A Kitchen in “Disrepair” Gets a Storybook Cottage Makeover for Only $2,000
For some, a vacation home looks sunny and coastal; for others, it’s a cabin with plaid and quilts, and for others, it’s a cottage with a garden.
After Collette and her husband purchased a holiday home (a cottage that’s also a part-time Airbnb rental) in Nannup, Australia, it only took three months to renovate — which included transforming the “dated” blue kitchen.
“The kitchen before was not only old and greasy but in disrepair,” Collette says. “Behind the old cupboards was a mouse nest that looked like it had several generations of mouse usage! The benchtops were cracked laminate, and the cupboards were warped by leaks.”
Collette wanted the new kitchen to be “cozy and joyful,” so she selected Milton & King’s “Summer in Sicily” wallpaper as the jumping-off point for the new room. From there, she and her husband embarked on a mostly DIY renovation project.
To start, the couple ripped out the old cabinets to make space for new-to-them secondhand cabinets. Collette found them at a salvage yard for $200 AUD (around $135 USD), and she painted them in Porter’s Paints’ Yacht Race. However, before the cabinets could be installed, Collette and her husband had to paint the walls and ceilings and hire a plumber to connect the new gas tanks, close off old taps, and create access for a new dishwasher.
The couple snagged vertical joint panels from Bunnings Warehouse that they painted white and hung on the kitchen walls, which “gave the kitchen a lovely cottage vibe,” Collette says. Brass handles and butcher block countertops were also sourced at Bunnings Warehouse. After bringing them home, Collette’s husband cut them to fit the new counters, making sure there was a cutout for the new IKEA HAVSEN sink.
The color didn’t end with the wallpaper, and it only takes one quick look at the floor to see that. “I had always wanted a painted floor in yellow, especially after a trip to Portugal and Spain where the color is so embraced (it’s my favorite color!), and this was my opportunity to just go for it,” Collette says.
Collette had painted something else in her home with Annie Sloan’s English Yellow and was already a fan of the color, and she thought it would be perfect for the floors. She scrubbed the floors, applied one white paint coat, then three yellow coats, and she says it’s “holding up well” so far.
Many of the items in the kitchen are vintage or secondhand finds, to Collette’s delight. For example, the chandelier was found at a yard sale, the kitchenette was sourced on Facebook Marketplace, the plates that adorn the walls are from thrift stores, and the table is from Collette’s family home.
Collette opted to paint the secondhand fridge at her holiday home with another bright Annie Sloan, paint: Barcelona Orange.
“This kitchen is unique as we have recycled as much as possible and brought in vintage items from thrift stores and home,” Collette explains. “It is full of color and is just a joyful, happy, and relaxed space to be in to cook, sip on tea, or converse around the table. It is jam-packed full of stories, and we hope to contribute many more via ourselves and our guests!”
The entire project cost Collette between $2,500 to $3,500 ($1,685 to $2,359 USD), and the kitchen looks like an entirely new space. It was likely a rewarding process, too, as the couple did most of the work “while our Labrador dog lay sleeping nearby,” Collette recalls. “It has certainly been a labor of love.”
Now that the kitchen is complete, Collette and her husband spend a lot of time in the room. Whether it’s watching their grandson draw pictures at the table, or enjoying a cup of coffee while looking at their gorgeous lemon tree, it’s certainly a sentimental space. But this isn’t the only room that Collette and her husband transformed — they actually took on most of the home projects in the cottage themselves. To see more, visit the full home tour on Apartment Therapy.
This post originally appeared on The Kitchn. See it there: Before & After: A Kitchen In “Disrepair” Gets the Most Stunning Cottagecore Makeover for Only $2,000