What I'm Wishing For...

A Pretty Blue & White Kitchen

So the hubby and I are currently living in a rented three bed semi-detached house. It's a lovely little house with plenty of light, a big back garden for our yorkie Fudge and a pretty good sized kitchen. With it being a rented house we aren't allowed to go crazy with the walls. We are allowed to paint but we have to paint it back to white or cream before we leave (way too much hassle). So far we have only put colour on our fireplace wall and have elected to keep the rest of the house neutral, adding colour and interest with accessories.

With that in mind, we want to re-do our kitchen. Right now its kind of a mish mash of stuff, mostly mine from before we got married, and some things we got as wedding presents. 

These are some things we (okay okay, not we...I ) have been drooling over.

Sources... 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

What we've got....

A great table, like seriously great. It was my grandmothers and it is beautiful and super sturdy. It seats six and also has an extra leaf so you can seat eight comfortably, ten at a push. I think I want to refinish the top (probably paint it white) since the top has a bunch of marks on it from many, many years of abuse love. I'm going to leave the legs the beautiful oak wood that they are. 

We also have a pair of curtains that I love the colour of, a kind of pale teal or dark duck egg blue. We'd like to incorporate more of this colour into our kitchen. Since we want to paint the whole room white we think the blue would add splashes of colour and stop it from looking too stark. 

One of our favourite wedding presents is a beautiful wooden Newgate Pluto Starburst clock, a design classic that I have always loved. We would like to bring the wood tones of the clock into the rest of the room to give it some warmth. 

What we would like...

New Chairs...*sigh* Oh how I love these chairs. These are reproductions from Cult Furniture, a great place for funky furniture and design led pieces. These are a design classic for a reason and will go with any kind of décor that we might have in the future. Definitely the big ticket item in our relatively cheap kitchen re-do since we will need six of them.

A New Rug....I love the colour and pattern of this rug from Urban Outfitters, we already have the black and white version in our bedroom! I'm not entirely sure how well it will stand up to the rigours of kitchen life though, alas this may be something that we will have to forgo in favour of something a little more durable.  

Some Great Accessories...

I adore these salad servers from Zara Home. Beautiful and useful, what's not to like?!

I love that this bowl, also from Zara Home, encompasses both of the elements that we wanted to bring into our kitchen, a beautiful pop of blue colour mixed with natural wood tones.

These glasses from Next would look fantastic on a white shelf against a white wall, the colour would really stand out. 

I'm a big fan of wooden kitchen items, especially bowls and trays. Food always looks so beautiful when laid out on gorgeous wood. This tray is from wilko.com and is really affordable.

Gorgeous colour and funky pattern, these placemats are from John Lewis and are reversible, which is such a great idea! I love the idea of a white table with these adding splashes of colour on top. 

So there you have it, our plan to turn our sorta-kinda-ok-ish kitchen into something blue and bright and beautiful. We plan on getting it done soon (or at least started soon) so I will take some before pics and keep you updated on the makeover as we go along. 

Is anyone else out there redoing a kitchen this summer? Anyone with any ideas about how to add character to a rented home? What would be on your ideal kitchen wishlist? Drop us a line or leave a comment.
We would love to hear suggestions!