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A large kitchen island with farmhouse sink and elegant goose neck tap feature in this renovated kitchen that has become the home's social hub.
The project
Two years ago my husband and I got the keys to our new home, and the next day our friends came over for demolition day. Over six weeks we renovated our kitchen, main living areas and bedrooms, with help from builders, electricians and plumbers, of course.
The decor of the kitchen was not really our style, plus we thought it was inefficient for cooking with limited bench space, little storage and a heritage oven.
The space was tight and we planned to remove this wall to open up the living space, which meant we could stretch our kitchen out a bit and dream of a huge island bench.
Having never planned a kitchen renovation project before, we needed some help to determine how we could make the most of the space. I work at Bunnings and knew that we offer a service where a kitchen consultant visits your home to help you plan out your space, so I turned to them first to help put together a basic plan of our kitchen.
We collected images of kitchen styles we like and the features that kept resonating with us were large island benches (lots of cooking and collaboration space), subway tiles, big farmhouse sinks, goose neck taps, and I wanted my own tea drawer to store all my leaf teas, cups and saucers. We took these ideas and reference images to the consultant who visited our home and helped us plan it out. This was really the first step in mapping out how much space we had and where everything would go and ultimately led to realising our dream. We took a good look at a few kitchen providers, but decided that the Kaboodle kitchen at Bunnings would suit our needs best.
The day came to put together all the cabinets, and we spent the day screwing them together. The instructions weren't easy to understand at first, but once we did a few, we got the hang of it and it was actually simple in the end. Meanwhile, the floor had been sanded and, using the kitchen plan, the plumber mapped in the utilities – where the sink, oven and rangehood would go. We used a builder to physically put the cabinets into place and add the door handles. We had our hearts set on a particular style of heritage-looking handles and sockets so we sourced this from another provider.
I added a custom benchtop below the window and bench stools to create a coffee nook. My cute vintage Roberts Radio sits on here for some PBS radio in the mornings.
I love how elegant the farmhouse sink and goose neck taps look, plus there is heaps of space for washing dishes.
We didn't want the dishwasher to ruin the look of the wooden island, so we got an integrated dishwasher with a door panel to match the rest of the island.
The huge island integrates into the main living area for a more sociable setting at a dinner party.
We're happy with the amount of storage space and we are now trying to think of better solutions for accessing condiments and spices in the panty as it can be hard to find jars at the back of the cupboard.
We are so pleased with our kitchen. It has become the centre point of our home and a social hub for all our visitors.
Before and after
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You can get loads of ideas and inspiration for your kitchen from our clever and creative Bunnings Workshop community members. Check out our Top 10 most popular kitchen projects.
