As for what we have done since I last blogged about it? Well, we finally have a functioning kitchen again!

After we patched all the holes in the walls and cleaned up from demolition, it was time to paint! We had chosen Barest Hush by Valspar to be the color for our walls. We tested a couple of swatches, but Richard was worried they would be too dark, so we settled on this option. My goal was to have a grey-tinted green that didn’t read too strong either way. As our living room is grey, I didn’t want the whole place to feel the same. But of course, I also didn’t want too bright of a color, as I tend to prefer more muted walls. Let the color come from the furnishings, in my humble opinion.

Valspar’s Barest Hush

For the cabinets and trim, we are sticking with our tried and true All White by Farrow & Ball, color matched to Valspar paint. This time around we went with their premium paint, as it was the most scrubbable option. It also comes with a built-in primer, so win-win! However, due to time, we didn’t get around to painting the cabinets, just yet. That’s a job for another day. Or month… year… sigh. Procrastination is real folks.

After painting the walls, we put the pot racks back up and got to tackling the cabinets. Originally, our kitchen had only three upper cabinets – two on the right of the range hood, and one on the left. As I mentioned before, we had planned to simply add three more cabinets above our original ones, and paint them all to match. Instead, we ordered eight of the METOD cabinets – four of the 60×60 size, three 60×80, and one 60×40. The four 60×60 cabinets were in the top row, with the 60×80 replacing our existing cabinets. In order to add the MAXIMERA drawers, we ordered all 60×60 doors, and the remaining 20cm of the cabinet became the drawer. The final 60×40 cabinet sits above the new LAGAN range hood.

Quite a lot of new storage eh?

Installing the new cabinets was another point where things took much (much!) longer than they should have. The IKEA rails were fairly simple to cut and line up, but then we started having issues.

See, we ended up back in the same place as before, dealing with old walls. We couldn’t seem to find consistent studs in the walls, and our expansion screws weren’t working in the crumbling plaster. This meant that we had to go grab some spring toggle screws from Screwfix… only the first set we brought home was the wrong length for our wall thickness – darn! I think Richard had to make three trips that day just to get the screws we needed. Every time we tried one set, there was something wrong with it.

We ended up putting in more screws than IKEA said to, as every now and then we would hit a stud, or have to move to a new hole. We just put up as many as we could (that were secure). The more the merrier, right?

Soo many screws

Once we got the rails up (finally), it was a simple matter of hanging the cabinets. Of course, because our walls aren’t perfectly smooth, the cabinets wouldn’t line up perfectly. IKEA recommends that you screw the cabinets together for stability, which we did. It also solved most of our problems with the cabinets not lining up. Just a simple matter of clamping them together, and then two screws in between the holes for the shelves.

The only thing not quite so simple to put up was the range hood. We decided to replace the one we had (even though it worked okay) with an under-cabinet version so that we could add two more cabinets to the mix. It just felt like too much-wasted space in such a tiny kitchen. While the installation was relatively easy for the range hood, it came with a plug, but ours had originally been wired into a fuse box. All it meant was that we cut off the plug, stripped back the wires, and wired it into a new white fuse box. Then we cut a hole in the back of one of the cabinets so that we would have access to the fuse, should we ever need to replace it.

We sort of sandwiched the new fuse box on the back of the cabinet, and then it sits in the original recess that the old one had. Not sure if that makes sense to anyone, but we did it months ago and I am forgetting details… I also forgot to take a photo of it inside the cabinet.

After the cabinets were all screwed together, and the range hood up, it was a simple matter of putting in the shelves and attaching the doors. Of course, IKEA put silly stickers right where the hinges needed to go, and they are the type that is ridiculous to remove! Coconut oil to the rescue! Just rub a bit of that onto the sticker and it comes away so easily.

The hinges for the cabinets were really simple to install, and I only wish that I had got the 90-degree ones. The ones we bought open a bit wider (I think they are 110 or 120 degrees). When we were ordering them, I thought that would be a good thing, however, it means that the doors want to open into the walls and window. Oh well!

We finally have drawers!!! So exciting!

Now this is pretty much where we got to before Richard had to go away for work. We managed to put our kitchen back together and use it for a little while. The next steps are to add some trim around the cabinets in order to make it all built-in, and then paint all the doors and trim to match.

