‘WE SWAPPED ROOMS AROUND’

A savvy reconfiguration job meant Bron could have her dream kitchen without any restructuring work

When Ges and I got married five years ago, we decided to rent his house out and live in mine,’ says Bron. ‘It’s a nice, solid house, but it had got tired. We needed to go through it and work out what we wanted to do.

We left the kitchen and dining room until last as they were a bit of a mess. The kitchen was tiny and right at the back of the house, while the dining room was huge with an old wooden table I love and have had for years, but to be honest, it wasn’t used every day. Then there was a space in between the dining room and living room that had been a playroom for the boys when they were young. It was a layout I’d inherited when I moved in, but now we had the opportunity to change it.

Making plans

Ges is incredibly handy and also good at seeing what will work, and I love choosing the colours and picking furnishings. But we had to really think how we could make some radical changes on a budget. We decided the best way to update the kitchen, without needing any structural work, was to swap the rooms around. The old kitchen would become a utility room, the dining room would become the new kitchen, and the playroom would become the new dining room. Once we’d agreed that I immediately felt so much better.

Next steps

Then, we moved the dining table and got rid of any appliances that didn’t work, so we had a clearer starting point. The old units were fine for the utility room, which is tucked out of sight anyway. We chose to leave the washing machine and fridge freezer in there to cut down on what had to go in the new kitchen, but move

‘swap furniture around and move from room to room as a simple way to update a space with a big visual impact without any cost’

the dishwasher to the new space. I love to mix and match old and new for an eclectic look, so we already had some nice old pieces for the new kitchen. The key was excavating the chimney breast so we could put in a range cooker.

A stroke of luck

We’d chosen the black range cooker from Delonghi and some plain grey kitchen units to tone in, when we got lucky. My brother Hew was replacing his kitchen and asked us if we’d like the black granite from his old kitchen. All we had to do was get a van to collect it. It was really nice quality and we paid someone to recut and polish it, which cost £900, but even so it was a bargain. It came with a built-in sink and Ges fitted the units himself.

Adding metallic touches

The tiled floor didn’t need replacing, which was another expense saved. But I was determined to introduce some metallic highlights to the scheme. I chose copper handles for the grey units, and I also found some great copper cutlery, lanterns, racks, utensils and pans, too!

Bringing the colour

I love colour, particularly pinks, which go so well with grey and copper. I painted