Again in February, I dreamt I’d moved into an outdated dilapidated residence (or possibly it was a home, I’m undecided) however the kitchen had all this orange pine panelling and unusual sliding cabinet doorways. It was outdated and outdated and fairly frankly, fairly ugly however within the dream, I had plans. I used to be going to take out the higher cabinets, put in shelving and add hooks alongside the wall, paint the panelling in white and one other part in pink… midway by way of my fervent planning, I awoke.
I didn’t have any sponsors on this undertaking however this put up could comprise some affiliate hyperlinks. You’ll by no means pay extra for clicking on these hyperlinks however I could earn a small fee from the model for the referral. I’ve not been requested to make use of these hyperlinks by the manufacturers.
I had a wierd feeling of each aid and disappointment after I woke. I used to be so enthusiastic about turning that crappy kitchen into one thing prettier and extra sensible with only a few cheap modifications that I used to be a bit of gutted I couldn’t truly perform my plan! Effectively, if nothing else, it re-awoke my urge for a enjoyable DIY undertaking. I’ll be completely sincere, I haven’t actually felt the urge to make huge modifications to our home. Renovation work may be each pricey and disruptive and I hadn’t the headspace nor the price range for it for fairly some time. My head was already ‘full’ with getting my fledgeling luxurious candle enterprise off the bottom and cash was a bit tight contemplating I’d pooled my financial savings into the brand new enterprise.
We do have a lot left to do on this home however they’re all huge jobs – the hallway wants a complete overhaul, the principle toilet is one other huge (however not pressing) job on the checklist. In any other case, we nonetheless had the outdated kitchen/utility room. The brand new kitchen had been created on the opposite aspect of the home so this one was getting used as a utility room however its rework was one other actually huge job – ripping every part out, updating the traditional electrics, developing partitions and including a downstairs bathroom. I wished a small, enjoyable job, not a significant undertaking. And so I dismissed the dream, pondering possibly I might tick off one thing simpler on my checklist like repainting the bed room or including panelling and repainting the lounge.
Then, throughout this time I ordered all of the tube packaging for each new Swoon Worthy scents candle that I’ll be releasing this 12 months. I’ve to purchase the entire packaging in a single go because of the minimal order portions of my producer. The problem with this, after all, is that I then want to search out house for the 8 enormous bins that have been arriving imminently. We would have liked to make some house and shortly.
A couple of month in the past, Wayne agreed that we would have liked to lose the outdated fridge within the utility – we weren’t utilizing it and it took up precious house. So it was moved to our outhouse awaiting being picked up for recycling and I made a decision an enormous cleanup and filter of the utility was lengthy overdue. Let me let you know one thing, buddy… this was AFTER I cleaned up. Yep, it was that dangerous.
This was after I determined to start out sharing the method over on Instagram. Observe the horrible blue and cream vinyl tiles I used to be mid-way by way of ripping up and sure, that’s cardboard over the cabinets – stylish!
I want I had correct ‘earlier than’ photos of this room (these are all simply display grabs from Instagram Tales) however to be sincere, I hadn’t actually deliberate to do a lot in there apart from a little bit of a clear up so we had some house for storage (in any case, I had no intention of running a blog about it so why take ‘earlier than’ photos?). However this clear up sparked an thought. While I pour all my candles on the massive island in our new kitchen (not solely is there extra room, however it’s also a bit hotter in there and the wax units higher in a hotter house), the precise mixing and making takes place within the utility room. And truthfully, it was fairly grim in there and never essentially the most inspiring workspace.
As you may see from the screengrabs, the house had lengthy turn out to be a dumping floor. Half candle studio, half utility, half ‘pet space’… it was so horrible and uncared for, it had turn out to be a type of areas you simply attempt to neglect actually exists. Besides you may’t since you use it each single day.
In order I used to be cleansing, eradicating the cobwebs that had appeared within the corners and the mud that had settled into the areas of the room we by no means used in addition to rejigging my workspace and ridding the room of extraneous garbage, I considered how lengthy it should possible be earlier than we will actually deal with the house correctly. Months, simply, I assumed. We didn’t actually have the 1000’s of kilos we’ll have to deliver it as much as the usual we’d prefer to nevertheless it was a bit of miserable excited about residing and dealing with it because it was for the following 6 months at a minimal!
And so I made a decision a little bit of a refresh was so as. I work in there each week making candles, we’re out and in of the house on a regular basis as we feed the pets in there, it’s the place our washer is – it’s not a room that may simply be ignored, it’s precious house! Plus, this room sits straight throughout the corridor from our pretty new kitchen which – let’s be sincere – was a miserable view from the kitchen.