I’ve ordered the tiles and hardware, so the only thing we’re waiting for is for me to get off my lazy butt and trim out these cabinets! But of course, Richard is now back in England, so hopefully he’ll be the motivation I need…

welcome to our tiny kitchen!

When we had just moved in, we discussed how we could make the kitchen space work best for us. First up, would be to add some hanging storage on the wall, for all of our pots and pans. I don’t have any photos of the kitchen before we put them up, but you can see below how we’re currently using it. We installed two rows of IKEA’s GRUNDTAL rail system, using the top row for pots and pans, and the bottom for pantry goods. One basket contains bread, another potatoes and onions, and the third is a fruit basket.

Those three baskets took me ages to find (it’s hard to find an open weave basket that’s fairly flat) and are actually beach bags that IKEA was selling in their limited HEMTRAKT collection (I just cut off the handles). And yes, we bought waaay more hooks than we needed, but we still have to buy more pots.

After adding some hanging storage, we needed to address the cupboard situation. The ceilings are high enough to accommodate another row of cabinetry, so we thought – why not double our storage?

look at all that height above the cabinets!

Speaking of storage, before we had moved in, I pointed out to Richard that there were no drawers in the kitchen. I mean, sure… it’s a tiny kitchen, but no drawers?! Where am I supposed to put my cutlery? Who designed this space?!?

We thought about adding some drawers under the cabinets, as the trim below meant we had the space and false fronts to use. I even bought some fully-extending hardware for them! But that was back when we thought we were going to leave the existing cabinets, and simply add three more above. Oh, how those plans have changed…

our dream kitchen includes hiding the microwave in a cabinet

Basically, the cabinets that are here are from IKEA. I measured them and found that IKEA still carried 60cm wide cabinets, and assumed we could simply add another row above. IKEA doesn’t make the same doors anymore, but that worked in my favor. I wanted to paint the cabinets white anyway, so this was a great excuse. We could get flat cabinet fronts, and add trim to make them match our existing shaker style. I’m pretty sure you can guess where this is going…

When I measured the cabinets initially, I had measured their width and height, but not the depth. It wasn’t until I was properly planning all this that I bothered to find the depth – which is when I realized the ones that IKEA currently stocked were too deep! IKEA had replaced the set that we had, with their new METOD line a few years back, and the new ones were a couple centimeters too deep.

This meant we couldn’t simply add three more above our current set.

soooo much ceiling height wasted

This left us with a few options:

1. We could just get a new kitchen
2. We could custom build new upper cabinets to match the old ones (proper depth)
3. We could replace all the upper cabinets but leave the lowers, and paint them to match

I liked Option 1 (obviously) but the old wallet didn’t. Richard liked it too, but it just wouldn’t bring any return in resale which meant it wasn’t going to happen. Option 2 wasn’t really something we felt up to DIYing without the proper tools (although I look back now and laugh at that… we will end up doing more work in the end now).

Which left Option 3, the one we have gone with! IKEA has some cabinet fronts just like ours but with a slightly different-sized trim around. We’re thinking that if we paint the uppers and lowers white, they will be close enough to trick the eye. As they aren’t side by side, you probably won’t notice the difference in trim.

IKEA’s SÄVEDAL cabinet fronts

Now, with the new METOD system, we will be able to have drawers (!) in the lower set of cabinets. This means we no longer have to build them (yay!). We can also get slightly taller cabinets as well and still have room at the top for a bit of trim. Unlike the rest of this flat, the kitchen currently has no crown molding, so we’ll add that all the way around the room. I’m also going to add wood pieces on either side of the cabinets to make it all look built-in, hopefully, flush with the doors to create an inset door appearance.

Now, as if all that wasn’t enough, I found myself looking at our range hood. It’s always bugged me that the stainless backsplash thing doesn’t go all the way up, and by adding cabinets on either side, this would only look worse. So what if we replaced it?!

IKEA makes some range hoods that can go under a cabinet. Since ours doesn’t actually vent outside (and can’t) it mostly just acts as a light and fan. But the one at IKEA can either be vented outside, or you can use a charcoal filter and recirculate the air. With that in the middle (as opposed to our current one), we could add cabinets all the way up to the ceiling!

We could go from having only 3 upper cabinets to having 8 cabinets, and 3 drawers!! Talk about storage! But by replacing the range hood, we would have to replace rather than repaint the tile. Which is terribly sad. I mean, who wouldn’t want to keep this gorgeous stuff right?

