When we bought the house, the kitchen was small and dated. What we needed was an open-plan kitchen renovation! It took a bit of planning and time, but the transformation was exactly what we hoped it would be.
The before and after photos below show just how much the space changed.
Before & after ….
The journey
We decided to use the services of Perth Wall Alterations. They came recommended and had their own structural engineer, plumber and electrician on tap so we didn’t have to go out and find those services ourselves.
We contracted Perth Window & Door Replacement Company for the new windows and front door.
So with all our council of owners approvals in place, we were good to go. It would be easier, and cheaper, for us to stay in the house during the renovation. But – there would be plenty of dust with all the demolition. So we came up with a plan to separate the house into two zones. Building site and living area. We used acrow props to support planks of wood along the ceiling and draped sheets of plastic draped over the wood. It worked quite well – but felt like one of those murder scenes from a tv show!
Zone separation in place …
Ready to go.
The kitchen was small and dated, so our plan was to knock the kitchen wall down to make the room bigger. But, that would put the front door in the middle of the kitchen, so that would need to move. We would fit a window into the space where the door was so we would get as much light into the room. The little half wall that created a “hallway” would also be demolished. The builders used props during the demolition phase and then installed horizontal and vertical steel reinforcing beams and posts as designed by the structural engineer.
The little hallway wall has gone.
The demolition is done – now to rebuild.
The kitchen wall is down. Steel beam and posts are in place. The builders have also removed the old eye-level oven and its brick surround – thank goodness! And, they have removed the front door and boarded up the hole.
The view from the outside.
The builders boxed-in steel beam and post. And the shape of the new room is beginning to take place.
We kept all the old cupboards, just painted the doors with white Dulux Renovation paint to freshen them up. The old counter-tops have been replaced with custom made laminate in Yamaroo that we purchased from Bunnings. We removed the old wall tiles and installed the new cupbooards and counter-tops ourselves to save money. And have the fun of DIY!
We are almost done! The new cooker fits perfectly into the space left by removing the old eye-level oven. The skilled one of the team did the tiling and fitted handles to all the freshly painted doors.
We are so happy with how the new open-plan kitchen renovation turned out!
I hope you enjoyed looking through the pictures of this renovation. If you would like to see the rest of our Claremont renovations – you can see them here. We have renovations of our other houses in Zim and Aus as well.