Kitchen Corner

Slowly, slowly the dreadful kitchen is turning into one of my favourite places to be at home.

The walls have gone from gaudy, canary yellow to soft, sagey green. The cupboards are now cream with wooden handles instead of gold with a typical '80s grey trim. The stalwart of the thrify makeover (yes tile paint!) has turned the yucky navy & white tiles to calming ivory.

The new floor has transformed the room the most, goodbye grim navy lino and hello to a bargain remnant. Not bad for me, half an hour's grappling and Grandma Alice's old butter knife to help slide it under the cupboards!

My thrifty kitchen revamp came in at a bargain £130, with most of the money going on a new sink and the floor. Still a bit more painting and the new work tops to fit (which were going begging at dad's firm!) but it's almost there.

I've used the curtains that hung in the laundry at our old house to line the glass doors, make a curtain to hide the dishwasher and the mess of recylcing and some old bamboo blinds with a vintage trim will be going up at the windows. It'll do us for a few years and I'm really looking forward to rustling up lunch for our friends who are coming to stay this weekend in our cosy new kitchen.

The view from our kitchen window was wonderful this week.

Frost sparkeld across the garden and the view has really opened out across the hills as the leaves fall.

The boys and I enjoyed a half-term pyjama day, far too cold to go out for my two laid up with colds. So we turfed out toy boxes, sorted out jumble and snuggled up on the vintage sofa to watch the snow fall and the garden birds flock back to our bird table.

Just perfect.