How To Revamp A Kitchen - Abigail’s Tips and Tricks
REFRESH - The Kitchen
I don’t know about you guys but spring always enlivens me. As I unfurl from the winter months, the promise of warmer days and lighter evenings spent in the garden fills me with excitement and actually inspires me to change a few things up in my pad. Even though I switch things up quite a bit anyway throughout the year (perks of having the biz), but this time of year feels different and makes me feel a lot more energised.
In this post, I’m going to focus on how to revamp a kitchen, and how you can change things up in a space which is often quite neglected when it comes to decorating and design.
I love cooking,correction,I’m obsessed with cooking. I read cookbooks like novels and love to plan my recipes, so my kitchen is a place where I unwind at the end of a busy day or where I tend to spend a lot of time hanging out on the weekend. So for me, it needs to feel warm, inspiring and cocooning as well as feeling connected and flowing effortlessly into the other rooms in my pad.
Obviously replacing your kitchen is horrendously expensive so if you’re not planning on going down that route I have some simple tricks and tips that will give your kitchen a little uplift and make you feel refreshed and inspired for the warmer months.
Painting kitchen cabinets
In my book, paint is one of the cheapest and most transformative ways to change up your space. Colour has the ability to totally transform your surroundings, to excite, inspire, tantalise and calm. Colour has changed my life, which I know sounds super dramatic but it’s true. It’s helped me create a home that I never want to leave.
Many people shy away from colour in the kitchen, opting instead for a subdued palette, but an unexpected hue will elevate your space like nothing else. If you’re feeling confident (and I urge you to be), you could take the plunge and paint out your cabinetry. Painting kitchen cupboards This will give your kitchen an instant facelift, and make it look like a completely new space, which brings me nicely on to my next tip….
Change kitchen cabinet handles
Yep. Changing up the handles on your cabinets, doors and drawers is a real game-changer. Aside from painting kitchen cabinets, this trick is one of the most transformative things you can do for your kitchen. There are some amazing handles out there, from leather pulls to vintage brass or marble. You could go oversized to add a real hint of humour and friction.
I love to play with scale, and handles can be an easy way to add this style element to your cupboard doors. Or, if you don’t feel like splashing out on new ones you could always paint your old ones. This will give you that little hit that could totally change the look of your existing cupboard doors.
Remove cabinet doors
It sounds scary but it’s actually a really simple and effective way to change up the look of your shelves and storage. If everything is behind closed doors the space can read as really boring.
Having open shelving will elevate your kitchen to another level and allow you to display your lovely storage jars, recipe books, colourful platters, earthy kitchenware, and maybe even pop in a couple of little plants to add that zip of greenery. This could also be another space to add an intoxicating hue, painting open shelves or painting inside cupboards is a really quick way to add some more unexpected intrigue to your space.
Treat it like your other rooms
The more you accessorise your kitchen the more integrated it will feel. One of the biggest tips I can give you is to pile stuff in there that you wouldn't normally think of. Not just rugs, but paintings, a spare chair, an extravagant light, pieces that you would normally put in your living rooms.
How to revamp kitchen worktops
Often (actually almost always) neglected in the style stakes, countertops should be treated like any other surface in your pad. Firstly, lamps. I looove the soft ambient light a table lamp emits.
Quite often, as kitchens have to be practical (ugh), the lighting can be very harsh. I have table lamps plopped on my worktops, so in the evening or dark mornings, they light the space beautifully and connect the kitchen to the other rooms that lead from it, creating a harmonious flow. I know that sometimes plug points can be an issue, but we have just introduced a number of cute little LED lamps that are battery operated and create a beautiful glow. I pop these everywhere, it really makes a difference as to how your space feels.
Another way to style up your countertop is by introducing trays. Trays are so beautifully versatile in helping you create little clusters of intrigue. Think about their material and size, I have small wooden chunky ones to larger shiny gold ones that house all my lovely (not always essential) bits. Pile up your crockery, add fresh herbs in little glass jars, condiment bottles, anything.
I promise you just adding one or two trays will really change up your worktops, and like anything, you can change up what you put on there to refresh it or fit in with whatever is seasonal.
Quite often we feel we have to hide everything away in the kitchen, but I actually love to see the subtle traces of a kitchen being used. So my next tip would be ‘display’. I love to see jars of old wooden spoons or vintage cutlery, just waiting to be used on your next culinary creation. Beautifully gnarled wooden boards and rustic cooking pots are too nice to be hidden away so leave them out for all to see.
So, hopefully, I’ve inspired you to take the plunge up and liven your space with just one, some or maybe all of my tips and tricks. One piece of advice that applies to all of my tips in any room in any space wherever you are decorating is to ‘take risks’. This is when the magic happens.
Step outside of your comfort zone, you’ll be amazed by what you can achieve, and I promise you won’t regret it.
Happy Decorating.