A year after moving into our house, our kitchen is ready to be seen by the internet! When we moved in we were dealing with a really dated kitchen, matching floor and cupboards in the same wood, a grotty sink I won’t even show you because it was so stained and broken tiles with painted wallpaper. Add on about a million wall plugs which didn’t need to be there and an 80s back door and we had the start of our project.

We tackled our bedroom, living room and dining room first in the house and left the kitchen until earlier this year. Here’s our before and after shots and a few details of what we’ve been up to…

First up, we stripped everything down and tackled the walls whilst simultaneously sanding and re-painting our original doors. To save money we decided to keep our kitchen’s layout and remove the top cupboards to give ourselves more of a feeling of space.

The cupboard carcasses were pretty solid so we kept these as they were, painted the fronts and replaced the handles. We used Ronseal cupboard paint from B&Q which was actually reduced and we just stocked up on a couple of tins which also saved us some pennies. Our handles were simple and inexpensive ones from Screwfix. To give ourselves extra storage that we’d lost from removing the top cupboards we bought some industrial shelves and brackets from an eBay seller. I love my open shelves because you can easily grab a cup of tea to start the day and I’ll pop all the washing up away from the night before whilst the kettle boils in the mornings.

We bought our Worktop Express Calcutta marble worktops with some discount from the brand which we were very grateful for but we wanted to buy them anyway so I contacted the brand to see if they’d work with us on this post. These worktops are seriously good quality and they look amazing. We went for the splash backs to be the same design and I think it looks really cool and modern. Huge thanks to Worktop Express for this!

We trialled sticky back plastic in a marble print before we decided on the worktops that we actually wanted. These were one of the main expenses in the kitchen as well as plastering and new appliances. We bought our new oven with a door that actually shuts and an electric hob from a friend who was renovating her kitchen which saved us a little bit on a brand new one. Our Wayfair radiator was half price luckily but it was still a chunk to buy it and get it installed by the gas fitter. It’s no longer online but this one is very similar! We splashed out a little bit on our paint and went for Valspar New York City Winter from B&Q which is a strange green/grey/white. Basically dirty snow and I am all over it.

Both of our kitchen blinds are faux wood Venetian blinds from Luna Blinds and look super chic and neat. Obviously shutters are gorgeous but these windows aren’t right for shutters and we’d lose a lot of light. We also have a perfect fit blind on our new back door which is perfect (ha!) as we can let in so much light during the day and then slide it back down in the evenings for security.

We chose CarpetRight vinyl flooring  to replace the wooden floor as we just didn’t like the colour of it and felt like a stylish tiled version would look fab. I love this flooring, I think it looks amazing but I wouldn’t buy it again. As it’s so light, it stains quite easily and you have to wait for the stains to work themselves out when it comes to things like turmeric and berries – not great for a kitchen! It’s also quite soft and malleable so the flooring dents really easily. Unfortunately I don’t think we picked the best flooring but it looks fab and I can cope with the small issues for now. It just takes a lot of upkeep to stay clean.

Finally, we were also gifted the awesome Von Shef Cream Stand Mixer which has made baking so much easier! I’ll actually want to bake now because it’s pretty much Allie-proof and means that my cake mixes don’t split, sink or go lumpy!

Over the whole process, we spent around £2,000 on this ‘renovation’. We replaced almost everything apart from the windows and the cupboards. We had a new paint, sink, blinds, shelves, oven, hob, extractor fan, microwave, worktops, fridge, flooring and we needed to pay a plasterer and a gas fitter. All of the other work we did ourselves which saved us money but we did have to buy or rent some tools. There are still a couple of teeny finishing touches to do but overall we’re so happy with the makeover. What do you think?

Amazing ‘after’ photography shots by Tiff from Creatiff Media.