I’m obviously kidding – this stuff offends me. I’ve always wanted to try tiling and both Richard and I are big fans of classic subway tile. So once we decided to replace the range hood, it meant we had to replace the tile – yay! I’m thinking of a classic white subway tile with contrasting light grey grout. We’ll probably end up using either a flat or beveled tile, but if Richard would agree to it, I would looove to get a textured handmade-looking tile. I love all the ones Emily Henderson keeps using from Cle tiles. But of course, Richard really doesn’t like them… bah! So instead, it’ll be more like the image below.

subway tile photo via Nest of Posies

Finally, to complete this space, we need to paint the walls, and I’ve found a pretty great color to use. I had wanted a green-tinged grey and had quite a struggle finding something that still read as green, without being too minty or brown. This is actually a bit more green on the walls than I had been searching for, but pretty darn close. It’s Barest Hush by Valspar (what a name – right?), and we’re using their premium paint which has a built-in primer, and is apparently very scrubbable. Perfect for the wall where our pots and pans will constantly be banging and scraping.

Okay, was that all straightforward? Feeling lost and confused amidst a sea of bland before photos? How about a recap, eh? Here’s our plan as it stands, for updating and increasing the storage in our wee English kitchen.

1. Remove the 3 upper cabinets, range hood, and all the tiles
2. Paint all walls that won’t be tiled with Valspar’s Barest Hush
3. Install 8 cabinets (with 3 built-in drawers) using IKEA’s METOD system
4. Install the new range hood
5. Paint new IKEA SÄVEDAL doors and all existing ones to match
6. Tile backsplash
7. Add contrasting black hardware
8. Decorate with fun accessories

And that’s that! Simple right?

However, Richard isn’t too keen on the idea. He likes the concept but doesn’t think it will work in our tiny windowless bathroom. His argument is that the bathroom is too small and it’ll be too dark. My counterargument is that the walls and ceiling will all be either white or slightly blue off-white. Everything else will be so bright that the room can handle the dark floor. Not only that, but the floor tile paint options out there aren’t exactly vast, but they do make black!

Here are a few more arguments in my favor, in the form of photos of pretty bathrooms with black/charcoal floor tiles. One of them is even a basement bathroom, which shows you can do this in a room with no windows!

black hexagon floor tiles via Crate and Barrel

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A post shared by Whitney (Clappe) Utesch (@carpendaughter)

windowless bathroom via Deuce Cities Henhouse

small bathroom via Houzz

charcoal grey tiles via Contemporist

So what do you think? Are you on Richard’s side of the discussion, and think the black floor will be too dark? Or are you with me, and think that those black tile floors will really make this room pop? I’m curious to know what you guys think as it’s a big step to make in such a small place.

*This post contains affiliate links*

Poorly installed, cheap tiles, are not a good investment and only make me angry. (Richard doesn’t seem to understand what the tiles and tub surround “have done to offend” me, but they do.)

wouldn’t one of these floor tiles be amazing? (left // centre // right)

But what to do? I mean, this isn’t our forever home, so replacing the tiles isn’t an option. (As much as I would love to have some marble mosaic floors and white subway tiles.)

Do we paint the tiles? I have seen plenty of tile paints on the market, but I’m not convinced that they will work the way they say – I don’t want to have to replace it anyway because I make a mess of what’s already there.

I’m debating it though… so we’ll have to see.

the bathroom walls are now, painted with a lightened version of Valspar’s Ghost Story

So far, we have painted the bathroom and added a couple shelves above the toilet. We painted all the trim and ceiling Farrow + Ball’s All White (of course) and then painted the walls Valspar’s Ghost Story at 50% intensity. Rather than using the usual matte wall paint that we used in all the other rooms, we used Valspar’s kitchen and bath, which is supposed to resist stain and mold (a major concern for our bathroom as it gets very steamy with the shortest of showers).

sorry for the grainy photo – I took this with the lights off to show the accurate color

Now, about that 50% intensity… we had brought home a little sample pot of Ghost Story after trying to find a light blue-grey. Valspar didn’t have any lighter paint chips to test, and once we got it home, it just felt a bit too dark. We did love the color, so Richard went into our local B&Q and asked if they could simply give it to us at a lighter intensity. Sure enough, they were able to give it to us 50% lighter!

