Guess Whose Coming To Our Place?

The fabulous, super cool, UK designer and decorator, Ms Abigail Ahern, that's who!

Okay, so she's not really coming to our place per se, but she is fixin our kitchin!

(well, kind-of)

Not with her own fair hands (that would be too insanely awesome!) but vicariously, through a new segment on her wonderful blog she calls Style Surgery.

(Unfortunately) we have been blessed with a lovely 80's style country kitchen. You know those heavily lacquered, oak fronted, raised panelled doors, with a hideous orange hue to them? That's our kitchen! Here's how it looked when we bought the house:

Another real estate listing pic, which has been heavily photo-shopped (believe it or not) I could almost handle this kitchen but in real life it bears only the faintest resemblance to the kitchen we got when we bought the house.

Late last year we replaced the benchtops, appliances (we needed an oven that worked!), blind, and painted out that yellow, but it still looked awful.

(we couldn't, and still can't, justify ripping out the cabinetry. Hideous as it is - it's Tasmanian Oak and it would've cost a packet back in its eighties hey-day.  We don't feel it would be right (or very nice really) to rip it out, only to replace it with something crappy made of melamine which would still cost big bucks regardless of quality)

Anyway, my attempt to make it better failed miserably. In my note to Abigail I said it was a bit like plastering cheap concealor over a pimple - you could (and can) still see there's something ugly there, festering away (not so quietly) under the surface.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I received an email from Abigail saying that our kitchen had been selected to feature in her first ever Style Surgery feature. I mean seriously, how cool is that?!

Abigail Ahern is "tricking out" our kitchen!

Who care's if it's me doing "the dirty work"!

I'd be happy to be her apprentice/trades assistant/lacky any day of the week - especially if our kitchen turns out like any of these:

all images Abigails blog.

It's booked in for 'surgery' soon - it goes live over at Abigail's this week. I am so excited to see what she comes up with (aren't you?) and I can't wait to pull on my rubber gloves and start the healing process.

I'll keep you posted.

x

p.s. I'm moving (albiet it in the extreme and far-removed fringes) of some illustrious circles these days...guess who designed my fabulous new header? (and all for love I might add!) Click here to find out. I'm a very lucky girl, and she is a lovely, lovely, lovely person.