I’ve been catching up with blog posts over the last few months and shown you a fair bit of our new kitchen, but I thought I’d do a quick ‘reveal’ post, sharing appliances, where everything is from and how the room looks as a whole. It’s not quite finished just yet; we have shelves to add, a splashback to decide on and of course – we need to do something with those lights! But generally speaking, it’s done, it’s completely usable and at least 95% finished. So as such, I felt it was about time I did a kitchen reveal!
So I apologise in advance for the lighting in some of these pictures – I was seriously battling the sun going down when taking these photos (it is winter after all!). This is what the room looks like from the front view. It’s a galley kitchen, which is now open plan with the dining room adjacent and it also has a conservatory attached to the side, which it overlooks through the window. It’s around 6m in length and 2.5m width.
This room was originally divided into two – a kitchen and a downstairs shower room and there was another wall that divided off the dining room too. We’ve taken two walls out, removed the shower room and opened up the entire space into one. We do however still have two separate areas for the kitchen and dining room, but this post is just going to show you the kitchen, so you’ll have to wait a little longer for the dining room reveal I’m afraid!
The kitchen units themselves are from DIY-Kitchens and are from their Linwood range in the colour Graphite. We’ve kept most of the units as high-line doors as these are the cheapest base units you can buy. Drawers, Pull-Out units and other gadgety base units cost a lot more, so keeping it simple with basic open-close doors really helps keep the cost down. We have however, opted for three ‘luxury’ units (aka more expensive!); a basket unit, a set of pan drawers and a worktop dresser. Each of these were more than double the cost of the high-line base units, so they did add to the overall cost quite a bit. However I think they add a bit more variety to the kitchen than just a full run of doors and I was prepared to splash a teeeeeny bit more if I really wanted them – which I clearly did!
I personally think one set of drawers is a must in every kitchen. After all – where else are you going to keep cutlery? We’ve actually opted for some pan-drawers which are really deep and perfect for storing pans in, as the name suggests. Pans in a drawer are much easier to access and are easier to organise too. In fact, generally speaking, drawers are just a much better use of space overall and if I had more money, I would definitely have bought more drawers.
The worktop dresser and basket unit were something I’d always wanted in a kitchen, so we splashed out on those two as well – although yes, they weren’t really an “essential”. I very nearly almost didn’t buy the basket unit, on account of trying to cut costs, but I’m so glad I did in the end. I love how the baskets pop against the dark grey! We use the bottom drawer for vegetables and the top one for bread.
The floor is made from these Limestone tiles from eBay (you can read about our DIY installation here) and I think goes really well in this space. It’s neutral but also a bit stand out in its different varying tones. We have this electric underfloor heating with it as well, which actually works really well and keeps them nice and toasty! (Again, you can read how we DIY fitted that here) We’ve gone for a different floor in the dining room and kept the steel beam exposed to help frame and divide the two rooms.
We have a dishwasher (an actual dishwasher!!) for the first time in my entire life and bloooomin’ heck I can’t believe people still live without them. Not spending an hour every night washing pots is pretty much the highlight of our new kitchen. It’s incredible. It also means we no longer have piles of dirty plates stacking up on the side either. This one is just the Curry’s Essential Range Dishwasher, which cost £179. It was the cheapest one I could find and to be fair, it does a pretty good job. I mean it doesn’t have that many settings but it cleans the pots. What more can you ask for?
I’ve always wanted a Belfast sink (as sad as that sounds!) so to finally have one, definitely got me a tad excited. It’s super deep, fits all our pots and pans in and is just amazing. In the last properties we lived in, we had half-sized sinks, which meant nothing fitted in it and water would generally get everywhere. Not a problem any more! Our tap of choice is this Satin Nickel Pull-Out tap from Amazon for just £55. Most pull-out taps are in the region of £200+ so I was darn pleased with this one. And I don’t even think you can tell that it’s a quarter of the price!
The worktops are made from an Ash wood from Worktop-Express. I absolutely love the grain and how light it is – I think it goes perfectly against the dark doors. We also have matching up stands and we created a window sill from some leftover as well. You can read a full post about the worktops , with a review of Worktop-Express here.
The hanging lights in here are yet to sorted out properly, but these were from eBay – they came with glass shades, but I’m quite liking them as they are, just as bulbs. We’ll also be having some shelves underneath the lights too, but those are on the New-Year list for now. I quite like a clean simple unfussy kitchen, so I’ve tried to keep the worktops fairly clutter-free, with just the essentials and a few little extras.
So here’s a final view from the other side of the room. We still have a fair bit left to do in the dining room – but I’d say we’re about 85% there, so a reveal for that room shouldn’t be too far off. I love the exposed beam between the rooms and the red was a bold move, but I really like it. We have a lot of grey going on in the house, so a real punch of rustic colour is definitely welcomed in my eyes!
If you’re interested in seeing more of the kitchen renovation process, you can check out all the posts right here with full costings as well.
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