Ready, steady, cook! How we transformed our tired kitchen into a family space

When we were viewing properties to buy, we knew this house was perfect for us. It was a fixer upper and needed some serious TLC. The first room to renovate had to be the kitchen. The main job was to remove the chimney stack that took up half of the kitchen!

Here is a before picture... nice if you like magnolia...

The fireplace unfortunately had to go to open up the room and make it family friendly

The only things we decided to keep were the butchers block (as they are very expensive) and I had an idea to upcycle it and the open shelving...

First up was the demolition...

Once the wall and chimney had been taken down we knew instantly it was the right decision. With twin babies it was important for me to be able to see them whilst I was cooking and that was not possible with the kitchen the way it was.

The boiler was moved and once the walls were plastered things were starting to take shape! We decided on underfloor heating as we were having tiles in the kitchen. For the dining area we kept the existing original wooden flooring. This just needed sanding down, staining and varnishing.

We decided on a Shaker style kitchen as it has a traditional feel and is in keeping with the period features of the house. The bespoke wooden units were from Harvey Jones.

We opted for a honed marble surface and purchased it from a local yard called Verona Marble in Surbiton. It was great fun choosing the slab. The team came and measured up a template...

The taps were from Range Master and continued with the traditional theme

Once the tiles were laid, the units positioned and the white goods installed all was left was to paint the units. We did this ourselves to save money and they were painted in Ammonite by Farrow and Ball

The butchers block is upcycled and painted it in Farrow and Ball Downpipe. We painted the metal handles in black. The surface was sanded down and treated with a darker stain to match the dining area floor and finished with a coat of varnish. Finally we painted the open shelves in Farrow and Ball Ammonite to match the kitchen units. Both were left by the previous owners.

We are really pleased with the end result! If you have any questions about the renovation please get in touch!