Before & After: “Cottagecore” Yellow Floors Bring Instant Joy (and Drama) to a Tired Kitchen — for Only $2,000!
After Collette and her husband purchased a holiday home (which is also a part-time Airbnb rental) in Nannup, Australia, it only took three months to renovate — which included transforming the “dated” blue kitchen.
“The kitchen before was not only old and greasy but in disrepair,” Collette says. “Behind the old cupboards was a mouse nest that looked like it had several generations of mouse usage! The benchtops were cracked laminate, and the cupboards were warped by leaks.”
Collette wanted the new kitchen to be “cozy and joyful,” so she selected Milton & King’s “Summer in Sicily” wallpaper as the jumping-off point for the new room. From there, the couple embarked on a mostly DIY renovation project.
To start, the couple ripped out the old cabinets to make space for new, secondhand cabinets. Collette found them at a salvage yard for $200 AUD (around $135 USD), which she painted in Porter’s Paints’ “Yacht Race.” However, before the new cabinets could be installed, they had to paint the walls and ceilings, and hire a plumber to connect their new gas tanks, close off old taps, and create access for a new dishwasher.
The couple snagged vertical joint panels from Bunnings Warehouse that they painted white and hung on the kitchen walls, which “gave the kitchen a lovely cottage vibe,” Collette says. Brass handles and butcher block countertops were also sourced at Bunnings Warehouse. After bringing them home, Collette’s husband cut them to fit the new counters, making sure there was a cutout for the new IKEA HAVSEN sink.
The color didn’t end with the wallpaper — it only takes one quick look at the floor. “I had always wanted a painted floor in yellow, especially after a trip to Portugal and Spain where the color is so embraced (it’s my favorite color!), and this was my opportunity to just go for it,” Collette says.
Collette had painted her other refrigerator with Annie Sloan’s “English Yellow,” and was already a fan of the color and thought it would be perfect for the floors. She scrubbed the floors, applied one white paint coat, then three yellow coats, and admitted it was “holding up well” so far.
Many of the items in the kitchen were vintage or secondhand finds, to Collette’s delight. For example, the chandelier was found at a yard sale, the kitchenette was sourced on Facebook Marketplace, the plates that adorn the walls are from thrift stores, and the table is from Collette’s family home. Collette opted to paint the secondhand fridge at her holiday home in Annie Sloan’s “Barcelona Orange.”
“This kitchen is unique as we have recycled as much as possible and brought in vintage items from thrift stores and home,” Collette explains. “It is full of color and is just a joyful, happy, and relaxed space to be in to cook, sip on tea, or converse around the table. It is jam-packed full of stories, and we hope to contribute many more via ourselves and our guests!”
The entire project cost Collette between $2,500 to $3,500 ($1,685 to $2,359 USD), and the kitchen looks like an entirely new space. It was likely a rewarding process, too, as the couple did most of the work. “While our Labrador dog lay sleeping nearby,” she says. “It has certainly been a labor of love.”
Now that the kitchen is complete, the family spends a lot of time in the room. Whether it’s watching their grandson draw pictures at the table, or enjoying a cup of coffee while looking at their gorgeous lemon tree — it’s certainly a sentimental space. But this isn’t the only room that Collette and her husband transformed — they actually took on most of the home projects in the cottage themselves. To see more, visit the full home tour on Apartment Therapy.
