Houzz Logo Print
piperperidot

Lots of Renovation Advice Needed for Older Farmhouse (photos)

5 years ago

We have a 1940s house on a farm that has been added on to over the years. This means the kitchen and lounge room are quite dark as wide verandahs have been added on (and closed in) so natural light is strongly filtered. (Photos attached are taken with lights on, window coverings to open and doors open and a very bright sunny day). The house is about 110sqm not including verandahs. Our long term tenants have left and we want to do an update to make it liveable as the last time main areas were renovated was in the 1970s. We can't go overboard on the $ side - we are farmers in our 3rd year of drought/ have low rent expectations at 100km out of town etc.


House is timber weatherboard, most of the floor base is timber (but not of a quality that could be polished in most rooms). Husband has ripped out most of the kitchen and lino and most of the carpets and tiles, still more to go, trying to do it in between feeding the stock.


Main renovation will be targeting floors and kitchen and painting throughout. We will be DIYing as much as we can since getting any tradies to come out is well nigh impossible.


So far we are looking at :

Tile flooring in the kitchen/sunroom

Floating wood laminate throughout the rest of the house

Flatpack kitchen


I would love some advice on colours and getting things to co-ordinate!


We have left the upper cupboards in the kitchen as they are very solidly built (custom made in the 60s/70s) and go to the ceiling and have had the architrave attached to it. They are white melamine. We have enquired about replacing the cupboard doors but the hinge style is not compatible and each would have to be be custom made so not cost effective). Aim is tidy them up, replace some of the melamine strips around the edges and put on matching handles to the new lower kitchen cupboards. The stove/oven is freestanding and was replaced only a couple of years ago so we will be keeping it - it is black/stainless (and small as it had to fit in the existing space at the time).



Pics: Kitchen


The kitchen room is also quite small and used to have a U layout which was a very tight fit - we are looking at going to a L so it opens the whole room up to use . Not sure about an island or not? There will be a working triangle with the fridge on the other side of a doorway, but there are thoroughfares through it as the room has multiple doors (to back door/to sunroom/to loungeroom/ to hallway with bathroom & bedrooms).


The flatpack kitchen we are looking at has white gloss cupboards. We have the option of laminate benchtops in white or black with grey fleck. We can get black/grey splashback tiles or upgrade to an aluminium glass look splashback. The kickboards have a greyish stainless steel look.



Pic: stock photo of proposed kitchen - this is a rough layout as I don't have a technical drawing of anything yet. It won't have the fridge there but will extend bench/cupboards across to wall. Photos of splashback tiles in this photo is one of the options.


Pic : stock photo of aluminium splashback option

Pic: stock photo of black/grey laminate benchtop option



As the kitchen is quite dark with the closed in verandah reducing the light into the kitchen itself, we think we need a lighter colour floor tile to brighten it up. We are thinking to extend the tile into the adjoining sunroom which has a concrete floor base. We spent a day in town looking at options and came away with a pale grey (with mottling) with a very slight tint of taupe in the grey. The tile is low sheen/matte and 450x450. I am a little concerned that it will look cold with the grey/white etc. which is why I have gone for the tile with a touch of taupe to warm it up.


Pic: Sunroom


Flooring for the lounge, and hallway and the 4 bedrooms off it, we are looking at a timber laminate floating floor (the quick-step brand seems to have waterproof options). Out of the quick step brand we prefer the no bevel style of Eligna range although not a fan of the colours available.


Pic: Lounge


I have attached a photo of the preferred tile at the moment and one of the Eligna samples and their colour chart. I have been trying to co-ordinate with the tile. I also have to co-ordinate (or at least not clash badly with the 1970s combustion fire in the lounge (dark brown with a yellowish brown sides) and built ins in one of the bedrooms that is a dark honey timber).





All feedback welcome - floors, kitchen, colour schemes etc. Would also welcome ideas on paint colour too!




Comments (6)