‘a coat of paint transformed my kitchen’

Naomi Graham, 45, saved money by respraying her units to give her dated kitchen a brand-new look

Naomi Graham gave her old kitchen units a shiny but thrifty new look

When we moved here we painted throughout, but then decided to wait before making any big changes,’ says naomi, who bought the house with her husband rob back in 2007.

‘Eight years later I fell pregnant with our third daughter Emmeline, and as we already had Niamh and Orlagh, we needed more space – so we decided to add an extra bedroom. It made sense to look at how we used the whole house and reconfigure some other elements of it at the same time.

As the kitchen is at the back of the house, we decided to put bifold doors across the end wall to open it up to the garden. There was a little-used patio to the side of the kitchen, so we built a snug in its place with an extra bedroom on top. And to create some unity and flow to the space, we chose ceramic tiles that look like wood and laid a new floor throughout the downstairs.

Cabinetry facelift

There was a good layout in the kitchen, but the doors and wall tiles looked too country. The solution was to change the cabinets to a colour that would complement the flooring. I found a company, Prospray, which, after a site survey, sprayed the carcasses in the room, while the doors

were taken away and sprayed offsite. it was a really quick and easy process.

Introducing personality

the kitchen was looking much better, but it was still a bit bland, so the addition of moroccan tiles from topps tiles was perfect because they added pattern and colour in tones that work with the room. my next step was to bring some warmth to the walls and, after a long search, we chose Blackened by Farrow & Ball. We decided that teal and orange would make a lovely contrast, so i bought a teal blind and orange eames-style chairs from mdm Furniture for the dining area.

Dressing the room

i wanted some built-in storage and came up with the idea of a unit that goes around the doorway to the snug – it has created a really striking feature, with cupboards to hide the more functional items. Finally, a small living room area was created by having a couple of beautiful old chairs reupholstered by the upholstery artist in the same colour as the blind.

i feel really lucky to have this stylish kitchen and living space, and we now spend most of our time in this part of the house.’

‘Get Bespoke shelving Fitted around a door Frame – ours was designed to hide the Fact that the Frame isn’t perfectly straight’