In fact, I’m going to share the photographs of the completed house now and discuss you thru what I did!
I knew a little bit of paint would brighten issues up and a few easy storage options have been so as. I didn’t wish to spend some huge cash, I simply wished to make it habitable sufficient to purchase ourselves time till we might actually make investments the time and money to do all of it up correctly. As you noticed from my display grabs, step one was ripping out outdated blue and cream vinyl flooring which was stained, drained and peeling in numerous areas. I made a decision I’d slightly simply stay with the concrete flooring than that terrible flooring anymore.
I ended up selecting a cute indoor/outdoor rug from Benuta in mushy browns so as to add a contact of sample to the ground which covers most of it anyway.
I painted the partitions with an outdated favorite: Little Green Paint Company’s Intelligent Emulsion in Hellebore. When you’ve adopted my weblog for some time, you’ll recognise it’s the identical color I utilized in my little make-up/self-importance room and the characteristic wall in our visitor bed room. It’s a heat, rosy hue that I already beloved and as I didn’t need to spend so much of time selecting one thing totally different or shopping for a bunch of testers, I assumed I’d persist with what I knew would work. Generally it’s simpler not to reinvent the wheel, ya know?
So while the partitions have been painted a lush pink, I additionally painted the tiles in right here, one thing I’d by no means had an opportunity to strive earlier than. Because it seems, tile paint is a wonderful approach to clean up outdated tiles – they turned out superbly white and I couldn’t be extra impressed with the shiny end. This is the product I used.
I additionally bought a wood storage unit from B&Q for beneath £50. It made the a lot of the house left behind as soon as the fridge was moved and is the place I’m storing all of the objects I want for candle making in attain. Out of the blue the view from our kitchen was getting significantly better.
For above the storage unit, I bought a new print from OMG Kitty, a stunning Midlands-based illustrator. I like the boho 70s vibe of the print and it jogs my memory I do have a stunning time after I’m making my candles!
As this stuff go, I’d solely supposed to throw some paint on the partitions and be completed with it however the extra I did, the extra I realised wanted doing – its all the time a little bit of a snowball impact as you clean up one a part of the room, the crappy components simply stand out much more in distinction!
We realised fairly shortly that the extractor fan and hob have been completely redundant as we now not cook dinner in right here. As soon as these have been eliminated, I patched up the partitions and painted them and I used a chunk of MDF minimize to dimension and lined in marble contact paper to cowl the ensuing gap within the prime of the cabinet the place the electrical hob was. It’s now a pleasant little spot to retailer and use my stitching machine. The tall oven unit has but to maneuver out of the house however we’re planning on eradicating the ovens and utilizing the unit in a really massive new shed we simply had delivered (extra on that one quickly) for storage. It’ll simply open the room up fairly properly! In fact, I’ll need to fill the partitions and paint the realm behind the unit however that can in all probability occur over the following couple of weeks.
The two prints you see within the “stitching nook” are from Desenio. I already had the frames helpful so thought just a few new prints within the mushy pink/peach/brown shades of the room slot in properly.
The sink obtained a very good scrub (I used Cif and a copper scouring pad to take away outdated dried-on paint and peculiar blue stains from the copper pipes that had appeared over time) and I bought that small gold dish drainer from Matalan and a cute leopard print teatowel from Plewsy, one other latest Instagram discovery.
I additionally painted the window recesses and the window frames in leftover Peach Baby paint – the identical color I utilized in my workplace rework late final 12 months which warmed up this north-facing room and lined over time of neglect the home windows have had. Finally, they’ll have to be changed solely however for now, the paint and new bamboo blinds from Habitat soften and tidy them up.
Changing the horrible cardboard I initially had right here, I discovered a curtain panel in my stash from Habitat and it was massive sufficient to do fairly a bit with it. The very first thing I did was sew a small curtain to cowl the empty house beneath the worktop – helpful for storing bins out of sight. You’ll see I additionally lined over the deep open shelving unit within the nook with a small display (plenty of spiders hand around in there, I’ve by no means been a fan of it and issues get dusty and horrible on the again thus the explanation for desirous to cowl it). I simply used some hardboard minimize to dimension, added hinges and lined it in a contact paper that was the same color to the cabinets. I like that we will nonetheless entry the cabinets behind it if we would have liked to however in any other case, it kind of all simply blends in.
On the opposite aspect of the room – what is basically the ‘pet space’, the Habitat curtain panel went far sufficient to create a curtain to cover all of the storage beneath the desk. I used a staple gun (if you wish to see how I did it, I used precisely the identical methodology as I had way back after I created a skirted self-importance in our outdated home in my dressing room).
