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Budget kitchen reno with Acacia benchtops

islandgirl
Cultivating a Following
islandgirl
islandgirl
Cultivating a Following

A bright new colour scheme and new tiles and shelves transformed this holiday house kitchen.

 

 

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The project

 

Our little Western Red Cedar holiday house on the south coast of NSW was always going to be a challenge – and the tiny kitchen was the centre of it all. With eight mouths to feed we needed a functional kitchen ASAP.

 

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This whole D.I.Y. Bunnings kitchen reno was done by my husband and myself in a week. We ripped out cabinets, sanded and whitewashed cupboard doors, replaced shelves and benches and tiled the floor and walls.

 

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Demolition.

 

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Acacia project panel benchtops on.

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Backsplash tiled and floating shelves added. Nearly there.

 

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We painted everything in Dulux Pure Brilliant White and used plenty of Selleys No More Gaps in the panelled ceiling. We used a Zinsser undercoat to stop the Western Red Cedar from bleeding through the paint – this process began a month before demolition.

 

We used an enamel on the whitewashed cupboards, then sanded them back and sprayed them with a protective coat of lacquer to make cleaning easy. 

 

It went from being dark and dingy to being a bright, clean, tropical oasis kitchen wth a little breakfast nook. We're very happy with the final results. 

 

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Materials 

 

The materials and furnishings we used included:

 

  • Benchtops: Acacia solid hardwood project panels
  • Shelving: galvanised plumbing pipe and connectors with SpecRite timber panels
  • Breakfast nook: Acacia solid hardwood project panel
  • Tiles: Johnson Tiles' Cemento in matt finish for the floor and lappato finish for the splashback
  • Plants: Bunnings garden centre 
  • Sink and tap: Bunnings 
  • Stools: Bunnings.

 

The total spend (not counting white goods) was just under $1300.

 

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It was a pretty cheap and easy reno. If I had to do this again I definitely wouldn’t have painted the interior and exterior white. It took me seven months solo to prime and paint – not to mention all the No More Gaps on the old panels.

 

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More inspiration for your kitchen

 

Experienced Bunnings Workshop contributor Adam_W has put together this handy guide to planning a kitchen renovation. There's also plenty of inspiration in our Top 10 most popular kitchen projects.

 

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If you just need a quick kitchen refresh, check out our collection of 10 kitchens transformed with paint. You can begin transforming your own kitchen with our step-by-step video guides to painting kitchen cabinets and painting a tiled splashback.

 

Let us know if you need a hand with your kitchen project. We're here to help.

 

Comments
Dave-1
Community Megastar

@islandgirl 

Nice modification! Love the Shelves with the steel waterpipe supports and also the side bench :smile: I like functional things and these def seem to be useful. The painting sounds like a pain, worth it but a pain :smile: My kitchen is even older (its particle board! So always looking for ways I could fix it up either short term or long term.

 

Thank you

 

Dave

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