Kat Wagstaff, a stay-at-home mum, transformed her kitchen-diner in Burbage, Leicestershire, to resemble a Victorian-style kitchen. She achieved this by taking time to hunt for antique accessories and pre-loved furniture.
The original kitchen was tiny, with only a couple of ugly orange pine cupboards and hardly any work surface. This made it difficult for Kat and her husband to be in the kitchen together, and there was no room for a dining table.
The kitchen’s layout was also un-family-friendly, with the cooking area isolated from the rest of the family. Kat longed for an open-plan kitchen-diner, but the family had to save up first, so they lived with the existing layout for a couple of years.
When the renovation finally started, Kat decided to convert the old kitchen into a utility room to free up space. The builders kept the original cooker and sink working for as long as they could, but there was a period when Kat had neither, making it tricky to manage with two small children.
Despite the challenges, Kat enjoyed the slow process of renovating her kitchen-diner. She chose cabinets from Sheppards DIY, a small family-run company, and worked with its kitchen planner to create a design that included symmetry and large corner base units.
The floor was bare concrete for a year while the family saved to buy tiles. Kat is thrilled with the final result, which features cream, distressed-effect tiles and warm, textured floor tiles that evoke the feel of Victorian flagstones.
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Kat added vintage touches to the kitchen-diner through pre-loved furniture and accessories found in vintage stores, antique fairs, and charity shops. She believes these unique pieces add character to the room and support a good cause.
Some of the vintage items Kat found include a chest of drawers for £20, a candelabra from 1010 Vintage, and a peacock fireguard from a British Red Cross charity shop. These pieces help create a cosy vintage vibe in the kitchen-diner.
Kat also found an original Fry’s advert while on holiday in The Old Forge Antiques in Swanage, which adds to the room’s vintage feel. She is pleased with the cost-effective wood-effect laminate worktops, which are easier to maintain than real wood.
A can of spray paint was the starting point for this kitchen makeover – and they only spent £1,650 in total.
The household includes a husband, Ian, two children named Darcy Rose and Beatrice May, and a rabbit called Frosty. When they added an extension to the rear, builders installed props and the plaster in the daughter’s room collapsed, prompting concerns about the project’s direction. The builder responded promptly, repairing the damage and allowing progress to continue. Adding the rear space created a larger combined cooking and dining area, a change the family deemed necessary for everyday life.
Kat is emotional when she thinks about what she and her family have achieved. Although the renovation took time, as they had to save as they went along, she appreciates the result all the more because of that!
