Kitchen makeover
It all started so optimistically. What a carefree photograph this is of me, two years ago almost to the day. Here I am, cheerfully stir-frying (what turned out to be a rather bland) dinner for the family, in the hallway beside the front door.
At this point, I still held onto the naive faith that a renovation would only be a brief, temporary inconvenience to the family. After all, we were not doing any major construction, just updating the kitchen, bathrooms, floors, and giving the house a lick of fresh paint. Simple, right? The builders told us it would take two months, so we set up a makeshift kitchen in the hallway, and planned to “camp” upstairs while they renovated the downstairs for one month, then swap for the second month.
Right before we got going, I made a “before” video of the kitchen and posted it to TikTok, thinking I’d be able to show the “after” video in a month or two.
Oh how the fates must have laughed.
I intended to write this blog post as a kind of funny “diary of a makeover” about all the things that went wrong. But I only made it a couple of days in before I realised it wasn’t particularly funny at all. Mostly it was just depressing, and frankly unoriginal because it seems we all have building/renovation horror stories to recount!
I’ve deleted it.
Instead, I’m going to tell the before-and-after story of our kitchen in pictures.
As for all the in-betweens? I’ll leave it up to you to insert your own experience / stories you’ve been told / use your imagination. Be sure to factor in cramped living-quarters, microwaves blowing up, builders refusing to show up, gigantic beams crane-lifted into tiny rooms, mice infestations, rat infestations, metre-deep holes inside the house, budgets doubling, budgets tripling, builders arguing and refusing to work with each other, builders going bankrupt… basically, just another typical day in renovation-land.
The kitchen before
Yes I know, a lot of you will appreciate all that timber and wonder why I got rid of it. I did too. Sort of. Especially because it was entirely made from upcycled vintage filing cabinets. But living and cooking in this kitchen was not easy.
Firstly, our house was built in the 1880s, and the kitchen (like the rest of the house) was last renovated in the 1980s. It needed some love. One day I’ll tell you the story about the Christmas morning a year earlier, when actual sewage water came out of every tap in the house, and bubbled up through all the sinks and baths.
The old kitchen was also very dark, all the time. The drawers were incredibly heavy, some of them stuck, and some of them were even fakes that would fall off in your hand. The top cabinets were set so high up that I couldn’t reach them. The island bench was a strange and impractical Z-shape that went forever. The sink placement made no practical sense. There were two poles getting in the way of everybody all the time. The tiles never, ever looked or felt clean, no matter how often you washed them. I’m fairly sure the oven pre-dated Cleopatra. And everything was brown. So much brown.
The kitchen demolition
After ripping out the cabinetry, the builders pulled up the kitchen floors, took out most of the ceiling, and tore out the walls. Next, they removed the two load-bearing poles, and put supports in place while they argued (for months) over what sized beam to put in place and where to put it, so we wouldn’t wake up one morning with our bedroom caving in through the kitchen ceiling.
The finished result
This is what the kitchen looks like today (albeit the bench covered in food as I was about to make the fruit mixture for 70 Christmas cakes when it occurred to me to take this photograph). More photos (with cleaner benchtops) to follow.
The mood:
I spent a long time thinking about the mood I wanted to create in this kitchen. It needed to work with the age of the house, but I didn’t want it to feel like a museum. All the kitchens I was bookmarking in my “love this” board were ancient rooms in grand houses and chateaux, and sadly that was too much of a reach for a terrace house in Melbourne. The closest I could find to my style was Hamptons or French Provincial, but I found both of those just a little bit too… twee.
Eventually, I came up with something that felt like a cross between French Provincial and semi-renovated castle, which I dubbed for my own reference “manor house style.” That is: a big old kitchen, but not necessarily grand. Still pretty, but slightly more masculine.
The layout:
With the poles gone, the kitchen opened right up and instantly seemed much lighter. The island bench is smaller than the old one, but it’s a big kitchen and there is still loads of room. I don’t like a sink in the middle of my workspace, so that’s behind the bench (easy to spot because I forgot to take the kitchen wipe off the tap before taking pictures).
