KITCHEN PROBLEM ROOM
My second-hand units Knocking through into her adjoining dining room allowed Amberley Rainey to
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INSIDER INFO WHO LIVES HERE?
mberley Rainey bought her 1960s, three-bedroom, semi-detached house on the Wirral four years ago knowing it would be a big renovation project, especially when it came to the tiny kitchen. ‘Whenever I had friends around there was only standing room for them while I cooked dinner,’ she explains. ‘I’m a sociable person and the layout was so impractical if more than one person was in there at a time. My plan was to knock down the wall separating the kitchen and dining room, and turn the space into a bright and airy kitchen-diner.’ The original kitchen dated back to the 1990s with ill-fitted MDF base units and a wood-cladded ceiling. ‘There was nothing in the old kitchen that I wanted to keep as it
Amberley Rainey (@raineysresidence), 36, an office manager for an entertainment and technology company, lives in this 1960s three-bedroom semi-detached house on the Wirral.
WHAT WAS WRONG WITH YOUR OLD KITCHEN? ‘Everything – it was tiny and not at all practical, with no space for entertaining my friends.’
WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT THE NEW ROOM? ‘My bargain £400 kitchen from eBay. And the kitchen table, which means I can sit with my friends.’
WHAT DID YOU LEARN DURING THIS PROJECT? ‘Be inventive. I managed to get a very expensive kitchen for next to nothing by shopping around.’
Before 50
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Amberley’s kitchendiner complete with clean, modern lines and an inviting central table that allows her to host family and friends
was very impractical. Even the floor tiles were grooved, so they collected crumbs. There was also a free-standing fridge that took up lots of room.’ Amberley’s first task was to get plans drawn up to remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room. While she saved up for the building works, Amberley tackled many DIY jobs herself – she ripped up the carpets, steamed off textured wallpaper and unscrewed the kitchen units. ‘As a first-time buyer, my savings had gone into buying the house, so I didn’t have much left to spend on the kitchen,’ she explains. Amberley dreamed of having a countrystyle kitchen, but couldn’t find anything she liked within her budget. ‘That’s when I decided to be inventive. I did some research
