~ This post contains PR products ~
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that my rental kitchen makeover has been a hot topic for a little while now. But all in all, it’s been all talk no action. With renting, there can be certain holdups when it comes to making over a space, such as discussing whether you can paint walls or change fittings. But, I’m SO pleased to say that the revamp is ready to get underway. So, today I thought I’d share some photos of what we’re working with, along with a mood board of the things I have in mind for the space.
For the past 5 years, our kitchen has been painted green. It’s been this colour for years and our landlord loves it, so we haven’t been allowed to make any changes to it. Wall colour can have a massive impact on the feel of a space, especially when it’s something that isn’t to your taste. With the green walls, dark worktops, silver hardware, white cabinets and grey floor, the space could feel cold and just not as inviting as I wanted it to be. I explained to my landlord that we wanted to make the space feel warmer and brighter and after some discussion agreed we could paint it (insert me running around in glee looking at all of the paint charts I could get my mitts on).
A couple of years ago I was invited to an event with M&L paints (who were previously known as Marston and Langinger), and instantly fell in love with their array of colours. Inspired by the natural world and by fine classical architecture, M&L colours have been created to enhance our lives in engaging ways. One of the things that I love about M&L is that they’ve taken a number of factors into consideration when ensuring that their paint is eco-friendly, from the paint itself, to the packaging and the couriers that they use. And I’m so excited to say that I will be collaborating with them on this project.
In all honesty, I didn’t have a clear idea of exactly what I thought would work well in the space. Which actually was really helpful when looking at the colour card and picking samples. The light can really vary in the kitchen, as the back of it is a lot darker than the side which opens out onto our conservatory. I’ve already had a bit of a head start with the kitchen revamp after my backsplash update using tile stickers, so I wanted to ensure that the colour I chose complimented them.
M&L sent me samples of some of their key whites and neutrals and it was so hard to narrow them down. My key contenders were Warm White, White Pepper, Birch and Steel. While they’re all lovely shades, I felt like Warm White and White Pepper were a bit yellower than I had in mind, whereas Birch and Steel were a bit too cool and blue toned. They have so many lovely shades and so it was a tough choice, but I’ve decided to go with English Plaster – an off-white pale-tone neutral, with an underlying grey hue and the tiniest hint of yellow.
The kitchen is at least 15 years old, but is still in good condition (bar the odd bit here and there to sort) so will be staying. The floor has seen better days and has recently started cracking, so we’re currently discussing with our landlord about updating this in the future. Other changes I’m planning to make are using a marble vinyl on the worktops, changing the hardware, and without giving too much away, adding crittall and reeded glass elements (if my plans come together at least!).
I’ll also be making over the conservatory as the spaces are connected but will do a solo post for my plans for that so watch this space. For now, here’s the mood board for the kitchen.
What do you think? I’m really excited to get going and hopefully I’ll be back in a few weeks with the full reveal!
~ This post contains PR products from M&L paints that were sent to me with no obligation to share on here, but I absolutely love them and hope that you do too. As always, all views and photos are entirely my own. This post contains affiliate links which means I earn a small percentage of a sale if you click the links and purchase a product.~
