Weekend Roundup

Weekend progress on the kitchen: the start of the cladding has gone on over the old wood-look laminate under the benches.  It needs some finishing and a few coats of nice glossy paint, but it has already made a big difference to the vibe of the kitchen.

Cladding going over the old laminate...

Next step is to lock in a nice replacement for the benchtops.  Stone is leading the way....

Dreaming of Kitchens

Now that I've been living in a dismantled kitchen for almost two weeks,  my thought process is centered on making it beautiful again. So today's post comes to you from my dream file.  For me, there is nothing better in a kitchen than character - I love open shelving, mismatched and re-purposed cabinetry with vintage and industrial accents and always the inclusion of something unexpected.  A space that is lived in and even a little bit worn round the edges.

Unfortunately, that's probably not our target market for this house, which research shows like their kitchens a little more slick and functional.  But a girl can dream.

Industrial paired with bling.  Love.

One of my all-time favourite spaces.  Every kitchen should have floor to ceiling bookshelves complete with library ladder!
via Diane Bergeron

Can't go past white subway tile, open shelving and pops of colour

That natural light is amazing.

More kitchen essentials - oversized pendant lights and blackboards

Our cabinets will have this same effect - with a little effort!

A New Chapter

This is what I did last weekend....

I now have no doors on any of the cupboards, and a layer of primer on the frames.  We are well into the season now and getting busier by the day, so it may stay like this for a while - but the kitchen has been started!

Quick cabinet makeover

I bought this cabinet at a Broome garage sale a few weeks ago for $15.

I got rid of the square handles, but other than that, it was a really nice shape.  And it is the perfect size for along my gallery wall - it's almost 2.3 metres long!

BEFORE

AFTER

And I ordered these cute vintage map knobs from Etsy for it.

I must be getting all crafty.  But I think they'll be a nice detail, despite the fact that each knob is almost the same price as the original cost of the cabinet.

And just because things are finally coming together on this side of the room at least, here's a quick before and after of the wall itself:

BEFORE

AFTER

If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll have realised that this renovation has been pretty slow.  And that I've been harping on about tackling the kitchen for, like, ever.
But....last week I got quotes for the new stone bench-tops!  And then I added lots more zeros to the budget and crossed off a few things that we now can't afford.
I actually thought I knew how much stone roughly cost and also, how much bench space we had.  But it turns out I completely underestimated on both counts.
Ironically, this week I wrote a Broome Advertiser column about the rules of renovating - and I've broken just about all of them.  It's almost as embarrassing as time I gave myself food poisoning from my own cafe.....

Painted floors

I had resolved not to touch the main living area floors in this house.  They are terracotta, pretty ugly, and they scream "take me back to the 1990s" - even though the house is less than 10 years old.

But the cost of replacing them just doesn't stack up.  I had briefly thought about painting them but decided it was all too hard and could look cheap and scruffy - until I saw this story in the latest Real Living mag:

Real Living

Jet black painted (terracotta) floor tiles.  They look great, although I'm still a but unconvinced how well they'd wear.  Painted floors are always tricky.  And I haven't even started painting the kitchen yet.  What would you do?

A week(ish) in pictures at Casa Davison

New Gallery wall:



Remember the shelves under the TV?  This is how they started out:



They're now finished but they're a work in progress.  There's a lot more filling and styling to happen and I need to work out how to hide the ugliness of the entertainment unit. But I love the back colour.

Some detail pics from my Instagram:

I promised lots of renovating over Easter...and it didn't happen.
I had to paint something though: This is the side of the kitchen cabinets

And a snippet of a client project that I will be able to reveal in full at the end of the month:

Shameful Self Promotion Alert:

I'm so grateful that people read this blog, (thanks Mum). And really, I should just leave it at that.  But did you know that SD Interiors also hangs out at a few other places on the interweb?

We have a Facebook page, and you can go and like it here:
www.facebook.com/pages/SD-Interiors/137831469618246

No pressure.

All new blog posts are automatically uploaded there, so you can keep up to date with what's going on. There's also lots of quick snippets on what SD Interiors is up to, projects we're working on, products we're lusting after, and much more!

We will also be running some competitions in the near future and you could win some pieces from our soon-to-be-released homewares range.  So what are you waiting for?  Run, don't walk.

Need more?  You can also follow SD Interiors on Twitter here :
https://twitter.com/#!/sam_sdinteriors