Our French Kitchen Renovations and Reveal

Sneak peak of my newly renovated French Kitchen - French taupe cabinets with white counter tops.

Keep reading for more below:

We've just finished some renovations - new kitchen, new bathroom, new floorboards, new hallway, new laundry, a few wall knockdowns etc. We didn't use an architect or kitchen designer as I knew exactly what I wanted. Initially I was actually going to build the kitchen myself so drew up plans in Visio and Google Sketch Up so when we decided to use a cabinet maker I was able to get exactly what I wanted.

We had amazing builders who did the work in 7 weeks, while we lived through it all. Not so much fun cooking on the BBQ and gas camp stove outside when it rained every afternoon last November. Ah well, look at the after photos and I think you'll agree that it was all worth it!

The house had been a bit hacked by previous owners with the kitchen being opened up into the dining room by part of the wall cut out (but not neatly). There was a distinct lack of bench space and the upper cupboards were too low above the bench tops and the dishwasher leaked all over the floor everynight. 7 years ago when we moved in, the cupboards were all fake wood laminate and the splashback tiles were brown but I had painted it all white to make it a bit brighter but you can see we really needed a new kitchen! 

Before photos

View of Kitchen from dining room. Note the low beams of wall cut out. Also floor was badly laid concrete covered with lino. The original door to the kitchen was into the hallway and is hidden behind the fridge in the picture below. We ended up bricking up this opening as it was never used.

View from the study looking into the kitchen on right and dining room on left.

This internal wall really made our dining room very dark (no window in the dining room just a skylight). We replaced the dining room and hall floorboards.Although they were Kauri pine they were very damaged and we had several broken joists. We put down beautiful NSW Spotted Gum floorboards. I really love them.

Mid renovation:

Internal walls and cabinetry all gone

 

.....And now!! 

I actually hand painted the kitchen myself, Colour is Colorbond Dune by British Paints. It was a huge job but saved us $2500. The benchtop is Ceaserstone in Snow.

Below you can see a wine rack and a great storage cupboard at the back of the kitchen bench.

I love this rangehood that I designed and my builder built me. It has a concealed Ilve Rangehood that works like a charm.

Ikea double ceramic sink and beautiful Italian Gessi Tap.

View through study and lounge room to back garden. 

A wicker basket for potatoes completes the French feel.

I'll post the rest of the renovations over the next few weeks. Feel free to leave me a comment as I'd love your feedback and am happy to answer any questions.

Cheers

Fiona xx