Getting there...

As promised, a proper stylised kitchen shoot. Not a washing up sponge in sight!

The 'faux' cottage window is velcroed in place and I've tiled under the new window sill.

These are handmade tiles with irregular edges. I'm really pleased with them.

Did you see my new love?

 

Vintage greengrocers scales found at the flea market for a squillionth of what they sell for on eBay.

Gotta have a crate...

I gave up on brick wallpaper. It was too gloomy. I donated it to my daughters school for artwork backdrops.

Despite the hanging of this...

...single drop of paper being THE. MOST. DIFFICULT. DIY manoevre I have ever undertaken. It took an hour and I sooo nearly wept. Once it was up I tried to love it. But I had to admit that I made a mistake.

Bye bye wallpaper. Hello tongue and groove.

I absolutely love it. It's bright and white and country looking. This entire wall cost £6.99. It's dead cheap and so much fun to do. Unlike wallpaper.

The vintage signage backsplash...

 

 We're still working on the shop. At least we can have photos now. Proper photos taken by my husband. Mine are awful. I tried so hard and I cannot get the horizon straight. 

See? I get seasick flicking through them. My husband is a photographer so I'm very lucky.

So what's next for this really slow epic kitchen makeover? Why that will be the pantry door...

Elf sized. I want to make one of these...

 

I've already taken it outside and ripped the front off...

But I wasn't expecting to find that it was constructed from haystacks!

Instead of timber batons the door contains straw batons.

Rather odd and flammable I would have thought for a kitchen!

Oh and there's still the other end of the kitchen to tackle, the lighting and that floor!

Don't worry. I'll pace myself.

Last chance to beg for your votes!

A new look...

Whoah! Someone turned the lights on in here!
I'm going for bright simplicity from now on rather than gloom. Another change is the blog name. I always hated it. It didn't make sense. So after two years I'm having a makeover. I may add things later. Hope you like...

I've just twigged that I've not been getting ANY blog emails at all for, um, a few months...
Told you I'm not very technical. Apologies if I haven't replied to people during this time. I have a massive backlog to work through, so if it's important, you might want to email me again.

 So, here's what's been going on. Connies First Holy Communion was lovely and she looked so sweet in the dress. I don't have a blogworthy pic but we get to do it all over again in a few weeks so I'll try harder then.

The sewing machine is put away and the kitchen cabinet doors are back in their rightful place on the dining table. I hung three yesterday...

 I'm getting there!

And created a bottom for the bottomless cupboard under the sink...

There was a drip that caused the bottom of the cupboard to perish before we bought the house...

I had some contiboard cut to size, and Bob's your uncle...

Turns out that the drip is still dripping which is a drag. Hence the jam jar.

I also removed a totally MINGING semi circular carousel from the corner cupboard and had a piece of contiboard cut to fit as a shelf in there which will make far greater use of the space.

Just waiting for the shelf supports to arrive!

The wallpaper decision making is still no further on. Just need one more sample to arrive.

Let me just leave you with a bit of prettiness...

I found this sampler at the flea market.

I got it for £18. Sometimes they sell for hundreds. I know nothing about what makes one valuable and one not so valuable but we love this one.

I love that Sarah Ann Jordan was seven when she worked this, same age as my daughter. I wonder who she was...

The frame was dark wood and I took it all apart, painted it with gesso and waxed it...

It's hanging above Connies bed. We had Bad Bobby stuffed as you can see. He's a lot less trouble now.

Kidding! He's alive and well but he's been out partying til 2am and won't smile for the camera this morning or get out of his bed. I know that feeling...

P.S. Did anyone else have the pleasure of watching 'The Auction House' on Channel 4 the other day? It's my new favourite show. I think 'Alpine Surgical' will be the new 'Shabby Chic!' Bahaha!

Yeah baby!

As promised, one quarter of the kitchen is completed. It took most of a day to sand the sides of two doors, re-ESP and paint them so that they work freely without hitting one another. I had those doors on and off so much that day. I really hate kitchen cabinet hinges. I had to watch a youtube tutorial to make any sense of them.

A tomato and a J cloth. Too impatient to style it properly.

 

As you can see, the wall is still not sorted and I can't get the splasback up until that's done.

I wanted something temporary yet striking. We'll replace the worktops and sink at a later date.
Having loved what Emma (Ooh Betty blog) did on the BBC Great Interior Design Challenge with brick wallpaper, I thought that I'd try that out. At only £20 a roll we can rip it off in a few years with no damage to the walls. I won't need much.

You can see one piece held in place in the corner. Now that it's come, I'm not entirely sure it's right. It's meant to be white but it's very grey. With the grey units it might just all be too much and one could spiral into a deep depression on entering the kitchen.

I didn't order a sample which was stupid. I now have a few samples of other brick wallpapers on order and I can't wait to see how they work.

So far my expenditure has been:

ESP £25 inc postage
Titebond melamine glue £30.90 inc postage (But I could have used a smaller bottle. I have a HUGE one.)
Farrow and Ball paint £60 should do it. Perhaps £40. (I could have saved money with bigger tins.)
Wood (Cheshire Mouldings) £56.37 (You could save by cutting your own MDF.)
Wallpaper £25.95 inc postage (So far. Might choose another one...)
Handles £100 (Not the cheapest you can get but I love them.)

=£298.22

This is the cost for the whole kitchen, not just a quarter. Obviously it will cost more to finish the job as I need a window sill where there is none and some cheap tiles around the back of the sink. And flooring! I hate that floor.
I've not included polyfilla, caulk and white paint as I have these already in my stash.

I'll remind you of the before...

And now...

So far, so good but there's a long way to go.

Around here...

We've enjoyed a lovely May day holiday with a picnic in Hitch Wood...

(Can I just say, my bum isn't this big. My cardy has sticky-outy pockets creating an optical illusion of booty. I actually have the pert derriere of a 20 year old. Honest.)

Isn't it beautiful?

Things at home are not quite so beautiful...

 

A little electrical socket re-jigging was called for but we have a splashback up! Yay! 

You'll have noticed that the surrounding kitchen isn't exactly selling it just yet. 

The doors are off...

 

and are getting clad in strips of hardwood...

and slowly but surely, I'm amassing a pile of 'done' doors.

And there is mess EVERYWHERE.

I'm using this product...

Titebond melamine glue. Apparently it's the bees knees for gluing wood to melamine. I'm not even using panel pins. It gives you plenty of slippiness time so you can guide your joints into the right position. Then you clamp it and it dries fairly quickly. You can stop clamping after 30 mins. Which is good if you only have five clamps and a lot of doors.

They say, 'this is an exceptional glue that forms a bond stronger than the substrate itself.'
I think that means you'll pull the whole melamine front off the cupboard before you pull my planks off.
It's pretty butch. I like that in a glue.

I had a play with my ESP today. What peculiar stuff it is. I've even got a couple of coats of paint on the cupboard frame. Cooking is strictly forbidden until this section of cupboards above the cooker is completed. Hopefully I can pull that off before the weekend is over because I go on strike at weekends and force my husband to cook. I don't want to miss out on that!