It has finally begun. The day  finally arrived and we started with renovations to our kitchen this week. It feels like we were just moving into our new place the other day and  after running out of money decided to leave the kitchen for “another month or two”. Well its been 8 months and only now have we begun making our dream kitchen a reality.

For the renovators and decorators among us ( or those who may also be embarking on the renovation journey in the near future) I thought I would share some of our ideas with you. If you love design and making you house a home, then you may want to read more. For the others, I promise I won’t be too offended if you leave now. You will be missing some crazy before and after pictures though!

We decided to do exposed brick on our walls, which I have been obsessed with since I can remember – so much so that after a bottle of red wine hubby and I decided to take matters into our own hands one night and chip away at some tiles to see what was underneath! We landed up with several tiles falling off the wall and exploding all of the kitchen. There we were at 1am, giddy and drunk knowing we did in fact have brick underneath the 80’s tiles that covered our walls.

We are going with a red/brown brick  with an acid wash over it. This takes away from it looking like face brick, instead opting for a more rough/worn look. It can also, depending on your finishes give it a certain french effect.

I love that while its raw and rustic it has an element of freshness, especially combined with the cupboards and counter tops.

this is quite neat we may end up going a little more rustic and wash it even more! But how gorgeous?

Our cupboards are beautiful off white (which we are hoping is better the stark white) and the inside of the cupboards with glass fronts we have chosen a grey which will give the cupboards a beautiful 3D illusion.  The on thing i have alway wanted is to have down lights in my cupboards so this will add some magic especially at night.

We were really hoping to to do screed flooring but due to a few factors have rather chosen some beautiful screed looking tiles in a nice stoney grey colour.

our may be slightly darker than this but I’m in love with the industrial feel it gives!

For lighting we have are thinking cage lights with exposed globes to bring in a bit more of an industrial feel. I even love plain exposed globe pendants like in this other picture!

Our counter tops  will most probably be a dark grey and then to add a pop of color we are going with a red gas oven/stove. I’m hoping this will bring out the red in the brick too!

I have what you call buyers remorse with many things in life and always wonder if I have made the right choice. I can’t tell you how many times we have gone back and forth with final decisions, aways coming back to our original ideas.

I think I have learnt one thing about designing and planning your own kitchen (or renovating a home for that matter) it’s that its important to stick with what you have always liked and keep true to your vision.

There are SO many options and different looks available and it can become very overwhelming if you don’t have a clear idea of what you are trying to accomplish. It’s a good to obviously keep an open mind when it comes to new materials and ways of doing things but its vital to have a clear plan and idea of what kind of look you are trying to achieve.

We have always loved the industrial/exposed brick and contemporary style of living but also wanted to make it feel a bit Frenchy and “pretty” so we have added a butlers sink and some cool shelving with off white cupboards and white wooden shutter blinds.

It’s amazing that my hubs and I are on the same page and haven’t bumped heads once or disagreed about anything. Our styles have definitely morphed together over the years and we lean toward the same kind of stuff which helps a great deal. I think he has a sneaky way of suggesting things to make me think its my idea and vice versa.

Our children don’t seem to understand our eagerness to get a new kitchen and Noah (4) regularly asked during the build up to renovations what was wrong with our old kitchen. Bless him.

So lets hope our vision comes to life and that we will be back in our new place sooner rather than later. I can’t wait for the dust to settle (excuse the pun) and to get back into normal life where I can actually blog and write and share some other stories with you. Its been a bit slow on this side right?

In the meantime il be getting my breath back and relaunching my new blog design in the next little while. EEEEEK! Exactly one year later, I’m finally getting it done! It seems   to renovations all round for me at the moment.

Happy FRIYAY you beautiful people!

xoxo

Leigh

Hi I’m Leigh! Did you enjoy reading this post? I really hope so and would love you to stick around a little longer! Please feel free to browse my blog for other articles or to keep up with all the latest news and to be the first to hear about some great competitions, come and find me me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can also email me directly at leeloobaggins@hotmail.com or simply subscribe below and never worry about missing out!