I was strongly encouraged to put the stove along the back wall (where the sink is), but I don’t like cooking with my back to the light or the family. Instead, it’s placed underneath the original chimney. If the stove had been just a tiny few centimetres smaller I could have set it fully inside the old fireplace, which would have looked fabulous, but we weren’t to know how wide the chimney was until the demolition, and by then the oven was already ordered and making its way to us.
I love the look of exposed shelves in the kitchen, but not so much the grimy dust, so there’s one “display” shelf up high and the rest is glass. I particularly love the brass railing that holds some of my copper pans - this gives me joy every day.
The floors:
The floor is oak parquetry. Apparently it had to be European oak because there is hydronic heating under the floor, and European timber can withstand the changes in temperature better than Australian timber. So now you’ve learned something.
The cabinetry:
After much dithering and second-guessing myself, I opted for a very bold green cabinetry to give me that “manor house” vibe. To be honest, I had just seen one too many pale grey / white kitchens in my Hamptons/French Provincial research, and wanted something bolder. Also, I really love how well the green goes with the brass hardware and all my copper pots.
I hate the plastic feel of 2Pac paint, so all our cabinets are hand painted, using Porter’s Paints (the colour is Emerald). And that way, if ever I get sick of the green, we can just paint over it in any colour we like. (If you are thinking of doing this, I’d recommend it, however, hand-painted cabinetry does scratch up more easily, and shows up the dust, so be prepared to maintain it).
The top cabinets are glass to stop the room from feeling too dark and heavy. I had the leadlight put into them to match the original 1880s glass leadlight in the dining room windows (not pictured), to maintain continuity between the two rooms.
I’d hoped for a few items to be not built in, like a featuring a free-standing island bench and using an old kitchen dresser for storage, but there were problems like pipes and wires to cover, and pesky budgets to respect, so compromises had to be made.
The benchtops and tiles:
The benchtops are ceramic, and a bright white to pick up the light. I do like the look of marble, but not the constant fear of scratches and staining. The ceramic doesn’t stain or scratch, and I’m told I can even take pots from the oven and put them straight on the bench, but haven’t been brave enough to try it. I kept the backsplash tiles white to reflect more light, but they are handmade so there’s a lovely sense of movement and texture to them when you’re up close.
The oven:
A shout-out to this oven, which is a Lacanche. I thought it would. be the most expensive part of our kitchen until I had to pay for a custom range-hood. Yikes!! And I confess I felt a bit guilty about the Lacanche, second-guessing myself for wanting something so expensive and pretty. But it cooks so well. Seriously. I baked those 70 Christmas cakes and every one of them cooked evenly and perfectly. Roasts, pies, bread, cake… you name it, it will taste better in a Lacanche.
The finishing touches:
The pendant lights over the kitchen bench are from Devol Kitchens in the UK, up close they have a gorgeous crackle glaze. If I lived in England I would 1000% have Devol do my next kitchen renovation because I absolutely adore their style. The kitchen table is a French fruitwood farmhouse table, about 250 years old. It is battered and beautiful and must have a million stories to tell, if only it could. The chairs were found in an antique auction online, and we had them restored and reupholstered with vintage fabric. The light above the kitchen table is a vintage mid-century ceramic chandelier, hand-painted, that I found on Etsy.
So that’s the kitchen. Of course it’s not completely finished (when is any renovation ever?). Since these photos were taken we’ve put up roman blinds on the windows, and finished painting the doors and trims. There’s also a mini gallery-wall next to the kitchen table (on the piece of wall opposite the exposed brick).
One day we will get some stools so friends can perch at the kitchen bench and sip wine while I cook. One day. I’m still deciding what kinds of stools will give me the right look.
But that’s pretty much it. If you’re interested in seeing the other rooms we’ve been renovating, let me know and I’ll do another post.
