Peonies and Paint Charts...

I love Peonies at this stage before they fully open up! I have them planted in my garden but they didn't flower last year, so I'm hoping they do this year!

Our new oven is still in the packaging awaiting to be fitted .Think it's in for a long wait as there's so much to do beforehand! We will have to slice into the worktops to fit the oven as the old one is a built-in model. I think I've decided on the paint colour for the cupboards though-'Rita Says' by the 'Paint & Paper Library'. Has anyone ever used this colour? On my paint chart it's a sort of pale grey with the slightest hint of green-please let me know if you have and what you thought of it, as I keep staring at the tiny square on the paint chart trying to visualise what it will be like!! I also looked online at the colour on their website and it looked absolutely nothing like my paint chart-but instead a cold looking pale Wedgewood blue! Think I might have to buy a tester pot to see which one is accurate!

Goodbye green oven....

At long last it's goodbye to our green oven! We were going to try spraying it with paint but we just didn't think it would stand up to daily wear and tear! So after spending ages trying to decide whether to get the cream or the black model in this mini-range cooker, we finally decided to get the black version! This is quite an about turn for me as I thought I'd settled upon the cream!
But as 'we' are soon going to be re-painting the kitchen cabinets pale grey and are going for a more contemporary look, we thought the black would be more in keeping!
Having finally decided which colour model to get I then spent ages searching for the best deal on the Internet. I couldn't believe how much variation there was in cost, often over £200! I found the cheapest price for this gas model was £430 including free delivery (send me a Flickr message if you'd like the source!) I ordered it at lunchtime yesterday and it arrived at half nine this morning! Leisure were part of the 'Aga Rangemaster' group until a few years ago, and you can tell that from the classic styling of this mini-range. It has all the features of the larger models but is very reasonable in price. I also like their larger, retro-style model you can see in the last photo-again, you can choose from black or cream, and can find it on the Internet for about £800. If I had a bigger kitchen I would have been tempted by this model!

More kitchen inspirations...oven spray paint...

I have definitely decided to give our kitchen an update in the next few months! The good thing is that it won't be too big a job as we can just re-paint the units and change a 'few' other things...

We had these hideous brassy gold downlights/spotlights that looked really '80's in our kitchen ceiling! Trouble was that they were fairly new, good quality and are fiddly and expensive to have replaced. So the OH bought a Plasti-kote chrome radiator spray that can withstand high temperatures and re-sprayed them. All he had to do was switch off the power and disconnect them by removing the bulb fitting inside, then place a card template all around them so the spray wouldn't get onto the ceiling.
The rest of the plan is to paint all the cupboards a pale greenish grey like the ones in the top photo (courtesy of 'Homes & Garden' magazine gallery), and re-stain the worktops a dark walnut as carrara marble isn't in the budget just yet. The tiled floor will be replaced one day with walnut wood flooring, and the cupboard knobs might be swapped for oval chrome knobs or chrome catches like the ones in the last photo that B&Q are now selling.

UPDATED: Bargain kitchen makeovers...

When we moved into our house it had just had a brand new solid oak kitchen fitted with new appliances. It had obviously been quite expensive and the new appliances were all good quality, so we decided to see if we could make some changes to make it more our style.

We were after the hand-built 'country-style' look that you can see in the brochure photo, and so the units were painted in 'Farrow & Ball's' Cooking Apple Green eggshell. The tongue and groove panelling was painted in F&B 'Tallow' and the walls in 'Pointing'.

We removed quite a few of the cabinets and the OH adapted the carcass shells we were left with. He made a faux stud-wall chimney breast to hide the ugly extractor fan, and that meant we could also have a mantelpiece to display things on.

Next to that (in place of the angled corner wall cupboard) he built a larder cupboard with fold-back doors on piano hinges like the style shown in the designer kitchen photo! The tiles were chipped off and covered with tongue and groove, and the worktops were all replaced. He made the worktops out of old tabletops that were then stained and coated with special oil.

We made the units appear more 'country style' by adding on an 'in-frame' (as they're known in the trade) around the carcasses with cock-beading and traditional brass hinges. This is what gives the units more of a 'bespoke' look. The OH made all of the doors and drawer fronts out of MDF-when painted it looks just like wood. So if you open up our cupboards they are still just melamine inside but who can tell when they are shut! A chunky cornice was added to the tops of all the cupboards along with black porcelain knobs. Most of my knobs are original Victorian ones I found cheaply on Ebay, but you can buy identical reproduction ones everywhere now in all different sizes.

If you look at the tenth photo down you can see the gap on the wall between the 4-door wall cupboard and the 2-door cupboard. There was originally an angled cupboard that went across this space (like the oak one in the 'before' photo) but I hated it. It was really wide and took away from the bespoke look I was after! So we just got rid of it which meant I could have a tiny shelf on top of the tongue and groove panelling that I much prefer. You can see this in the second to last photo-what I like is that the tiny shelf support brackets have the same design as the larger ones on the mantle.

The shabby yellow cupboard was bought for £30 at an antique fair-we just cleaned it and left it as we found it! It's one end of an old dresser top and I like the shape of the brackets on the bottom. The butlers sink was found in our garden with herbs in and the taps were about £90 from B&Q!

We covered the UPVC windowsill with a piece of leftover worktop wood and now I don't even notice that it's a new window. In our next house I fancy having grey kitchen units with Carrara marble worktops and chrome catches but that will be years away yet! In the meantime I'm toying with the idea of repainting our units grey like the photos I found on Flickr at the top of this post, but I just can't decide!If anyone would like more info just send me a message via Flickr!

Bargain buys....

I don't know about you, but the prices I see in all the glossy home magazines constantly amaze me! I was looking at a little pink wooden butchers block trolley in one of this months magazines that was £1,600!

My mum bought a really cheap Ikea Bekvam one (practically the same size) which we painted in Farrow & Ball green eggshell paint, added a (purely ornamental) brass cup handle to make it look the part, bought two cheap wicker baskets to sit underneath on the shelves and I think it looks just as nice as the expensive ones! She left the top and the slatted shelves beech to contrast with the green-I will try to remember to take a photo to show you!

So my next few posts will be about my favourite bargain buys!

Speaking of Ikea and bargain buys, a photo of my new bedroom lamp that sits on my dresser. For some reason, I really like this little lamp-although it's not quite my usual style-so at £24 I gave into temptation. It comes in three different colours-I got the pink version, although you can get it in a clear or green colour too.

Anyway, onto one of my favourite bargain buys-our Carrara marble fireplace and hearth. We bought this on Ebay for £100, and the sellers chucked in the hearth for free too! We did have to drive about 35 miles to collect it, but it was worth it.

Vintage Laura Ashley and my favourite console..

I've posted a few photos of some of my favourite classic looks from my 80's catalogues. Sorry about the awful photos-photography is not my forte! I love the white sofa and chair range, can you believe they are from the 1989 catalogue; I would still buy them today, as they're such a classic design! I also loved the way the old catalogues told you about the history of the houses and where the design inspirations came from! Isn't it interesting to see the original colourway of the 'Summer Palace' wallpaper which has been very popular in the last few years in that light pastel duck-egg colour. I wish Laura Ashley would go back to more of their archive prints and re-issue or update them! Something else that also fascinated me was that if you look in the 6th photo from the top, the blue 'Amelia' rosebud sample pattern you can see in the bottom corner of the page is almost identical to Cath Kidston's current 'sprig' pattern!