I additionally created a small gallery wall above the desk utilizing bits and items I had round the home though I did purchase the small gold shelf (used to show a few of my Swoon Worthy Scents candles) in addition to the bigger print from Desenio.
I assumed I’d lean into the entire pet feeding space by creating a bit of brand for an imaginary cat restaurant and printing it and framing it. Effectively if you happen to can’t have enjoyable with design, what’s the purpose, proper?! I even added a bit of bud vase with a synthetic flower as an added additional!
I bought some new bowls for the pets in addition to new tubs for the dried cat and dog food we had. The moist meat is now saved in a bit of rattan tray I’ve had for years and the wire memo board was one other cheap buy from Matalan. I additionally lined the desk with marble contact paper.
So I feel I’ve lined every part! The entire undertaking took possibly 2 weeks of plenty of work after which one other 3 of simply doing just a few bits and items after I had a while on my fingers and I spent slightly below £300 all through which I feel is fairly good contemplating what a change it’s made to the entire room.
In fact, there may be a lot extra that I might do however I didn’t wish to spend some huge cash on this makeover. The entire level was to easily create an area that’s much more nice and purposeful slightly than a full-blown renovation (that can be deliberate for the long run). Now, if I do know the total rework of this house continues to be a bit away (it’s going to take a short while to save lots of up, in any case), I could get some cheap vinyl flooring as a stop-gap as that’s in all probability the final actual ‘eye sore’ within the room. Once more, that is all non permanent so I don’t wish to go too overboard!
The humorous factor is, I had dreamt about doing up a crappy kitchen on a price range and right here I’m, just a few months later, doing up a crappy kitchen on a price range! Perhaps it was an indication and the Universe was telling me this was going to be my subsequent undertaking!
It’s fairly wonderful how a lot you will get completed and the distinction you can also make in an area in such a brief period of time. While this isn’t a full-blown makeover, I wished to share as a result of it’s a fantastic reminder to by no means underestimate the facility of paint and a little bit of elbow grease, even when your price range is tight. You may make even the crappiest rooms shine and performance higher with a bit of little bit of planning and time and spending your cash properly. I nonetheless have just a few issues left to do right here however I hope you’ve loved the makeover course of! Have you ever tackled a uncared for house in your house? Do let me know within the feedback under!
I didn’t have any sponsors on this undertaking however this put up could comprise some affiliate hyperlinks. You’ll by no means pay extra for clicking on these hyperlinks however I could earn a small fee from the model for the referral. I’ve not been requested to make use of these hyperlinks by the manufacturers.
I had a wierd feeling of each aid and disappointment after I woke. I used to be so enthusiastic about turning that crappy kitchen into one thing prettier and extra sensible with only a few cheap modifications that I used to be a bit of gutted I couldn’t truly perform my plan! Effectively, if nothing else, it re-awoke my urge for a enjoyable DIY undertaking. I’ll be completely sincere, I haven’t actually felt the urge to make huge modifications to our home. Renovation work may be each pricey and disruptive and I hadn’t the headspace nor the price range for it for fairly some time. My head was already ‘full’ with getting my fledgeling luxurious candle enterprise off the bottom and cash was a bit tight contemplating I’d pooled my financial savings into the brand new enterprise.
We do have a lot left to do on this home however they’re all huge jobs – the hallway wants a complete overhaul, the principle toilet is one other huge (however not pressing) job on the checklist. In any other case, we nonetheless had the outdated kitchen/utility room. The brand new kitchen had been created on the opposite aspect of the home so this one was getting used as a utility room however its rework was one other actually huge job – ripping every part out, updating the traditional electrics, developing partitions and including a downstairs bathroom. I wished a small, enjoyable job, not a significant undertaking. And so I dismissed the dream, pondering possibly I might tick off one thing simpler on my checklist like repainting the bed room or including panelling and repainting the lounge.
Then, throughout this time I ordered all of the tube packaging for each new Swoon Worthy scents candle that I’ll be releasing this 12 months. I’ve to purchase the entire packaging in a single go because of the minimal order portions of my producer. The problem with this, after all, is that I then want to search out house for the 8 enormous bins that have been arriving imminently. We would have liked to make some house and shortly.
A couple of month in the past, Wayne agreed that we would have liked to lose the outdated fridge within the utility – we weren’t utilizing it and it took up precious house. So it was moved to our outhouse awaiting being picked up for recycling and I made a decision an enormous cleanup and filter of the utility was lengthy overdue. Let me let you know one thing, buddy… this was AFTER I cleaned up. Yep, it was that dangerous.
