I’m lucky to have a relaxed landlady who is more than
happy for me to continually redecorate the house. Like the Golden Gate Bridge,
the painting is never finished. No sooner have I painted the kitchen lilac
(there was a reason at the time) I begin thinking that it should have been red
all along. But this month I really applied myself to the task of decorating it
once and for all, I made a Powerpoint presentation about colour schemes and
spent hours combing through hardware websites looking for good paint colours
and inspiration. Two weeks on, I have an entirely new kitchen! And the best
part is that I spent about £30 doing it, new tiles and all.
This is what our tiles looked like when we moved in:
Someone had been over the original tiles with some tile
paint and added some purple patches (ah, that will have been the reason I
painted the walls lilac the first time round) which was looking a bit tired and
needed brightening up. After one coat of Wilko One Coat Gloss Paint in white
(£6.95), the tiles were looking really clean and shiny, at a glance they look
like new tiles…
The red walls turned out to be really effective as well (Wilko again, grease and water resistant kitchen paint in “Tinsel Town”, £17.75) and the warm and slightly muted shade has made the warm tones in the laminate floor and counter tops look vibrant and newer. Woohoo! It was worth staying up ‘til 4am with only radio 2 for company. It’s amazing how many people ring or text in to argue with DJs in the middle of the night. What are you all DOING? Painting your kitchens?
Plus the 1930s railway poster prints I chose to decorate with really benefited from having a strong colour behind them. This large framed collage of prints cut out of a calendar (which I then realised was a calendar for this current year and I probably should have waited a few months before taking scissors to it) was a bit lost against a lilac wall. Set against the red backdrop the colours in it really stand out.
Lastly I wanted to add a little bit of detail and colour to the tiles. I absolutely love Moroccan tiles, the kind that Charlie Sheen had in his house in Two and a Half Men (choose your style gurus diligently, people). So, never to be one to let things like money, or “not knowing how to retile a kitchen” get in my way, I turned (of course) to the internet. A quick image search for Moroccan tiles led me to a blue and white design I liked, I think it was a facsimile of an old tile, which I saved as a PDF cropped to 10cm x 10cm. I lined up several on one sheet to print out and took the sheet to the library, where I got it laminated for about 70p. I cut them out, and hey presto – new tiles! It was easy to attach them with double sided tape, and I’ll see how they hold up.
As a final touch I added my favourite fairy light trick, the
glass cookie jar lamp, to sit on top of the fridge next to my big owl (in
Modern Family the Dunphy family has an owl cookie jar on their counter top that
I am so jealous of, this one is my attempt at a likeness) and give the space
some glittery, cosy additional lighting.
It’s a lovely space to cook and eat in now, and feels so
cosy when it’s cold outside!
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