A few years back we brough some 1950s English Rose kitchen units, they are beauiful but sadly need a hell of a lot of work and what with more pressing projects this one has got put off again and again, so this spring I decided I couldn't take it, we had to make the kitchen at least usable. This mean ripping the current wall units out and revamping the base units to make them nicer.
It also mean finally painting over the awful magnolia paint on the walls, horray! We always assumed the plaster in this room was crap judging but how bumpy the paint was but we actually found it was meanly layers and layers of paint which a few weeks ago I started chipping off.
As storage is at a premium in here we realised we would in fact need some sort of wall unit just to house bowls, glasses and mugs, however the old melamine one was too big and oppressive so was donated it to a neighbour for his workshop. I managed to find on eBay a 60s glass fronted wall unit for around £12, this had spend a few weeks sitting around getting in the way but Rich finally got it fitted on Sunday!
We had a game fitting it, these things really aren't meant to be taken on and off walls to much and the old brackets for it where missing so Rich had to make new one (which still need painting!). This is the only slight issue with working with older furniture, especially fitting stuff, mostly it really doesn't want to cooperate and you end up cursing your decision and vowing to buy a kitchen from B&Q next time! It was worth it in the end as we are really happy with how it looks and a bargain at around £15 with the new wooden brackets.
The next thing was to replace the counter tops, the ones here are ok but just really bland colour which I loathe! We nipped up to Ikea in Bristol last week just to take a look after failing to find anything on eBay or Gumtree, we spent ages in the kitchen department deliberating and agonising over the costs! It been a while since I did a kitchen but bloody hell their expensive and just for counter tops! In the end we decided to sleep on it as it was also 10 mins till closing time at this point, on the way out we spotted Bargain Corner and nipped in where we found two solid oak 3meter works tops both at 58% discount!
Wow, all this just so I can display my mid century china better!!