Kitchen makeover

I recently completed a renovation of my in-laws' rental unit. It's a third floor one-bedder and the whole place was starting to look tired, dated and a bit grubby. In particular, the kitchen had very little bench space and a horrible old freestanding gas oven/stove combination.

To begin the reno the old lino and carpet was ripped out and I installed a water resistant laminate flooring to the kitchen, living and bedroom areas. This was my second-time installing floating laminate floorboards and I love how easy and quickly they come together.

Once the painting and floors were complete, it was time to update the cabinetry. We went for a kaboodle kitchen set up ordered through our local Bunnings. I found that the kaboodle planner tool was pretty easy to use and it allowed us to print a list of all the pieces we needed to order. The cabinets went together reasonably easily, I did have to cut two cabinets down to size with a circular saw as the space I had to work with was slightly smaller than off-the-shelf dimensions would work (I have since realised that kaboodle will make cut to measure cabinets, which I will be trying next time)

Once the cabinets were in I had an electrician and plumber install the oven, stove top and water connections. The final tradie job was to have a tiler retile the splashback with subway-style mosaic tiles and black grout. To match the benchtop I also used a small slotted gum panel to reframe the window sill.

(the fridge has been relocated to opposite the end of the island bench)

As this project was done around my full time work it took 6 weeks of weekends and after work time to complete the whole unit, but it was a really rewarding experience.

If anyone has any questions about the specific materials I used or more detail about how I went about it I'd be happy to answer them 😃

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StevieB

Well done @tom_builds. You've done a terrific job of transforming this space. I especially love your choice of benchtop, and it's lovely to have so much more bench space now too.

I know you've been with us for some time now, but let me extend a warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's wonderful to see you sharing your first project with us, and thanks for including plenty of detail and images so that we can see how you tackled this project. It's bound to be inspiring for other members looking to freshen up their kitchen.

Look forward to seeing more of your projects.

Stevie

tom_builds

Thanks @StevieB , I appreciate the feedback. I have been pretty busy this year with a heap of projects around my house and the unit from this post, so will be uploading more content soon.

mich1972

Geez , how great is this !! Looks fantastic @tom_builds 😍

Jason

Congratulations @tom_builds. What a fantastic result. Looking forward to seeing what you tackle next - you obviously have fantastic skills and experience to share with the community.

Thanks for the offer of sharing more specifics about materials used. It's typically what our members want to know so they can replicate your handiwork. I'm sure our members would love to know more, so please fire away.

Jason

MitchellMc

Absolutely inspiring work, @tom_builds! You've really achieved a fantastic transformation of this space.

I can't wait to hear more details.

Many thanks for contributing.

Mitchell

tom_builds

Hi all,

Here is a list of the materials that were used (all sourced from bunnings, isn't it just the best spot for DIY-ing!)

Paint: British Paints Clean and Protect Matt Indoor Paint in Lexicon Quarter

Floating floors: Floor Select 8mm water resistant in Tarragon Walnut

- I used aluminium angle to flash between the ends of the boards and doorways where there were no skirting boards

Subway Tiles: Decor8 Metro White ceramic mosaic

Kitchen Cabinets: all Kaboodle, doors in Provincial White, benchtop in Hickory Maple

Island Bench Panelling: VJ MDF Panels painted with the same colour as walls

Sink: estilo single bowl sink with drainer

Mixer Tap: Dorf WELS 5 Star 6L/min Kip Sink Mixer

StevieB

Fantastic @tom_builds. Thanks for sharing.

Stevie

NikkiMaree

Wow that looks amazing. Well done!

Fredthecat

Lovely job , looks fabulous .

may I ask has the Taronga Walnut colour made the small area appear much

Smaller ? ( although love it ).

Have 35sqm apartment , thinking of Gessama Oak to hopefully open the area up ??

thanks

MitchellMc

Hi @Fredthecat,

Let me mention @tom_builds, so they are alerted to your question.

Mitchell

tom_builds

Hi @Fredthecat ,

I don't know that the area feels much smaller, but when I did my own home we opted for a lighter coloured flooring (HanWood Elegance Chevron) for the same reason that we felt it would make it look bigger and I think that it definitely did have an impact

As I was doing this for family, the design choices were mostly their own, but I think the colour worked well to match the benchtops, and keeping everything else white has helped to brighten it up.

I just had a look at the pattern you are considering and I think it looks great 👌

Best of luck

Yolzy

Looks good, though why would you get a single sink again? That’s the first thing I’m changing and my kitchen looks like yours! I bought the wood from Bunnings and oiled it with Tung oil, safe for food and water proof. Any scratches? Easy fix, just sand it down and re oil! Where did you put the fridge?

tom_builds

Hi @Yolzy ,

Thanks for your feedback.

Most of the design choices were made by the owners of the unit (my in-laws) and the unit is an investment so some of the choices may have been driven by budget, including the use of a lower cost sink.

The fridge has been relocated to the wall opposite the end of the island bench.

All the best with your own kitchen makeover.

Fredthecat

Thank you

Nighty

Hi, love the kitchen makeover. Can you tell me how much it cost for the tiler? I have about that much space to tile and trying to work out whether I give it a go or just get someone in to do it.

tom_builds

Hi @Nighty ,

I actually had the tiler completely retile the bathroom of this unit at the same time, so can't give a definite price for just the splashback but the whole job cost $3000 plus the cost of the tiles as I had purchased them myself. I estimate the kitchen would have been about 25% of the work so maybe $750 - $800. The splashback area needed a sand cement render before being tiled which added time and cost onto the job.

If it was my unit and I had no time constraints I would have liked to have given it a go myself as tiling is a job I have not attempted yet.

Hope this helps, and thanks for the question.

Jason

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Nighty. Great to see you receive such a prompt and helpful reply from the wonderful @tom_builds.

Please let us know if you need a hand with your tiling project. Tiling is a very achievable project even for D.I.Y. beginners, and we are certainly here to help.

You might get some confidence from these resources:

How to tile a splashback by @ProjectPete

D.I.Y. tiling advice from the Bunnings team

Hope that helps get you started,

Jason

Nighty

Thanks so much. Yes that was a very quick response. Cheers

NikkiMaree

Hey.
I recently tacked the job of re tiling my splashback too.
the trickiest part was definitely cutting the tiles but the rest was realitively easy

EricL

Hello @Nighty,

There is no greater feeling than realizing that you can do this tiling project. Saving money is a plus but it also becomes a great learning experience for you and those around you. I recommend planning and organize your steps, do practice runs on your benchtop to give you a feel for the task. Arm yourself with information and observe those who have done it before. Sometimes the best way to learn is to get your feet wet. Not only will you gain a skill, but it will also give you the confidence for that next remodeling project.

Here is a link to one of our most inspirational makeovers Laundry makeover - first-time reno.

If you need any information about your tiling project please let us know.

Eric

jaga

I think it looks great.

I'm interested to know if you kept track of total costs? And if you did a comparison of what it may have cost if you didn't DIY?

jaga

tom_builds

Hi @jaga,

Thanks for your feedback 😃

I did keep track of the costs of this reno, however as I was renovating the whole unit I can only estimate the proportion of plumbing, tiling and electrician costs involved in the kitchen. The complete unit was renovated for a little over $16,000 (plus my time spent on the project ~75 hrs). The materials and appliances for the kitchen cost just shy of $6,000 and I estimate about $3,000 of the trades cost would have been allocated to the kitchen totalling around $9,000.

I haven't considered trying to figure out how much it would have cost if I had paid a builder to complete the works rather than DIYing as much as possible but I would be interested in doing some research about that.

Hope this helps.

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