Bonnie’s kitchen reveal: From poky and brown to open and airy!

If you’ve been following our renovations at Bonnie’s house, you’d know we COMPLETELY GUTTED her kitchen.

The original kitchen was far too small to be functional (it had no pantry and could barely fit a small fridge) and the original cabinetry had well and truly passed its expiry date.

Bonnie was eager to create a larger, more useable kitchen that would suit their entertaining lifestyle. We shared her remodel goals here which included a long wish list of features, and shared detailed design plans with you here.

Now we’re excited to share her finished kitchen with you! So you can really see the difference her new IKEA kitchen has made, we’ll share before and after photos from each angle.

Poky kitchen

Kitchen to entry

Above you can see that we removed the small partition wall and extended her kitchen by 2.8m. This opened up the flow of her home, while also giving us much-needed space to add a full-height pantry and integrated appliances.

Kitchen window placement

Bonnie kitchen

The original u-shaped design could barely fit 2 people. Now her kitchen comfortably fits 4-6 people and has better access to other living spaces. We kept a similar layout for the fridge, sink and oven to keep electrical and plumbing costs down.

Little storage

Microwave

To save bench space for prep-work, we positioned her microwave just below the island. The size of the microwave also fits perfectly with the IKEA drawers (we love those clean lines!).

Original kitchen

Pantry and oven

These images possibly show the transformation the best – from brown brick, brown splashback, brown bench top, brown cabinetry and even brown lino flooring, we took it all out and replaced it with a mix of materials in a neutral palette to create a contemporary and airy kitchen.

We intentionally used a simple colour palette of white and grey as Bonnie has been unsure if she will stay in her home (and possibly extend) or sell, so we didn’t want to use any strong colours or finishes that could divide buyers. However, we achieved interest and warmth with that exposed brick wall splashback, timber flooring and floating shelves, and lighting plan.

If you have any questions about the materials we used or choices we made in here, please post them in the comments below and we’ll get back to you asap.

After photography by Thorson Photography

Disclaimer: we designed and installed this kitchen in collaboration with IKEA.

Style Curator
Style Curator is an award-winning blog about the pursuit of a stylish home. Founded by Gina Beschorner, a social media adviser turned blogger and Interior Designer, we share our favourite home products, tours of designer homes, interviews with artists and experts in the design industry and other stylish news. Subscribe to our e-newsletter for weekly highlights!

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