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Two years ago my husband and I got the keys to our new home, the next day our friends came over for 'demolition day' and over 6-weeks we renovated our kitchen, main living areas and bedrooms. (with help from builders, electricians and plumbers of course!)
This post will give you a bit of insight into the Kitchen Project....
Here is our kitchen before:
The decor was not really our style, plus we thought it was quite inefficient for cooking, with limited bench space, little storage and a heritage oven.
The space was tight and this wall, pictured here, was already planned to be removed to open up the living space, so this meant we could stretch our kitchen out a bit - which led us to dream of a huge island bench.
Having never planned a Kitchen before, we needed some help to realise how we could make the most of the space. I work at Bunnings, so knew we offered a Kitchen Consultant Service (they come out and help you plan your space) and so I turned to them first to help put together a basic plan of our kitchen.
We went to pinterest first to collect images of the styles of kitchens we like, the features that kept resonating with us were; large island benches (lots of cooking and collaboration space!) subway tiles, big farmhouse sinks, goose neck taps and I wanted my own tea draw to store all my leaf teas and cups/saucers in.
We took these to the consultant who visited our home and helped us plan out our kitchen. This was really the first step in mapping out how much space we had, where everything would go and ulitimately realising our dream.
(Ooohhh look at all that wood pannelling - I'll save that for another day!)
We took a good look at a few kitchen providers, but ultimately decided that the Bunnings Kaboodle Kitchen would suit our needs best and we ordered our kitchen through them.
The day came to putting together all the cabinets, and we spent the day, screwing together cabinets. The instructions weren't that easy to understand but once we did a few, we got the hang of it and it was actually quite easy. Meanwhile the floor had been sanded and using the kitchen plan, the plumber 'mapped in' the utilities - where the sink would go, where the oven was, the range hood spot etc.
We used a builder to physically put the cabinets into place and add the door handles. We had our heart set on a particular set of heritage looking handles and sockets so we sourced this from another provider.
Here is the final result:
I also added in a counter spot below the window, with bench stools as a coffee spot, using a small custom benchtop. My cute old skool Roberts Radio sits on here for some PBS radio in the mornings!
Here is my farmhouse sink and goose neck tap, I love how elegant this looks, plus there is heaps of space for washing dishes!
We didn't want the dishwasher to ruin the look of the wooden island, so we got an integrated dishwasher with a door panel to match the rest of the island
This final picture shows how big the island is and how it integrates into the main living area, for a more sociable setting at a dinner party:
So there is the final result.
We are so pleased with the kitchen, it is the centre point of the home and a social hub for all our visitors.
We are happy with the amount of storage space and we are now trying to think of better solutions for acccessing condiments and spices in the panty (pictured above). We have heaps of space but it can be hard to find jars at the back of the cupboard and which is becoming cumbersome and the cupboards are getting quite hectic. Any suggestions are welcome?
I'd love to hear from you if you have any questions about Kitchen renovations or if you have any suggestions for our current panty disaster, write in the comments below.....
Wow, great result! Not too far off what I'd like to do with our own kitchen, really. That's a long way off though!
Excellent work, congratulations. 
