Its finally finished and usable. I cooked dinner yesterday for the first time in 6 months… amazing!

So how about a quick tour?

First, the new, improved, bigger window centered in the middle of the wall. With the sink below it. I can now see out of the kitchen without cricking my neck and banging my head on cupboard corners.

I ended up going with an outdoor blind for the window covering, mainly cause I couldn’t make up my mind with so many choices, and cause I just liked the grey and white stripes.

I will be putting shelves up to hold everyday items and display items and cause I just love open shelves. Till then, I’ve put the kettle and hot drink stuff in one of my old made over wooden trays to stop them from spreading all over the benchtop.

This close up also shows the tassie oak benchtop we had made especially.

I love it!! I spent a couple of days sanding and varnishing it to get it just perfect and it was worth it.

The opposite wall from the window has had the pantry cupboard removed and now holds one of my antique kitchen dressers. This one had to have some minor work done to it as it was sagging in the middle (had to put a support in the middle under the top and add a couple of legs in the middle underneath).

A 60s step stool just fits in that corner and comes in handy for reaching things in the pantry and the colour just happens to work well with the colour I chose to paint the doors.

Some old tins act as display and storage for small stuff.

The door to the right leads to the entry area where the fridge, microwave and pantry live. The door on the left leads to the hallway and the rest of the house. These doors are almost always open, but I wanted to bring a bit of colour into the room.

The kitchen is all white – Dulux Antique White USA on the woodwork and on the cabinets. Dulux China White 3/4 strength on the walls… a slightly creamier white. The minty green I used on the doors is a colour I mixed up myself and had the guys at the paint store match for me.

I had mentioned experimenting with milk paint (the jury is still out on that) and my favourite colour in that was one called Lichen. My minty green is very similar to that but a bit greener. I wanted to match that antique green you see so often on old things.

I’m actually very pleased with the colour. First I tried the caramel colour I got a sample of thinking I’d match the stove but in a darker tone.

Yuck.

That failed.

Which is when I went to green. I love it. The result is a kitchen thats fresh and clean looking.

As a backsplash for the stove I got an old glass door from the tip shop and mounted it to the wall with clips. That was my economical contribution to the kitchen. Backsplash – $5. Clips – $14.95.

To the right of the ‘window’ are the phone jack and a power point. I’ve always had a drawer as shelf thing there to hold the phone but this time I went all out and made a proper cabinet out of an old drawer for our phones. I’ll be sharing this in another post later on. Stay tuned.

I have since placed a greek rag rug given to me by an aunt in Greece in front of the sink to add some warmth. Coincidentally it has some of the bluey green in it! (Your mom Mina, tell her I love it!)