Sunday 16 October 2011

EXHAUSTED!







This weekend has been BRUTAL.  There were a million tasks to complete to finish the kitchen but we were determined, we came quite close.  We spent Friday night painting and sanding again, quite a time consuming task really. Saturday was spent putting up the splash back and more final coats of paint. Each cupboard door, each wall requires a minimum of two coats, which as you can imagine takes a lot of time, it isn't difficult just well... watching paint dry.   The bench top required 5 coats, with 24 hours in between, but I think it came up a treat.  The poly-urethane that we used was quite noxious.  The house was nearly impossible to breathe in straight  away, plus the cats both wanted to jump on the bench.
So for 5 nights we locked the unhappy kittens in our bedroom to sleep with us.  Manny didn't seem to mind, in fact, delighted in sleeping on the bed, purring and washing away all night.  Willis was extremely unhappy about being denied his night time havoc wreaking adventures, and let us know very loudly every morning at 3 am that he was not amused.







It was worth the effort though. As you can see from the photo's we made huge progress, we are not complete yet but 90% there.  The splash back we were worried about, as I originally wanted tempered coloured glass panels, however after looking at the costs we quickly changed our mind. 
Instead we went to http://www.reversegarbage.com.au/ and got creative.  B found some massive 60cm marble patterened tiles for $3 each, and then a large sheet of perspex that was the perfect size.
The tiles went on without a hitch, the perspex took some planning and care.  After cutting to size, cutting a hole for the powerpoint, we painted the back side the same colour as the cupboard doors.  When that dried we crossed out fingers and put in place, I think it looks great, and only a fraction of the cost!!




 We had extra space that wasn't being used, so a cupboard was the answer, as I have mention before, we made this using spares that were gifted to us, and the 'door' is actually a window.  B and I went for a drive to our local junk/demolitian yard and found two lead painted windows for only $20, we decided to give it a shot.  After sanding of the lead paint we discovered a beautiful wood underneath, we thought it would be a waste to paint over so just varnished it as is. (The handle we bought from bunnings)

Anyway to keep this one short, after many hours of working hard and creating as we went we nearly have a complete kitchen.  Only the pantry area to complete, the tile floor we will leave for quite a while, and we have plans at some point in the future to add built in cupboards around the fridge, freezer and think we can squeeze one more near the stove. Right now though, we both need (deserve) a rest, and the entire house needs a good clean, as most other chores have been neglected for weeks now.

I call this kitchen design "Better than Blue!"






1 comment:

alichick8 said...

LOVE IT!!!Oh wow so much lighter without the blue! I think you have done amazing to be so thrifty but creative at the same time. I love the top cupboard- that's cool. What are you going to put in it? Maybe some glasswear or something pretty? I'm very impressed!
PS- Keep an eye out in your mailbox next week ;-)