Designing your dream kitchen

This year we were lucky enough to be able to escape the renting rut and place our feet firmly on the property ladder by buying our first home. If you are a regular reader of your blog you will know that for the past 9 months we have been renovating the house and it's been such a long and tiring process. We still have the odd jobs to do but we are pretty much at that finish line now and as stressful and tiring as the whole experience has been it's so worth it and we are ever so grateful to be in this position.

One of the huge benefits of buying a house that needs a full renovation is that you can start from scratch and put your stamp on every little detail in the house. My partner let me take charge of decor and design as he admitted he didn't really have a clue (not that I did either) and he fully trusted me with it. 

My favourite room to design was the kitchen. 

When we moved into the house the kitchen was a total nightmare. The red tiles and dated cabinets hadn't been altered since the 1970's and everything was falling to pieces. One of the first jobs we did was to rip the kitchen out and start with a blank canvas.

Once I had that blank canvas the fun really began.

I knew that I wanted a kitchen that had a farmhouse and homely feel to it without it being too old fashioned. I'm a huge fan of cream and wood together so we chose cream shaker style cabinets with a wood effect work surface. I think this combination works the best for the style that I wanted to achieve.

What I really struggled with was deciding which tiles to go for as there were so many options. I liked the rustic looking tile but as so many more people preferred the glossy underground tiles I had to take their opinion on board. I had also noticed how on trend they were so that helped me make the decision too. I'm really glad that we went for them as I think they look perfect in the room and do give it more of a modern edge. We chose a wood effect tile for the floor and I think they finish the kitchen off perfectly.

Of course when all this was completed we then had an empty shell of a kitchen. When designing the kitchen we opted for some of our cabinets to be intergrated so we could have our washing machine and tumble dryer in the heart of the kitchen. We already had our matching kettle and toaster but needed to buy a new microwave as we had broke ours months ago. I don't know how we managed for so long without one as we've found ourselves using it everyday since it arrived.

Now the new kitchen has been fitted, decorated, tiled, floored and filled with our appliances and belongings it's finally completed and it feels fantastic.

- This is a PR collaboration.