10/01/2026
Happy New Year!!
Here again for what feels like my once a year post!! Christmas holidays seem like my only time in the year to get some DIY on.
I thought I would share our kitchen space which has been a real work in progress since earlier this year, but as of yesterday can say it is finally finished.
The bones of the kitchen were good, but it just wasn’t working for us. We had a fab and patient local joiner help with a few of my changes that I thought may help. We were trying to be as frugal as we could so repurposed draws around the kitchen where we were able too. Kept the original stainless sink and bench but updated the tapware. We had the brick wall lowered to accomodate the wooden breakfast bar and open up the kitchen.
The only additional cabinetry we added was some around where the old oven was and the new wall oven. They then joined up a bench at the back, along with chopping off part of the main island so we can now walk around (it has stopped the toaster/snack congestion;)).
We also replaced the bench top to lighten the space. (This was after a lot of research on should i paint formica though ;))
It is not all DIY, but a lot of what we could do, we have done to save money:
✔️Tiling - I had never tiled before. So after encouragement from another first timer, took on that project. Always fun in older homes when things are not level to start with. (My tile cutter had a few swear words) I really strugged to make a decision finding the right contrast tile with the brick wall - and after ordering some, last minute changed my mind, happy where we ended up.
✔️Floating Shelves - by removing the rangehood we had a large wall space to fill. Our house has all concrete walls, so this what was meant to be a small project ended up taking a good day.
✔️Wood from the farm was used for all the shelving/breakfast bar in the kitchen - but has also been used in the new windows - so we have had to fill prep and finish the architraves throughout the house. This also a huge ongoing job as the architraves are into concrete😓so we have had to cut specfic dowling and fill approx 300-400 holes individually.
✔️ New wooden breakfast bar - our joiner prepared the bench top and I finished it once it was in.
✔️repainted the whole kitchen/dining area.
The black kitchen photos are are before 🙂 it really has been a game changer - and one that was done quite frugally with some DIY thrown in.
Currently in the shed ticking the last project before heading back to work tomorrow 🙂
All the best for 2026 - And any DIY projects, it sure is statisfying to have things ticked off!!
