🖼️
The project:
Turned a 1980s kitchen with some funky layout issues into a functional, modern and inviting space. We did everything ourselves (except for plumbing and electrics of course) and learnt a heap along the way. All in all, very happy with the outcome, with a few things I would do differently. We live on the lake at Tuross Head so wanted to make the most of the view as soon as you walk into the house.
- Materials:
For the base cabinets: (links have been added in)
600mm floor cabinet x 2 (one for sink and one for bin) ; 450 drawers; 600 drawers; 1000 blind corner; 600 one drawer (for microwave); 450 pantry with pull out metal shelves
For the top cabinets
900 slimline for over fridge; 600 wall cabinets x 4; slideout range hood
Also used live edge pine shelving (no longer available), the floor is walnut laminate (also no longer in stock :( Tiles are Boulevard Breeze colour subway which we LOOOVE, and I got my lovely friends at the Batemnas Bay paint desk to match the colour of the tile and have used that on the front door :). Also used the Easycraft wall panels throughout the area. Handles are a mix of black mushroom and pulls. Benchtop I got elsewhere which honestly even thought cheaper, was a mistake!
We used BIN primer and aqua enamal waterbased for the doors.
- Tools:
We are a Ryobi household - this is our starter pack We also purchased a brad gun, and drop saw. Having the right tools makes ALL the difference. Couldn't live without the impact driver and the drop saw:) And the nail gun…. oh la la.
- Step 1:
Demo - everything was connected and there was a very weird wall that had to come out. My husband enjoyed getting rid of that. Completely blocked the view and it was a funky layout. Also had to remove an inbuilt table - not bench height, not table height somewhere in between, and not quite in the kitchen. And that sucker was well and truly bolted into the floor! We went right back to the studs in most places. We did do a few safety checks - no asbestos (in fact all of the fibre cement had a stamp on it saying no asbestos). Demo is harder than it looks in the movies.
- Step 2:
2. Assembling all the cabinets. We chose Kaboodle cabinets and were super pleased with the quality and ease of putting them together. My mistake was I didn't read the instructions and put the legs up to the heigh recommended. I made sure everything was level and a heigh that worked for me, but it meant the standard kickboards didn't fit! So I had to hand cut all the kick boards. Could have kicked myself (sorry for the pun).
We also chose to get the raw boards and paint them ourselves. Whilst It was a pain and took a long time (priming and two top coats) it saves significant money. And if you want to do a custom colour the sky is the limit. We just went semi gloss white. And honestly, even after 2 years which is when I did them, they have held up incredibly well.
We put in an Ikea (wash my mouth out) bench top as it was cheaper but its actually thinner than the Bunnings one and I should have gone with that. Got the electrican and plumber back into put in sink and dishawyer, and stove and add in new powerpoints. Really like these ones which also can have the usb outlets which is handy. Have used them all through the house now.
Other trap for your players - I really wanted one of through groovy pull out corner slides. I got the blind corner cabinet, but put it up hard against the wall. So the opening (from memory needed to be at least 470mm ended up being too small for the pull out. So just be aware of that. All I had to do was leave a bit off a gap between the end of the cabinet and the wall and it would have been fine.
And final bit of sage advice. Always wondered about filler pieces. Why? Well once again discovered the hard way. I should have put a filler between the blind corner and the drawers. This moves the drawer a little way further, and means when you open them you don't hit the knob on the blind corner cabinet! Had to put a recessed handle into the blind corner cabinet.
I custom built the fridge surrounds using melamine sheeting with the slimline cabinet on top.
- Step 3:
Tiling the splash back. Make sure the walls are as even as possible. I used a premixed adhesive. I used a laser level to make sure I was going to get the tiles level. The benches were pretty level but wanted to double check all the way along. Used my angle grinder with a diamond blade to make the cuts. Grouted using a premixed grout in super white and then when dried I did go over with a grout sealer making cleaning so much easier.
- Step 4:
Floors. We went with a laminate floor that is no longer in stock which is a shame. Because the kitchen is part of the open plan living room, we had to do the whole area in one go. It has held up incredibly well to our 2 big dogs plus all the sand that comes in from the beach. First we had to rip up the old lovely 40 year old shag carpet and the lino that was glued to the kitchen floor. The worst part of the job was pulling out all of the staples and nails on the floor. Tedious but necessary. Spend the money on the good underlay and then off we went. Make sure you really tap them into place so the click in tightly. Didn't go far enough under the cabinets (just another centimetre would have made a difference) to have that nice clean line for those pesky kickboards). We also did the Easycraft wall panels on the lounge area walls as you can see in the photo. Love them so much we have done them in the kitchen, bedrooms and downstairs bathroom as well.
- Step 5:
Installing the wall panels and painting trim and door. The wall panels are big and heavy so its a two person job. And its not easy getting them to join together with the green strip. Tip: Don't try and install on top of skirting boards, remove them and put skirts back over top. Front door custom colour matched to splashback tiles.
- Step 6:
So that was all phase one. Then we decided that we wanted to take out the two big sliding doors and replace with one mega set of sliding doors. This meant I would have a little more room in kitchen and was able to add in the 600 drawers plus the pantry. We had to get a DA, and get professional in to do the install but it was so worth it!
Photo 1 - before we started the renovations (and you can see that wonderful table built into the floor that we had to get rid of). We had already moved the fireplace frrom between the sliding doors over to the back left corner.
Photo 2. Door and wall taken out.
Photo 3 - New doors almost complete. And look at that view of the lake :). Bliss
This then meant I got another 1.2 metres in the kitchen so I added in top cabinets, the pantry and the extra 600 drawers. Has made a huge difference. Added on some more of the wall panel
A bit of the challenge with the tiling as I had to pull out some of the cut tiles and replace with full ones to continue the the splashback. You can see where the first phase finished and the extra space I was able to claw back for the kitchen.
Final piece was to add wall paneling to the side of the pantry and that is now my propogation station for my plant obsession (also fueled by Bunnings!.
