Welcome to the story of my Victorian kitchen makeover.
I always smile when I see those quizzes about where and when you were happiest.
I’m a big believer that happiness isn’t a destination – it’s not a place you go, or something that arrives in a rush as soon as you’ve got the right car, or the big house, or the perfect man.
Happiness for me is moments. It’s rounding a particular corner on the school run every morning and appreciating the way the sun lands on the green fields that stretch as far as the eye can see. It’s sinking into your seat in the cinema, totally absorbed in an imaginary story of someone else’s creation. It’s feeling someone’s warm feet against mine in bed at night.
Obviously, though, I’m not so spiritual that I don’t get a happy buzz every morning when I walk into my shiny new kitchen. So when Jen asked me to describe my happy place, I thought I’d share it with you.
The Starting Point: A Long, Dark Kitchen
I’ve written before about the DIY disaster that was my kitchen for many years after we bought this house. I wanted to fix it up as soon as we moved in but there were so many things that felt more important – the roof, the loft conversion, a new boiler, the damp proofing, new drains… you’ve got to love period houses.
This was our kitchen before. It felt dark, the floor was ridiculously uneven, the worktop was falling to bits, and the cupboards were badly fitted, with wonky doors and a weird design that made the room feel small – not to mention the fact I couldn’t reach the top shelf of half the cupboards.
On top of that, a leak in the pipes behind the plaster was causing damp behind the sink and worktop across one side of the kitchen, causing the worktops to swell and warp.
This Spring, though, we finally had the money set aside for a new kitchen. Hurrah!
A Kitchen Makeover under £10,000
We found the most amazing kitchen fitter who took my £10k budget and worked wonders with it.
We chose gloss white units and bright white tiles to maximise the light, with solid oak worktops and window sills to add warmth. In total, we spent £5,000 on the kitchen cabinets, and another £1,000 on plastering, tiling and carpentry.
In some ways, it’s quite a thrifty makeover – we’ve re-used some elements of the old kitchen, including the existing double stove, and the existing fridge, which was less than a year old. We also kept the overhead fan above the stove, which was perfectly decent and didn’t need replacing.
Rather than getting the kitchen fitted by one of the big stores, using independent local tradesmen and suppliers (all sourced via the quite brilliant ratedpeople.com) kept costs reasonable.
In fact, we came in around £1,500 under budget. The total cost of the kitchen including fitting and decorating was £8,500.
Once we got started, things moved fast – the kitchen fitter took two days to strip out the old kitchen and lay a new (level) floor, then two days to fit the new kitchen.
They spent one more day fitting and connecting appliances and then popped back over the weekend to do some little bits of snagging.
After that came the tiler (we chose some brilliant bevelled subway tiles from Topps Tiles that came in at under £250 for the lot), the flooring, and the decorator, who repainted all the walls, ceiling and woodwork with fresh white paint.
Our Victorian Kitchen Makeover
A few more finishing touches and voila, a completed kitchen!
I think it achieves what I wanted it to – making the room feel lighter and bigger, without looking too clinical. We’ve taken that dark, gloomy Victorian kitchen and made it feel lighter and bigger – without actually adding any more windows or moving any walls.
The “New Day” wall decal (below) is from a US company called Movie Cutouts – kindly shipped to us by some American friends. The ceiling lights were a bit of a bargain – after scoping out some almost identical vintage lighting on Etsy, I just happened to spot these tucked away in B&Q at under £60 each.
The hanging rails are from Ikea, and the oak shelf above the sink was made to measure by a local joiner.
We kept our existing stove, extractor fan and fridge/freezer which helped keep costs down – so I didn’t feel bad for splashing out on a fancy tap that converts from a single jet to a shower spray, and entertains me endlessly.
The wooden worktop savers/chopping boards (below) were a brilliant £7 each from Ikea, and the step-stool is another Ikea find – it’s perfect for helping Flea reach the coffee maker in the mornings (What? I’m building her independence. That’s GOOD parenting).
In the utility area, which was an odd extension at the end of the house, we tidied up. We’ve added an oak counter and matching window sills, along with an oak shelf, again made by the joiner. We had space for a spare freezer back here, which is brilliant as being a two person household, we often have a lot of leftovers to freeze!
I love the light in this part of the kitchen, from the two windows and the glazed ceiling. Note the split in the downstairs w/c door – it’s from when I accidentally locked it, and had to break down the door with a sledgehammer. Oops.