This was after I determined to start out sharing the method over on Instagram. Observe the horrible blue and cream vinyl tiles I used to be mid-way by way of ripping up and sure, that’s cardboard over the cabinets – stylish!
I want I had correct ‘earlier than’ photos of this room (these are all simply display grabs from Instagram Tales) however to be sincere, I hadn’t actually deliberate to do a lot in there apart from a little bit of a clear up so we had some house for storage (in any case, I had no intention of running a blog about it so why take ‘earlier than’ photos?). However this clear up sparked an thought. While I pour all my candles on the massive island in our new kitchen (not solely is there extra room, however it’s also a bit hotter in there and the wax units higher in a hotter house), the precise mixing and making takes place within the utility room. And truthfully, it was fairly grim in there and never essentially the most inspiring workspace.
As you may see from the screengrabs, the house had lengthy turn out to be a dumping floor. Half candle studio, half utility, half ‘pet space’… it was so horrible and uncared for, it had turn out to be a type of areas you simply attempt to neglect actually exists. Besides you may’t since you use it each single day.
In order I used to be cleansing, eradicating the cobwebs that had appeared within the corners and the mud that had settled into the areas of the room we by no means used in addition to rejigging my workspace and ridding the room of extraneous garbage, I considered how lengthy it should possible be earlier than we will actually deal with the house correctly. Months, simply, I assumed. We didn’t actually have the 1000’s of kilos we’ll have to deliver it as much as the usual we’d prefer to nevertheless it was a bit of miserable excited about residing and dealing with it because it was for the following 6 months at a minimal!
And so I made a decision a little bit of a refresh was so as. I work in there each week making candles, we’re out and in of the house on a regular basis as we feed the pets in there, it’s the place our washer is – it’s not a room that may simply be ignored, it’s precious house! Plus, this room sits straight throughout the corridor from our pretty new kitchen which – let’s be sincere – was a miserable view from the kitchen.
I shared all my updates over on Instagram so if you happen to’d love a blow by blow of every factor I did within the order I did it, then head over there and click on on the Utility Refresh and Utility 2 highlights.
In fact, I’m going to share the photographs of the completed house now and discuss you thru what I did!
I knew a little bit of paint would brighten issues up and a few easy storage options have been so as. I didn’t wish to spend some huge cash, I simply wished to make it habitable sufficient to purchase ourselves time till we might actually make investments the time and money to do all of it up correctly. As you noticed from my display grabs, step one was ripping out outdated blue and cream vinyl flooring which was stained, drained and peeling in numerous areas. I made a decision I’d slightly simply stay with the concrete flooring than that terrible flooring anymore.
I ended up selecting a cute indoor/outdoor rug from Benuta in mushy browns so as to add a contact of sample to the ground which covers most of it anyway.
I painted the partitions with an outdated favorite: Little Green Paint Company’s Intelligent Emulsion in Hellebore. When you’ve adopted my weblog for some time, you’ll recognise it’s the identical color I utilized in my little make-up/self-importance room and the characteristic wall in our visitor bed room. It’s a heat, rosy hue that I already beloved and as I didn’t need to spend so much of time selecting one thing totally different or shopping for a bunch of testers, I assumed I’d persist with what I knew would work. Generally it’s simpler not to reinvent the wheel, ya know?
So while the partitions have been painted a lush pink, I additionally painted the tiles in right here, one thing I’d by no means had an opportunity to strive earlier than. Because it seems, tile paint is a wonderful approach to clean up outdated tiles – they turned out superbly white and I couldn’t be extra impressed with the shiny end. This is the product I used.
I additionally bought a wood storage unit from B&Q for beneath £50. It made the a lot of the house left behind as soon as the fridge was moved and is the place I’m storing all of the objects I want for candle making in attain. Out of the blue the view from our kitchen was getting significantly better.
For above the storage unit, I bought a new print from OMG Kitty, a stunning Midlands-based illustrator. I like the boho 70s vibe of the print and it jogs my memory I do have a stunning time after I’m making my candles!
As this stuff go, I’d solely supposed to throw some paint on the partitions and be completed with it however the extra I did, the extra I realised wanted doing – its all the time a little bit of a snowball impact as you clean up one a part of the room, the crappy components simply stand out much more in distinction!