Once we got the whole room painted, I sort of wish we had picked 60-70% intensity. It’s just a bit too light to see the color against the beige tiles. (Richard swore he couldn’t tell the difference between the white ceiling at first). But – our main goal was to keep the walls very light and shift the tone from yellow to blue. Goal accomplished!

I love our brass shelves!

Now, I think the color will be perfect if we paint the wall tiles white – it’ll contrast with the paint just that bit more, to bring out the blue. (Am I saying a bit too much?) If I were to paint the floor as well, it would be grey most likely, but I am trying to convince Richard to go darker. Would a black or dark grey floor be too much in the space?

After painting the floor, tiles, and walls, all we would need to do is update the pedestal sink and add a few accessories! My dream would be to convert an antique dresser into a vanity, with a basin sink (perhaps even a vintage Belfast sink?!) to increase our storage.

I love the contrast of the more modern-looking sink on an old vanity (via Jenna Sue Design)

Since our new bathroom shelf brackets are brass, we need to add the material in at least one other place. I’m thinking it could be nice to get a brass mirror above the sink to tie the two ends of the room together. Perhaps this or this IKEA mirror, sprayed to look like brass?

brass mirror inspiration via

Finally, we desperately need to change out the toilet roll and towel holders in here. Whoever had this bathroom before us, thought that plastic seashell bathroom accessories were a great idea. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?! I’d been looking around, and having a hard time finding something unique, but also classic enough to blend in with our Victorian flat. I finally bit the bullet and purchased a few items out of this set from Victoria Plum. Now we just have to install them (I am beyond excited to have proper towel rods!).

Altogether, our bathroom could look amazing – and I gotta admit, I’m feeling pretty excited about it…

Helloooooo drama!!

While Richard was away for work, I decided to tackle painting the bedroom. As discussed in earlier posts about dark bedrooms, and my plans for this room, we had chosen to paint it Farrow + Ball’s Hague Blue (using Valspar paint) a few months before, and I am so glad about that decision. The paint has such a lovely teal-y green undertone to it, that makes it feel warmer (in my humble opinion) despite how dark it is.

Now painting without Richard meant lots of time spent on a ladder, with no one to see if I fell… but the worst part of doing it alone was not having a vehicle! Unfortunately, Richard took it with him when he left… not that it really mattered as I still haven’t learned to drive on the left side of the road!

Carrying liters of paint on a bus is fine, but I had plans for updating that closet a bit and they required much larger items…

closet before

I decided to remove the silly lights that someone put up (they didn’t actually illuminate the inside based on where they were installed) and make the closet look more original. To that end, I removed any of the plastic capping on the MDF and decided to add some molding. I couldn’t recreate something exactly like the rest of the trim in the room (three different styles, all different sizes) – but thought that anything similar would blend in fine.

useless plug-in lights and fake wood trim

Now, one thing I found frustrating was the lack of ready-made molding at home improvement stores (that wasn’t plastic). So I decided to buy a few wood trim pieces and build my own. I used the following pieces from my local B&Q in combination – D shape trim (x2), coving, and regular planed timber (x2). However, these pieces were like 7′ long and I was carrying them on a bus!! I got quite a few funny looks taking them home.

closet now (wow that mirror looks dirty!)

I assembled the molding by simply nailing it up, one piece at a time, staggering the long pieces with the short ones so that I didn’t have the joins all in the same place. Since the wood was so soft, it was quite easy to cut with a hand saw. After they were all in place, it was just a matter of filling in the nail holes and joins with some putty, and sanding it smooth.

iPhone photos at night are terrible!

Unfortunately, I don’t have any good photos of this process as I was doing it all at night after work. There is still a small gap where the wood meets the metal of the sliding door track, which I need to fill, but otherwise, it looks great!

still need to fill this gap

I painted the bottom of the track white as well as the sides but saved painting inside the closet for another day. It still looks like a modern sliding door closet, but I think it’s getting to the point of looking more built-in. Now I just have to figure out how to make the doors themselves, and the metal track, look nice. Sure, in my dreams, I could replace the sliding doors with proper ones (three sets of doors that open) and they could look amazing but… time + money!

close-up of the new closet molding

After getting the closet all ready for paint, I prepped the walls as well. The top of our room, above the picture rail, was painted Farrow + Ball’s All White (using Valspar paint). While the ceiling and walls only took a couple coats to cover, the closet trim took about 3 or 4 as the wood and putty soaked up the first coat or two.

