A new kitchen: before and after pics

This week we got a new kitchen. It was planned last year and fortunately went in after the laundry fire and not before. The fire did make things a little more chaotic because last weekend we had to empty our old kitchen of stuff; stuff we were planning to put in the laundry. Instead we had to empty both the kitchen and the laundry because almost everything in the laundry is smoke-damaged.

The new kitchen is Ikea and was installed in just two and half days by one of their installers. He was amazingly efficient and did a terrific job. Unfortunately quite a few cupboard doors are missing despite having ordered it all last year. Apparently this is not uncommon and the installer will come back when the remaining pieces arrive. All the functional bits are in and it looks terrific despite the missing doors.

Here’s our old kitchen.

Here’s the new one.

We live in an old Edwardian granite building with little storage space but the rooms have very high ceilings so we’ve made the most of this by putting in much taller cupboards. I’ve ordered one of those old-fashioned stool/step ladders second-hand which will let us reach the top cupboards. We’ll put things there we don’t use very often.

We have kept our old fridge and range, both of which are on the other side of the room which has the nice William Morris wallpaper. I’d like to extend this all the way around the room next.

It’s so wonderful to have a new kitchen. We’re very lucky. Most of the sooty smell has gone now too except for in the laundry where it’s still strong. That room is pretty much out of action now and all the cabinets have to be removed. When that happens the smell should improve considerably.