A couple of weeks ago we shared the first updates we made to our kitchen. They’re all temporary of course but it’s still important to create a space that works for us while we save up for a new kitchen.
The ultimate plan is still to install a new kitchen at the front of the apartment so we really don’t want to spend a lot of time or money on any hopefully very temporary improvements.
Oh, and if you’ve been following us along our journey, you’ll also know that we’re planning on painting the kitchen cabinets and we’re letting you decide what they should look like! Totally mad? Possibly, but we had faith that you all have good taste! Spoiler: You didn’t let us down!
We’re sharing the results of the poll at the end of this post!
But for now, back to some of the other kitchen updates, we’ve finally finished. (You can see updates 1 to 6 here.)
#7 A new tap
In part one we shared our new stainless steel sink. To go with the new sink we’ve now also installed a new tap. The existing one was really yucky and it leaked a lot. Whilst most of our improvements are only temporary we figured that in this case, we’d be better off investing in a high-quality tap that we can refit it in our new kitchen (whenever we get one that is).
It’s so weird how much difference having a good quality tap makes! (We opted for this one by Grohe.) Best of all, it only took about half an hour to remove the old tap and install the new one and honestly if you can assemble any flat-pack furniture you’ll totally be able to install a tap! It really couldn’t be easier!
#8 A new extractor fan
We ripped out the existing broken extractor fan along with the cupboards next to it just after moving in. We really couldn’t just leave it as it was so installed a new extractor fan.
It all sounds way more elaborate than it is though, as we still had an extractor fan hood thing in storage from a previous kitchen we owned. It’s not the best or most exciting improvement ever but having a working extractor is definitely a bonus and as this addition cost us absolutely nothing (other than 3 wall plugs) it made total sense to install it.
#9 New shelves (& a bit of painting)
Together with our “new” extractor fan we also installed a shelf that at least partly makes up for the cupboard we removed. We don’t need the storage at all as there’s already more than enough but we like having at least one shelf to display a few things and have a couple of our most used items in easy reach.
As you can see, we painted the area where the cupboards used to be, too. The wall is still a complete mess with holes everywhere but with so many other jobs to do it’ll have to do for now!
#10 A new dishwasher
We had decided to keep the existing rather ancient dishwasher because there’s no point on spending money on things you don’t have to – especially after purchasing a new home!
We used a solution that runs through a cleaning cycle on the dishwasher to give it a proper clean and get rid of any dirt but after running the cleaning programme we realised that the pump wasn’t working properly and all of the dirty water just stayed in the bottom of the dishwasher. So annoying and disgusting at the same time!
As we’re planning on buying a new kitchen as soon as possible we considered buying a temporary and cheap dishwasher but figured that like the new tap it made sense to buy a good one now that we’ll keep and reuse in our new kitchen.
You can read the full review of our new dishwasher here!
If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ll know that I love to hide things which is why we opted for a built-in dishwasher. We still have to buy a temporary front for it but we’ll switch to match our new kitchen in the future.
Another reason to add a front as soon as possible is that without one the door isn’t heavy enough so that it jumps back up quickly – I have a big bruise on my head to prove it (yes, I really shouldn’t have stuck my head in the dishwasher!).
My favourite feature, other than that it cleans dishes, of course, is that it projects the remaining cleaning time on to the floor.
#11 Lighting
If you caught our previous post about some of our unexpected home issues you’ll already know that our super high ceilings are one of them. As amazing as they are, they also meant that we had to go out and buy yet another ladder to even be able to reach them.
Needless to say, it’s taken us a while to get round to adding the few lights we own but we finally have a kitchen lamp!
Now for what you’ve all been waiting for – the results of our kitchen painting survey are in!
And the winner is…
The two-tone kitchen is the clear winner! Thank you so much to all of you who voted.
And as we promised, it really is what we’ll be doing! We still need to pick up a few sample pots to determine the exact colours but painting the kitchen has now been added to our ever-increasing to-do list!
Do you have a kitchen appliance you just can’t live without? Mine is obviously the dishwasher! Have you ever painted a kitchen? Do you have any tips for us? Which kitchen option did you vote for?
PS. Want to see how the makeover turned out? You can see our finished kitchen reveal here!
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