That just leaves one, pretty big, area of the house which we both hate. The kitchen. There is nothing about the kitchen that we like at all. The main problem, as we see it, is that it's so dark. Dark tiles on the floor, dark tiles on the walls and dark kitchen cabinets. We hate it. There is also a ridiculous 'bit' of worktop and shelving which sticks out into the middle of the room - not a breakfast bar, just an annoyance. We have talked many times about what we would do to the kitchen if we changing it and then last year, we decided that the time was right - we have the money, we don't have any other projects on...it's time.
Yesterday we had our first meeting with our kitchen designer. That sounds a lot fancier than it actually was considering, like all our home furniture, we have decided to get our new kitchen from Ikea. A lot of people turn their nose up at Ikea kitchens but, actually, they are pretty great. My parents installed an Ikea utility room and it looks great and does a perfect job. We also know that Ikea will be considerably cheaper than elsewhere. Since we know we aren't staying in this house forever, we don't want to spend £10,000+ on a kitchen we won't get the best from. So, Ikea it is. Ikea have a great kitchen planner you can access at home to start drawing up your kitchen plans before you ever see them, which is what I had done and what we arrived with yesterday. The Ikea kitchen guys were great and helped us work out the kinks and issues, and gave us some really helpful tips on what would work best where. It's so exciting to see our kitchen taking shape!
So here is a little look at some of what we are hoping will be in our brand new kitchen....
I'll update more as the kitchen revamp progresses!