So there you have it. My happy place. I love sitting on the counter in a morning, chatting to Flea, and enjoying a coffee before we head off to school.
What’s your happy place?
What a transformation. It’s always depressing looking at interiors magazines with their unlimited budgets when the really smart thing to create something beautiful at an affordable price.
Thanks Victoria – I agree, I would always rather save a little by reusing things and then spending the money where it makes a difference – like the solid oak counters, which were expensive but I think make the kitchen 🙂
Lovely inspirational post, read in my happy place – the squidgy sofa with a huge mug of coffee sat precariously on the arm. We are about to renovate our kitchen – had given up on wooden work surfaces but for seven quid I might reconsider!
Thanks Abby – I am also a big fan of a squishy sofa 🙂
It’s beautiful. I love it. I have recently moved, and whilst my kitchen is very pretty I have the same problem as I’m short and can’t reach half the cupboards, perhaps one day I’ll be able to do my perfect kitchen too!
My happy place is the beach, I love sitting on the sand, bodyboarding in the sea and (if the kids are busy) curling into a sun lounger with a good book.
Thanks – I’m so short that when I had those silly corner cabinets there was no way I could reach – at least now I have a fighting chance of reaching all the shelves (even if it’s not all the way to the back)
Wow! What an awesome re-vamp! Love it!
x
Thanks! I’m a little bit in love with it myself…
It’s beautiful Sally – I LOVE that floor and those worktops. So glad you’re pleased with it. My happy place is the garden. For the first time this year, the pots are filled and they will distract me from everything else that needs doing.
Thanks Anya, I’m really pleased too – hopefully in a month or two the garden will be a happy place – the builders arrive in two weeks to start work on it!
Looks amazing. Really bright and love the work surfaces.
The kitchen is the one place I’d like to rip out at ours. The OH chose it when the house was built, he spent a fair amount but it’s not well built, not well planned out (not helped by having no workspace because we have an Aga and cooker, plus 2 window aspects and an open plan area to the dining room. Mind you, the whole of the house needs decorating/completing after me having been there 12 years and him not having done anything other than the living room before that.
It’s amazing the difference it’s made to the light – it’s the thing I most wanted to achieve, so as you can imagine I’m pleased. I lived with a wonky kitchen for a long, long time so you have my sympathy!
I love the New Day sign as you knew I would and as you know I love your kitchen. You are right when you say happiness isnt a place is is a sense of being and I know that I could be happy anywhere my family was.
Absoutely – it’s a journey not a destination, as some old hippy probably said at some point.
Wow Sally you did an amazing job, that kitchen is gorgeous. I love the white tiles, so stylish. And the wall decal is lovely too. I would love to get ours redone, but it’s way down on the list, next stop is the bathroom.
Thanks Katie, I think if your kitchen works – which mine did – then it does end up way down the list, doesn’t it?
Looks fabulous. Hope all the mugs are well organised inside those cupboards …
Naturally, but I’m saving that for another blog post.
Love it, all of it. And I’m not in the least bit jealous.
I love your new kitchen. Of course, like in my own kitchen, the whole thing only works because of the little steppy thing that allows you to reach the top shelves. Wishing you years of joy in your happy kitchen. xxx
Looks fantastic! My kitchen is my Happy Place too – although it tends to be everyone else’s as well…
GORGEOUS remodel! And I’m with Jean. I’m not jealous at all.
My happy place is definitely not the horrifically ugly kitchen in my current house (a rental). And I agree with you that happy places are those little moments throughout life that catch you off guard or that sometimes you have to be disciplined to notice. BUT I think I can safely say that my next happy place is going to be far, far away from my kitchen, on a beach!! {See you there! ;)} XO
EXCITED!
I completely feel your pain, we moved into our ‘dream’ house in November, but our kitchen is still with 1950’s princess unit….we are so retro…and a hard cold floor. Had the building work planned to start yesterday, but due to unforseen circumstances it has been postponed! Argh, how will I cope now not knowing when it will all change?! Your post has given me some hope though, so thank you very much! I will have to post some photo’s on my blog later and hopefully somebody will get the violins out, because I am certainly feeling sorry for myself!! Love your blog and great job of the works done!
It looks gorgeous Sally, I’ll be honest and say I’ve never yet had a kitchen even as nice as your old one. The New Day sign is particularly lovely. You have good taste. Mich x