The kitchen at our new house is not completely horrible, but it is outdated and not exactly my dream kitchen. Although the kitchen is one of the last things that will be renovated as we are working from the roof down, It’s never to early for a girl to start planning … am I right?

Here is the current kitchen.

To the left side of the kitchen is a poky little nook, and a ‘wine cupboard’ which is pretty much a fancy name for a cupboard under the stairs. I am hoping to utilise all of this space and open the kitchen up into this entire area.

Here’s the floor plan so you can see what I am talking about. Ignore my highlighting, We will actually need to push the kitchen out slightly past the highlighted area.

I am hoping to squeeze a butlers pantry along that back wall where the existing oven/stove/microwave is now. It’ll be tight, but I don’t want too much in there, hopefully a sink and dishwasher, but mainly just shelving like a glorified pantry.

Then I’ll bring the kitchen forward to an L shape with an island and a fridge and display wall on the other side. See below for for my dodgy drawing.

Now, I’m no expert in this department, and I’m sure I’ve overlooked something, but I’m hoping it’ll work something like this.

Of course, all this depends on whether we can successfully remove some of those walls, my hubby is a builder and I pretty much expect him to perform miracles, and he usually comes through for me, so I’m quietly confident.

We will be seeing the architect when he returns from his European vacation (I know right, so inconsiderate, lol) and then we can stat making some more solid plans. We are hoping to start on the big changes early next year, which sounds like ages away, but in all reality it is only 4 months, in which time we have to do plans, engineering, council approvals, etc ….. all while running our own building business.

In the mean time we have a few projects that will keep me busy and we will get them done before Christmas, this includes changing out the pool fencing for frameless glass, re-vamping the dining room, creating a media room and some cosmetic things like paint and wallpaper.

Wish me luck, I’m going to need it!

Hayley x

Father’s Day gift guide, Part two.

If you didn’t find the perfect gift for the Dad in your life in part one of my gift guide here, there’s still time. I’ve found a few more fabulous things that any Dad is sure to love.

NAVY CROCKETT

Navy Crockett is a a gift store for the hard-to-buy-for man. It really is a great one stop shop and has some fabulous unique gifts. I love this boot shine kit which all packs away into the ‘motor oil’ tin for storage.

The slinky hose is perfect for the gardening Dad, save him from the frustration of tangled hoses.

TOP 3 BY DESIGN

My hubby has one of these light boxes and he loves changing the messages to display current events, including birthdays, sporting events and dinner request … cheeky!

L’ASCARI

I am a sucker for great packaging and unique ideas. I love this range from L’ASCARI, the definitive Man Pack 2 is a great gift. It includes the masculine artisan solid cologne and very cool Vodka and Schnapps mancandle. Loving it!

MADE MEASURE

What about a masculine, hand-crafted leather hook for Dad to hang his coat on? I adore these and would be more than happy to hang my own coat on one!

BUNNINGS

I’m sorry, you all know I love to support small business, but c’mon, what Dad doesn’t love a good old wander around Bunnings (or whatever your local home hardware warehouse may be), playing with all the powerful things and dreaming of what they could’ve, should’ve and would’ve made!

Here’s a few other ideas for day if you’ve left it till the last minute, but still makes it look like you’ve put heaps of thought into in –

* Frame a family photos.

*Cook him breakfast in bed, everyone loves this!

* Have his old certificates framed, or polish his old trophies.

* Make a corny T-shirt saying – ‘I have the world’s best dad!’ (A Sharpie and a Bond’s T is perfect).

* Have a movie night with his favourite movie and pizza/ice-cream.

It’s not all about how much you spend, just make sure you show Dad how much you love him.

Happy Fathers Day!

Hayley x

The dining room at our new house has been converted from the original alfresco/outdoor area. While the previous owners have done a decent job making it weather proof and useable, we have different plans. For some reason, totally unknown by me, they have left the glass sliding doors from the living areas through to the dining room, so it’s like a glass box, strange.

It also has glass sliding doors leading to the pool area on one side and to the waterfront on the other, because of this it has some of the best views in the house and I find myself drawn to it constantly.

We have our own plan to make the space amazing. Firstly, we will remove all the glass doors that lead to the living areas to open the whole space up. Next we will replace the external sliding doors with a wall of louvres leading to the pool and a glass french door leading to the waterfront. We had to make choices that would also make the house pool safety compliant, and thats why we chose louvres on the pool side.

We will be replacing all the floors and I am currently tossing up between timber or travertine for all of downstairs. I’ll also be having sheer curtains made, I don’t want to block the view but I think we’ll need some relief from the sun through the summer months.

This is my inspiration picture …

Next – Furniture, that’s the fun part, but I have to remember I have 3 kids and a dog. Everything must be low maintenance and easy cleaning. So here’s my plan.

I recently got this incredible rug for the dining room. It is perfect for this space because it is so forgiving to a messy family with kids and pets. It is bleachable, scrubbable and UV treated. You can literally pour bleach onto it, scrub it and hose it down. So, I didn’t have to choose a dark coloured, heavily patterned rug for this space, I choose a pretty pale blue and I adore it. I love how rugs and art really breath life and character into a space, I have no wall space for art in this room so the rug needed to be the hero.

I already have a fabulous big recycled timber table that I love. I bought it from Village Stores a few years ago, it has been knocked around a bit but it just adds to the character. Miss Lucy has added her own artistic pops of colour with multiple splashes of nail polish!

I have 8 french ladder back dining chairs with rush seating. While I still like them, they are getting a little shabby from being knocked around so much over the past 8-9 year, but they are not in the budget to be changed, so they will stay for now. But ultimately I would like something more like this gorgeous Barcelona chair from Lincoln Brooks.

The room already has 2 ceiling fans, and since the afternoon sun beats into this space I think we should keep them. Now, ceiling fans are not the prettiest things, but our last house didn’t have them and I sure did miss them, I think they are a necessary evil when you live in Queensland, Australia. I am crossing my fingers our budget stretches enough to put one of these beauties in. Don’t you love the little monkey, it adds a little bit of fun and conversation for the dinner table.

I’ll dress the room with masses of tropical greenery, lanterns and candles.

What do you think? A little bit plantation style, a little bit tropical? Do you like it?

Hayley x