A Not Too Difficult Kitchen DIY Upgrade

I seem to have been prattling on now for far too long about my home and the improvements that need doing in it, but I can't help it - when I get the urge to get something done I want it finished, competed, fully boxed off - and I want it done yesterday.

I'm not good with waiting.

If I am really honest though I do have to admit that there isn't really anything wrong with the house as it is - it's liveable anyway (way too small but manageable) but I think that now I'm not working and am spending a lot more time at home than I used to, the little niggles and the small things I don't quite like about it are becoming harder and harder to ignore.

And thankfully for me, my Hubby tends to just agree with me with the house-y stuff - unless it involves spending money and then he hates it from the offset - so when I decided that I really hated our kitchen and found I was avoiding going in for longer than I needed to, I knew something had to be done.

Looking back, we haven't actually done a whole lot to the room - it's all cosmetic - but it's made such a difference.

The first thing I did was declutter - having a small house means that if we aren't careful we easily accumulate a lot of stuff - the tops of cupboards, the corners of worktops - everywhere just seemed way too full and I hated it, so, before these photos were taken, I had already moved things and thrown things away and generally neatened everything up a little bit...

However it still wasn't great and despite already having the new white floor put down at the stage above - the old floor looked like this...

...the beige. square one peeking out around my old photo set up (used here for Willow's first birthday cake smash shoot) but it was old and dated and I really wanted something fresher - which I now have.

But then with the new white flooring down, the rest of the kitchen just didn't look quite right.

The cream cupboard doors and tiles made the room look mis-matched and grubby and as much as I wanted new ones there was no way we could afford them, but I needed to do something.

So I took to the internet and found that there actually are such things as cupboard paint and tile paint...

...meaning that a bit of DIY was going to go down...

Eeek - now this area is not my forte but I was so desperate for the changes to happen and wanted them to happen without costing a fortune, that we decided to go for it.

The doors and tiles (in stages) were cleaned with sugar soap, they were given a light sanding over - just to take the shine off of them (hopefully to allow the painting stage to be easier), they were cleaned again with white spirit to make sure all of the dust was wiped away and then they were left to dry.

It's all the prep work that takes forever, but eventually it was time for the painting and I have to say it was quite nerve wracking.

At one point I really thought I'd ruined one of the doors because after the first coat of paint (we used small sponge rollers not brushes for both) it wasn't looking all too amazing to say the least...but, with a little perseverance and patience (and two coats of paint) I am so pleased with the finished look...

The whole room is so much brighter, a lot cleaner looking and is certainly a lot more welcoming.

We replaced our old TV with a slightly larger one - the Hubby insisted on this - we treated ourselves to a new dishwasher (how I managed without one I'll never know) and we finally managed to upgrade our nine year old, very cheap, very chipped, falling apart, wooden table for a new one which helped tie together the wooden worktops and all of the white paint even more...

A brick effect wallpaper was put up on the biggest, emptiest wall to help add an extra dimension to the otherwise quite plain room - and I even got a few shelves put up too...

...which I obviously couldn't wait to fill with cute, colour-coordinating trinkets from ever amazing Ikea.

I absolutely love this room now, more so because it was done without spending a fortune and it didn't take a whole lot of time either - I think, in between working full time, my Hubby managed to complete it in about three weeks, which isn't bad going really.
(although I wanted it finishing in one day!)

It's my new favourite space.

The only problem is, I now hate my living room...