Honestly I dislike beige. It’s like a non colour. I don’t dig orange shaker cabs. This kitchen needed to shine more brightly, maybe ‘show off’ just a little. But the refresh was about working with what I had.

As the solid wood cabs were in good shape, (plus I had no big dollars to replace them), I refurbished instead by painting in Ben Moore’s Oxford White. It’s a really soft peaceful kinda white, one that really works in older, period houses. Its not cold. It’s not yellow. It’s just right.

The faux marble backsplash was an eyesore. As I pulled down the tiles, the wall crumbled, giving way to an ugly den of moldy black gyp, and yes gasp, bare electric wires.

Ughh. Black mold. Damn it. Removing that invasion is a carefully planned but necessary operation. Dressed in full body overalls, mask, rubber gloves and spray gun, I looked like a robber. It took 3 days of planning, closing off the kitchen with plastic drapes (cos mold spores spread). I zapped the whole area with mold control remover and heaps of bleach. It was not pretty and smelled friggin’ awful, but it worked. Once it had fully dried, it was time for the Electo gang.

While Chris and his team rewired the entire kitchen, it gave me a much needed break, especially after prepping and painting 25 cupboard doors. Updating the faucet and hardware in matte black acted like a great mascara, making the eyes, or in this case, kitchen cupboards really pop.

Now with my electricity all safe and sound, it was time to tile. Finding a perfect little black dress is hard. Finding the perfect little black tile even harder. I looked at hundreds. Too big, too small, too geo, too subway. I eventually fell for a sweet hexagonal mosaic. Little did I know it’d be a B..TCH to install. A massive learning curve, as a virgin super newbie tiler, my fingers took a beating from the cuts, snips and sharp tile shards. But once up and grouted, I love, loved my bold hex backsplash. It even made the old countertops feel fresher (or was I imagining that?).

Next were the walls. More white? Phhff.. too bland. Grey?, much too obvious. So I tried four different blacks. After much ‘tester pot’ deliberation, a soft deep smoky black by Ben Moore called Anthracite won. Once on, it emboldened the cupboards and helped create a perfect union, merging the kitchen, dining & lounge all together.