Oh no, siree. Especially orange walls AND orange and blue tiles.

*shiver of horror*

Can you see it? Do you need a closer look? Would I ever deny you?!! Come on through.....

The problem with this orange kitchen and my orange 'allergy' (call me a drama queen if you will but it may as well be an allergy) is that I so dislike the colour that even the things I *did* like were shrouded in orange-rage mist.

  

Because of the strong wall colour, all the other surfaces seemed to reflect the orange tones.

Like being in a giant egg yolk. Food-related so I suppose topical for a kitchen but not the lovely Modern Country Kitchen I yearned for!

Coming soon to a screen near you.....
How To Makeover Your Kitchen: from drab to fab!

 

I'm linking with my favourite parties in my sidebar.

Modern Country Kitchen Reveal

Wooooooohoooooooooooooh! I know you're all so excited. Yes, I can hear you chomping at the bit but I'm here to tell you that the kitchen reveal is finally here. I've been literally holding myself back by the reins in order to make myself not spill all the beans on day one. Must. Hold. Back.Must. Hold. Back. Repeat. Ad. Nauseum.

Before I start, please could I ask you something personal? I'm so pleased and happy to have new Followers (thank you, thank you, thank you) but if you join and don't let me know then I don't currently know how to recognise newcomers in the list of Followers. I really want to make you feel welcome and wanted and warm so please, please leave a comment or email me?

So, Modern Country Stylers, we started with this:


What I've been most pleased with is how incredibly different the aspects that we *haven't* changed look. The kitchen units themselves are cream shaker-style and the beech worktops both look better than I could have imagined. The wood had obviously been reflecting the dayglo orange of the walls previously. As soon as we painted, they took on a beautiful mellow hue.


I don't know about you but when I'm doing up a room I make myself hold back all the lovely accessories I've bought until every last drop of paint is rolled on, every last inch of sealant is applied. It's like a carrot of loveliness dangling on a stick for me. Signing to me like a seductive siren, to complete the ruddy room if it's the last thing I do.

Isn't it one of life's fantastic moments when you stand back and survey your hard work coming together. A real 'aaaaaah' *deep breath out*. It means I can get out all the goodies I've been savingup, making a fantastic moment almost deliriously ecstatic, to be quite honest.

But I'm racing ahead of myself again. Soooo much excitment! Hard to contain.

I meant to break down the process and tell you what we've done in the kitchen. So let's just rewind for a moment or two and I can share with you what I've been up to.

Here's the list......

We replaced the dark brown plinths with cream ones to match the units, which really opened everything up.


We moved the boiler up out of the kitchen to the airing cupboard in the bathroom......

....which meant we could add open beech shelving in the newly acquired space.

We removed the blue and orange tiles and added beech backstands around most of the kitchen plus cream tiles behind the sink and cooker.


Here's the before photo again to save you scrolling up and down because if there's one thing I hate it's scrolling up and down in a reveal. I love to check back to see what's been accomplished but too much scrolling and the red mist falls.


We tiled the shabby mdf back doorstep with slate tiles.

We replaced the small wooden door knobs with large wooden doorknobs.

We painted the room with Farrow and Ball Blue Grey and Farrow and Ball White Tie. Oooh, I love me some Farrow and Ball. Yes, siree, I do. The intensity and quality of colour make them the best paints around, in my opinion.

We painted the back door gloss white. to replace varnished orangey wood. Another big change. It's quite dark in this part of the room so this white helps to lighten it all up.


We changed the plugs from standard white to flat steel (the flat-screen tv of the plug world).


And lastly, we replaced the door handles with cast iron black ones.




I'm linking to the weekend parties on my sidebar.

Modern Country Kitchen: shelf reveal

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to our completed kitchen shelves. Please try to avert your peeping eyes from the gorgeous paint colour changes....more on that to come! Never let it be said I don't spoil you. ;-)

Take a peek at the 'before' photo below. Do you see that corner with the ugly old boiler? That's the space I was working with for this project. What a huuuuuuuuge waste of potential, as well as a humungous eyesore.

We had the boiler moved upstairs to the bathroom airing cupboard. Then our lovely carpenter came and installed three beech shelves and upstands to match the existing beech worktops.

I've so enjoyed toying with ideas of how to fill this whole space. So, so, soooooooooooo enjoyed it. I loved the whole process. Loved, loved, L.O.V.E.D.....Should that go here?.............Can I fit that in there?.......................I'm not sure about those.............Aaaah, now that's more like it!!

Here's the shelf-by-shelf lowdown. Take it from the top......

And in second place...........

And, last but not least, the bottom shelf........

And, now, a serious moment, if you please. Here, revealed for the first time just for you, is the whole gamut of shelvery (that *so* should be a word):

To be honest, I couldn't really help but improve on the monstrosity that was there before but I really am glad we bit the bullet and got the boiler moved. It was an expense but soooo worth it! Look at all the space we've gained!