We realised fairly shortly that the extractor fan and hob have been completely redundant as we now not cook dinner in right here. As soon as these have been eliminated, I patched up the partitions and painted them and I used a chunk of MDF minimize to dimension and lined in marble contact paper to cowl the ensuing gap within the prime of the cabinet the place the electrical hob was. It’s now a pleasant little spot to retailer and use my stitching machine. The tall oven unit has but to maneuver out of the house however we’re planning on eradicating the ovens and utilizing the unit in a really massive new shed we simply had delivered (extra on that one quickly) for storage. It’ll simply open the room up fairly properly! In fact, I’ll need to fill the partitions and paint the realm behind the unit however that can in all probability occur over the following couple of weeks.
The two prints you see within the “stitching nook” are from Desenio. I already had the frames helpful so thought just a few new prints within the mushy pink/peach/brown shades of the room slot in properly.
The sink obtained a very good scrub (I used Cif and a copper scouring pad to take away outdated dried-on paint and peculiar blue stains from the copper pipes that had appeared over time) and I bought that small gold dish drainer from Matalan and a cute leopard print teatowel from Plewsy, one other latest Instagram discovery.
I additionally painted the window recesses and the window frames in leftover Peach Baby paint – the identical color I utilized in my workplace rework late final 12 months which warmed up this north-facing room and lined over time of neglect the home windows have had. Finally, they’ll have to be changed solely however for now, the paint and new bamboo blinds from Habitat soften and tidy them up.
Changing the horrible cardboard I initially had right here, I discovered a curtain panel in my stash from Habitat and it was massive sufficient to do fairly a bit with it. The very first thing I did was sew a small curtain to cowl the empty house beneath the worktop – helpful for storing bins out of sight. You’ll see I additionally lined over the deep open shelving unit within the nook with a small display (plenty of spiders hand around in there, I’ve by no means been a fan of it and issues get dusty and horrible on the again thus the explanation for desirous to cowl it). I simply used some hardboard minimize to dimension, added hinges and lined it in a contact paper that was the same color to the cabinets. I like that we will nonetheless entry the cabinets behind it if we would have liked to however in any other case, it kind of all simply blends in.
On the opposite aspect of the room – what is basically the ‘pet space’, the Habitat curtain panel went far sufficient to create a curtain to cover all of the storage beneath the desk. I used a staple gun (if you wish to see how I did it, I used precisely the identical methodology as I had way back after I created a skirted self-importance in our outdated home in my dressing room).
I additionally created a small gallery wall above the desk utilizing bits and items I had round the home though I did purchase the small gold shelf (used to show a few of my Swoon Worthy Scents candles) in addition to the bigger print from Desenio.
I assumed I’d lean into the entire pet feeding space by creating a bit of brand for an imaginary cat restaurant and printing it and framing it. Effectively if you happen to can’t have enjoyable with design, what’s the purpose, proper?! I even added a bit of bud vase with a synthetic flower as an added additional!
I bought some new bowls for the pets in addition to new tubs for the dried cat and dog food we had. The moist meat is now saved in a bit of rattan tray I’ve had for years and the wire memo board was one other cheap buy from Matalan. I additionally lined the desk with marble contact paper.
So I feel I’ve lined every part! The entire undertaking took possibly 2 weeks of plenty of work after which one other 3 of simply doing just a few bits and items after I had a while on my fingers and I spent slightly below £300 all through which I feel is fairly good contemplating what a change it’s made to the entire room.
In fact, there may be a lot extra that I might do however I didn’t wish to spend some huge cash on this makeover. The entire level was to easily create an area that’s much more nice and purposeful slightly than a full-blown renovation (that can be deliberate for the long run). Now, if I do know the total rework of this house continues to be a bit away (it’s going to take a short while to save lots of up, in any case), I could get some cheap vinyl flooring as a stop-gap as that’s in all probability the final actual ‘eye sore’ within the room. Once more, that is all non permanent so I don’t wish to go too overboard!
The humorous factor is, I had dreamt about doing up a crappy kitchen on a price range and right here I’m, just a few months later, doing up a crappy kitchen on a price range! Perhaps it was an indication and the Universe was telling me this was going to be my subsequent undertaking!
It’s fairly wonderful how a lot you will get completed and the distinction you can also make in an area in such a brief period of time. While this isn’t a full-blown makeover, I wished to share as a result of it’s a fantastic reminder to by no means underestimate the facility of paint and a little bit of elbow grease, even when your price range is tight. You may make even the crappiest rooms shine and performance higher with a bit of little bit of planning and time and spending your cash properly. I nonetheless have just a few issues left to do right here however I hope you’ve loved the makeover course of! Have you ever tackled a uncared for house in your house? Do let me know within the feedback under!