Now one thing that I discovered, when painting the walls Hague Blue, was that dark paint splatters! I’m not sure if this can was just a bit different than our last ones, but unlike the light grey and blue paints, the dark blue splattered all over my nice white trim. I ended up painting the blue walls, before going back over all the white trim again… sigh.

The only other change we’ve made in here so far is adding our new IKEA light! I have been in love with the SINNERLIG pendant since the collection was previewed a few years ago. When we moved into this space, I knew the warmth of the bamboo would look great with the dark blue, and have been waiting for a chance to put it up.

The only thing missing is the ceiling medallion, but I didn’t feel confident installing it without Richard to help. We’ll have to add it later on.

We’ve only changed the paint, added a light fixture, and some trim – but what a difference it makes! I am so excited for the potential that this room has. Next up – DIY upholstered bed…

Dark + moody bedroom inspiration | Hello Victoria

navy bedroom via Design Sponge

I’m normally a fan of very light and bright spaces – shades of pale grey and blue tend to be where I gravitate – but I think I’m slowly converting to the dark side. Or, at least when it comes to my bedroom.

charcoal bedroom via Design Sponge

I first got inspired by the impact that a dark bedroom can have when I saw San Fransisco blogger Jordan Ferney’s black bedroom. While most everyone in the blogging world was painting their whole house white, she had created this eye-catching space by painting all her walls and trim in the softest of blacks.

Jordan Ferney’s black bedroom via Oh Happy Day

Since then, dark navy and grey bedrooms seem to popping up all over the place, and I’ve come to realize just how cozy and inviting they can be. London designer Abigail Ahern is constantly trying to convince others to embrace dark paint on their walls and trim, via her blog.

Moody hues make any room instantly cosy. Everything looks cooler, taller, smarter edgier and that’s all just through a can of paint. I wish I could bottle how it makes you feel! All I can say is try it.

dark blue bedroom via Nordic Design

Well, I’ve definitely been convinced, and even picked out the perfect dark paint for my bedroom – Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue. Now, I just have to find the energy to break out the painting supplies again…

the hallway before

So, when Richard and I were both off for a couple weeks, we decided to tackle painting the hallway and living room. To be fair, we had aspirations to paint the bedroom as well but just ran out of steam. While all the moldings and trim in the apartment add such wonderful character, they also add an insane amount of time to paint. The trim and door color in the apartment was a gross yellowish cream color (hard to capture in photos, just trust me), so we decided to paint everything, doors included, back to a nice white.

look at all the trim we had to paint… yikes!

After researching colors for a few days, and even getting some swatches mailed to me, I was having a hard time picking. From my limited experience, painting in the UK and North America is very different. Back home, the hardware stores carry a huge assortment of swatches and tend to have other color brands on file to match. But in the UK, color matching is a bit more new, and the brands they carry offer a limited selection.

the living room before

I finally settled on a couple Valspar colors that I found in our local B&Q, and two Farrow & Ball paints I had matched to Valspar paint. For all the trim in our flat, I chose Farrow & Ball’s All White, which is a very true, soft white, without any blue undertones. The living room is Valspar’s Shetland Sweater, which I chose by name alone because it was such a lovely soft grey that looks neutral in some light, and with a hint of blue in others.

The living room initially had a sort of greige color, which was okay, if a bit darker than I wanted. The only window in the room has some lovely stained glass, with very true/bright colors, and I thought that a more blue-grey would complement it better.

our lovely stained glass window

After painting, it just feels so clean and fresh – I love it!

The hallway has been the biggest improvement. The colors that it started with were just oh-so-dark, that it made a tiny, cramped, windowless hallway, seem even tinier and more cramped! It was in dire need of some lighter colors.

I decided to paint the chair rail and wall below with All White and used Valspar’s Sheer Shadow for both the wall above the chair rail, and ceiling. My original plan involved adding more wood trim to panel out the wall below the chair rail, but without limited time, we opted to save that for a later date.

What a difference some white makes! We ended up having to use a primer on the lower half of the wall, to save wasting our white paint as it wasn’t covering the mauve very well.

(ignore the old dresser and picture frames)

As much as I love the new paint, I still think that adding some wood trim (painted white of course) would add great depth and character to the walls. A project for another time!

All in all, despite taking waaaay more time than we thought it would, I do love these colors. It’s going to take eons to paint the other rooms in the flat, but I do look forward to having this fresh feeling in every corner.