Hello Everyone

Are you having a good week? Mine's been ok, busy as usual - here's some more photo's of the DIY we've done this summer

After the conservatory we decided to bite the bullet and finish it all off and do the kitchen and little lounge. The problem with not doing 'miminalist' is where do you put all the stuff you've collected - some of it went down the cellar, some of it in the summer house and the rest in the front lounge - well for 2 weeks that's where the fridge and freezer lived.

The kitchen units are hand made solid wood (circa 1980's I think) and it would have been sacrilege to have taken them out to put some mdf type in, because they are so solid and well made  - but there's only so much pine you can live with -  so after many weeks of painting pieces of cardboard and sticking them onto the different kitchen cupboards, we settled on Farrow and Balls  'Blackened' took a deep breath and started painting. We're glad we did it now - it's not quite a light grey and it's not quite a light blue, it's different colours in different lights

The floor in the kitchen was laminate that we put down 6 years ago so we decided to get a floor tiler in and get ceramic tiles laid - Well Chris the tiler turned up, took one look at the floor and made a sort of groan and proclaimed it goes up and down a bit doesn't it? but after they'd taken up the 2 old floors  (one on top of the other),levelled it, and laid the tiles, it looks brilliant and is so much easier with having the 3 dogs. But this was the worst time of all, we were in so much mess!

We've always had a range cooker in this house and one Wednesday night we decided that we'd change the cooker as well, I'm not keen on cooking with electric, so went on line had a look at Comet Electrical, we liked the Belling all gas cooker, phoned them to check that it was all gas and got the most politest young American gentleman who assured me it was, I paid over the phone and the cooker was sitting in the front lounge by the Saturday morning - absolutely brilliant customer service

Then we moved onto the kitchen worktops - as we put more coats of the 'Blackened' on - it became apparent that the wood effect work tops weren't going to match - so it was off to Wickes with a piece of the painted cardboard in Blackened, a floor tile and one of my Cornish Blue salt cellars (I knew the kitchen tiles which we weren't going to change matched the Cornish blue exactly) and after what seemed like hours of deliberation we settled on shiny black worktops.

Getting a carpenter to turn up to fit them was the next battle - carpenters have 2 excuses for not turning up - it's either the van's broken down or they've just come out of hospital! the 3rd carpenter turned out to be the most reliable!

After that it was a case of painting the walls (F & B Pointing again) re staining the doors changing the sockets, switches and light fittings to cool black and then moving every thing back into position.

I've taken some photo's but took them when I was doing some cooking so  please excuse the mess!


This is the bottom end of the kitchen which leads out to the conservatory

 

 

 

I sourced the new kitchen unit  handles from off Ebay and spent 3 days making the curtains - the same Laura Ashley material that I used in the bathroom but in a great shade of blue which matches the Cornish blue wear  beautifully,  again we changed the curtain tracks too and the taps and the sink top (again I nearly had heart failure at the cost of the taps!)

 

 

I'd seen a dining room set in Laura Ashley which had the legs and the base of the table painted white the seats and the table top were left pine, so out the paint brush came again and I spent a whole weekend painting my old set plus a base of a standard lamp - I think it's come up well and looks just as good as one from Laura Ashley's would have done!

This is the other side of the kitchen - sorry about the cooking!

New cooker - with lots of burners and 2 ovens........ brilliant!

Top end of kitchen

Ours is a 'live in' kitchen and sitting in front of the log burner is the best place in the winter months

So that was it - sorry the photo's are not that good - I'm no photographer - little lounge next

Have a good Friday (Sorry I'm rushing off...........tea's ready now!!)

Byeee xxxx