I've got lots of my favourite kitchen pieces out on show now, as well as practical items easily to hand. No more fishing around in the back of cupboards for the flour/sugar/ rice (not that my kitchen cupboards are anything but the epitome of organisation, you understand....).

This post is linked to:

Who knew shelf-stacking could be so much fun?!

I have two exciting bits of news before I get going on the kitchen in a sec.

The first is that my Homemade Snuggly cushion made from a woollen cardigan was featured last Friday on the brilliant, the wonderful, the amazing A Brooklyn Limestone in Progress by Mrs Limestone herself, who I think of as the queen of interior blogs. Waaaaaah. I was beside myself with excitement, dancing with glee.....seriously! If you want to see Mrs Limestone's post, why don't you click on down to her fabulous site?

If, on the other hand, you'd like see my tutorial, then get clicking here to see some woolly magic turning this cardigan...........

........into this cushion. You really don't need to be a pro for great results. Do please let me know if you've had a go. I'd love to hear all about how you got on. Except for if it turns out better than mine. Only joking. ;-)

My second bit of exciting news is that I have twenty-five Followers! Yay! Well, that bit is exciting to me, anyway! Again, more dancing with glee. I've doing a lot of dancing these past few days, as I'm sure you can imagine!

Along with the dancing and the being beside myself with excitement , I've been arranging shelves in the kitchen,which has bee a very enjoyable task. Remember how they were when Mr Carpenter had been?

All lovely but so very, very bare. They needed some Modern Country Style injected, don't you think? Now, the top shelf, especially, needed my thinking cap on because it was such an awkward space. Part of the chimney breast sticks out over it and the other half, where the ugly old boiler used to dominate, has quite a high space to fill. My mission, which I eagerly chose to accept, was to find beautiful things that would sit alongside each other without drawing the eye to the awkwardness of the room.

That tall space was particularly irksome.........until ......... I found this gorgeous glass urn vase. The colour of the dull sea-grey glass picks up on the Farrow and Ball Blue Grey fantastically. I'm really pleased with it. It's height, its lovely shape. Gorgeous. Ta-daaaaaaaa:


The low part of the top shelf was begging to be filled with these lovely big mugs. They are by Cote Table (with a circumflexand an acute but I don't know you do thoseon here....), a French company but are available from Dibor in the UK. I love them for a nice warming cup of hot chocolate, or a tasty winter soup. They're a really nice design to snuggle with, both hands clasped around the chunky bowl.


Aren't they lush? I think they're top shelf material, don't you? ;-)

Modern Country Style kitchen part 1

Hi there.. So glad to see you back here again! Come right in and make your self at home.

If you're new here and liking what you're seeing, please would you make my day and follow Modern Country Style by clicking the Follow button just to your right? That button is so lonely and just waiting for your lovely little mouse to click on it! ;-)

So......the painting is done. Hooooooooray! No more paint in my hair, and under my nails and on my face. No more going out and friends saying, "Working on the kitchen still?" Yeeeehah! AND Mr Carpenter has been and gone and woven his wooden magic. The man done good and, let me tell you, it makes SUCH a difference. So different. So, sooooo different!


I took a gazillion photos because I was just so pleased! Are you feeling my carpentry love, people? But look? Don't you agree?


Yes, it's this old photo again. I include it every time at the moment, I know, I know. I only wish I'd taken more before shots. But I have to include it so you can see each time how grim it was before.


We had both the shelves and the wooden upstands (this is Mr Carpenter's word. Is it the right one? Do they have another special name? Please let me know....) made from beech to match the beech worktops. They're not a perfect match yet colour-wise (although I'm not sure anyone else using the kitchen would have noticed the difference. It's pretty small. But I do!!) but Mr Carpenter assures me that, once they're in use and in the sun, they'll mellow down.


I had a picture in my mind of how I wanted the finished shelves to look and what I wanted on them. With these things in mind, I measured out how far apart the shelves needed to be and made corresponding pencil marks on the wall (much to the children's horror: "But, Mummy, you're drawing on the wall...."). The shelves needed lots of coats of Danish oil on them, and are just resting on their supports so we can take them down for future oiling. Is it just me or is Danish oiling one of life's loveliest jobs? I love the smell and the rubbing.....Okay.....it's just me....




I noticed in pictures of kitchen in magazines that I like, they either had tongue and groove splashbacks or they had short upstands (any ideas? They must have a proper name...) at the back of the worktop in a material that matched (e.g. wood or granite). The more I thought about the two different looks, the more I liked the upstand version. I think it's one of the elements in our new look kitchen which now marks it out as country with a modern twist, rather than just traditional country, as tongue and groove might have done. A Modern Country Style kitchen, you might say!


Next stop is filling my glorious new shelves with all the lovely goodies I've been holding back until this moment. I can't wait to show you.