Before & After: Light Blue Cabinets Refresh This “Flat, Dull” Kitchen (for Only $350!)
When Laura Seed began decorating her 500-square-foot U.K. apartment, all of the bright colors and textures of the space really complemented each other — everywhere except for the kitchen. “The kitchen I inherited with the place was quite flat, and as I started to bring color and dimension to the rest of the apartment, it just didn’t feel very cohesive,” Laura says.
She hoped that reimagining the room wouldn’t just make it prettier but would create a “happier place to cook.” The existing kitchen already had a few charming elements, like the orange fridge, which was the jumping-off point for the kitchen’s new color palette.
“I knew I wanted to keep the orange fridge and have always loved the way blues and greens gel with orange tones,” Laura says. “The wallpaper in my lounge has tiny bits of blue and green dotted around it, so I decided to pull the color from there, which almost gets lost on the wall itself in and amongst the more vibrant colors, and really exaggerate it in the kitchen with the unit color to give it its own moment.”
The fridge wasn’t the only piece that was having a moment in her kitchen. Originally, two upper cabinets were next to the refrigerator, but Laura felt that “they were closing the room off and were almost a bit of an eyesore.” So, she made the decision to remove them and replace them with open shelving. It was a risky choice as the other bottom cabinets aren’t quite as deep, but she found ways to maximize the storage area she had.
“Using jars on the open shelving was a big help for this, and popping some of my crockery on there, too,” Laura says. “In all, while I have lost some storage, I feel that the open shelving makes the space feel less closed off and larger. It was a trade-off that I’m ultimately very pleased to report has worked for me.”
Since she removed the upper cabinets, she needed to extend the tiles, so she found a similar grout and added a few rows. Open shelving (she chose this one from Ben Simpson Furniture) replaced the cabinets, and she wanted to make it look more industrial as a nod to the building’s history. The space used to be an automotive warehouse, so she used metal brackets, and created a concrete look on the countertops with Rust-Oleum’s gray limewash paint. Meanwhile, the cabinets got a refresh with Farrow & Ball’s Oval Room Blue.
The kitchen makeover was entirely DIY (Laura had a little help from her parents to hang the shelf), and she says there were a few “trust the process moments.” It only took a week to complete and was a budget-friendly project, totaling only £268 (or $346).
Even though some design decisions may have seemed risky, Laura says they all paid off. The transformation now makes it “flow from the rest of the home.”
“It felt dark and flat,” Laura says. “Now I love that no matter which angle I look at it from, it’s a space I want to be in, making good food. It just feels brighter and like it belongs with the rest of the place now, and that makes me really happy.” If this room makes you feel just as happy, you need to see the rest of the colorful home. To see more, visit the full home tour on Apartment Therapy.