Those of you who read my blog regularly will know that I LOVE a room makeover (and it seems you do, too, as they are always my most popular posts) and you will have probably caught on that I hate my kitchen, which is why it rarely features here or over on Instagram except for a few carefully captured frames in my most recent Urban Jungle Bloggers post, but that really is a rarity. Can you see where this is heading? Yes, I am beginning plans for a kitchen makeover, but my knack of transforming a space with very little money is going to be truly tested – in fact, I have no idea what sort of budget I will need for the changes I want to make.
I live in a new build flat so my problem isn’t that my kitchen is crumbling, tatty or functions poorly. It’s none of those things. In fact, I’m sure many people would love a brand new white kitchen and would think me very ungrateful indeed. However, I just can’t cope with how ‘un-me’ my kitchen is and how it lacks any character, which I have been able to add to the other rooms in my flat with furniture, textiles, art work etc. I loathe the door handles, which stick out like a sore thumb and the worktop is horrible laminate, which makes anything I put on the surfaces look miserable.
Ideally, I would want to change everything but for now I think smaller changes like new cupboard doors and worktop could drastically change the whole feel of the room. However, whenever I have these thoughts I am stopped in my tracks by not understanding how much changes like these will cost. I log onto kitchen websites and it all seems very unclear and the whole process seems to be shrouded in mystery unless you go to the showroom or invite a design consultant to your home for a quote, which never seems like an appropriate first step. For me, I want to know how much things cost and what I can and can not afford before I speak with anyone as I always worry I will get bullied into making decisions I don’t want to make and spending money I don’t want to spend – does that make sense?
So, when I saw that Wren Kitchens have a new Kitchen Cost Estimator that helps you estimate the cost of a new kitchen easily at home, by myself, without a design consultant breathing down my neck, I felt that I could actually jump the first obstacle of figuring out how much changes were going to cost me. That way, I can much more easily plan what is and isn’t feasible, instead of having no idea and therefore taking no action at all (sound familiar?).
When I first moved into the flat, I made the error of chucking nice things into the kitchen without much thought as to how they worked together and against the very ‘new’ but not particularly nice backdrop. The unfortunate result was a big confused mess and I just focused my energies on improving the rest of the flat and ignoring the kitchen, after all, there is no space to eat in the kitchen, so I don’t have to look at it that much! I cringe showing you these iPhone snaps (I have never tried to photograph it properly!) but here is my kitchen ‘before’ I made any changes at all (this, to me, is like doing a terrifying full frontal!)…
I am literally cringing at these snaps of my kitchen ‘before’. I’m sure lots of you can identify with throwing stuff into a room when you first move in, then life takes over and before you realise it you are oblivious to your surroundings and you no longer can see how unpleasant it is. Yes, there are lots of nice things in my kitchen but nothing works together and the generic cupboards, horrible long handles and cheap worktop make everything look even worse!
Since these photos were taken about a year ago, I have made improvements to the kitchen by styling it differently, which has now made me want to take it a step further and make some more permanent changes to get it to a point where I might even take Instagram photos in the kitchen 😉
I’ve been getting a bit of inspiration from the Wren Kitchens range. I really want cupboard doors that are either very modern with sharp edges and no handles – a true blank canvas – or something with a bit more character. I would love either a real wooden worktop or a white one that would allow some of the lovely things I have in my kitchen to shine. I also really like the idea of removing the top cupboards and replacing them with open shelving, although the idea of cleaning them doesn’t fill me with excitement!
I will be back soon with some shots of how I have styled the kitchen differently to make it more cohesive and I will definitely keep you updated as to what progress I make with more drastic changes!
Katy x
*This post was written in collaboration with Wren Kitchens but all opinions and views are my own.
