Kitchen Reno’s – Before & After

It’s over 6 weeks since we’ve completed our big renovation – we had our kitchen gutted & renovated – and floors polished – life has returned to normal – ie. chaos/mess/crazy !

I’ve been hoping to show off some before & after photos of the reno – and have had a few people ASK me – so here goes.

BEFORE

The original kitchen had wooden cupboard doors which we re-painted, and a new dishwasher – and replaced the pantry shelves.   The house is from the 60’s or 70’s – we’ve been here for ~12 years now.  

With a growing family needing more storage and bench space – and wanting to create a ‘brekky bar’ – we had some plans drawn up – and arm-wrestled the bank manager for more $$ – and got it sorted out !

Top on the list was a new corner pantry – and to move the sliding door near the toilet to create some “space” – the old kitchen cooker was about 2m from the toilet.    Also – to remove the old lino – and get the floorboard polished.

I didn’t think to take any BEFORE photos until we started pulling up the lino – and yes, a lot of kitchen ‘mess’ (life, as we known it)…

Pantry, fridge, old doorway to hallway (brown cupboard)

Bench area, and kitchen sink + cooker

Old rear wall to the house – window box turned into a ‘bar’

DURING

We had ripped up the lino flooring, and emptied out the cupboards and pantry – and set up a temporary kitchen in the main living area for about a month.   We got by with microwave & slow cooker meals – and a trestle table for a bench. 

The main parts of the kitchen were gutted & re-fitted in about 6 days – and then another WEEK for the floorboards to be done – we had to move out of home to escape the fumes (polish).

Old kitchen gutted – removed benching, sink, appliances

Building work underway, new doorframe construction

Plastering and main building work completed (door moved)

New brekky bar ‘box’ – dropped the old frame down and re-boxed

AFTER

We now have an amazing kitchen

• Much more bench space
• Awesome corner pantry with a door-switch light
• Self closing doors/drawers
• Massive big cutlery drawer
• Large brekky bar
• Double sink
• New cupboards in the back family room
• Newly polished floorboards
• New oven, cooker and rangehood
• Glass splashback
• New powerpoints and downlights installed

*phew*

Here’s a few pics of the new kitchen – it’s like a display home now !

Polished floor extends into laundry + huuuuge bench space

Corner wine rack + cook books, pantry, fridge + other kitchen storage

Corner pantry with roller door appliance shelves

BIG kitchen drawers for glasses, plates & bowls – double sink – and cooker & fancy rangehood

Back family room now has a kitchen ‘brekky bar’ (and new glass door shelves)

Floor boards polished all through, and downlights

Soooo much bench space – and great shelving – and double sink (!)

This kitchen reno’ has been a long time coming, with many plans & ideas for the last few years – and we finally got sorted out with design, colours and $$ – and now it’s DONE !

It’s become a regular part of life already – although I still go to open the wrong drawer – or put rubbish in the bin where it was before – I just have to ask Donna ‘where is it ?’    (LOL)

I joked that my first payslip (after the reno) contained a photo of a “kitchen” – but the truth is that it will take more than FEW of the same payslips to pay for this lot !

But – we’re very happy with it – especially Donna…