An almost new kitchen

I love my kitchen, it's the one room in the house that's pretty much my domain. I'm the cook in the house.. and the kids (big ones included) only really go into my domain for the occasional fridge or pantry raid. 

So this was my kitchen for 7 years:

It was great for a while, but those ugly black bench tops... oh how I learned to hate them.

Hard to keep clean, who knew black would show up all the dirt?

See how much black?

Soooo.... this year I finally splashed out and got rid of all the black and got......:

TAAA-DAAA!!!!

Reconstituted Stone bench tops!!! 

(Smart stone, Essa Stone, Caesar stone, Nurture Stone - all these  are manufactured from a combination of natural stones, granite and quartz.)

For those of you with the really keen interior eye, yes I also changed the tap, the kickers & the fridge.

AND because Master 1 touches everything the display items in the front display area were all moved. 

I wanted a look where the very open area of our house (kitchen, dining & lounge) just flowed. 

The Black bench tops were a focal point, which I hated!

It all flows much better now.

I totally love it and even Mr. It loves it too... he better, he paid for it all.

Natalie

Folding Space

When we first built our house we splurged on a lot of architectural things that could not easily be improved in the future and decided we'd do the rest later on 'down the track' when we can afford it. Well 7 years have passed since we moved in and it's finally 'down the track' so we're finally making small improvements. yay!

The laundry room was the first victim. As a mother of 2 (plus Mr. It) you can imagine I do a lot of laundry. I usually fold up the clothes in the lounge room or at the dining table, which was a little annoying, especially when Master 1 tries to 'help' and undoes all my good folding work. 

So this is my laundry before & my beagle Roxy at the door:

See what I mean? Where am I suppose to fold in here?!

So after shopping around with some cabinet makers I had one whip this up for me:

Who knew an extra cupboard and a bench would bring so much joy!!!

That little red riding hood basket with the red blanket... it's full of odd socks! No idea how there are so many odd socks in our house.

and that's Bogart our Samoyed at the door saying "hi". 

It's not complete but it's usable for now, oh so much more usable!

The next project is shelves and some pretty canisters for the bench, but that's a whole other post. 

Natalie