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While there’s lots to love about Annie Portelli’s DIY-renovated home in Melbourne’s west, one of the most talked-about spaces is the kitchen.
It was also the last room that the creative director and her husband Simon Harris completed as part of their house’s four-year-long renovation — which you might recognise from the cover of The Design Files Magazine Issue 03!
Despite initial plans to give the property a swift refresh, hidden structural issues meant the renovation quickly unravelled into a major refurbishment. ‘Before we knew it, the fun parts of the renovation, like updating the kitchen, were very quickly put on the back burner,’ Annie says.
It wasn’t until they finally moved in (when Annie was 28 weeks pregnant!) that they decided it was time to tackle the kitchen.
The inspiration behind the design
The existing kitchen was basic, dated, and beige, with cream laminate bench tops, cabinetry, and tiles to match. This was a far cry from the coastal-inspired interiors Annie and Simon had introduced in their renovation, characterised by nostalgic timber-lined ceilings and soft cream walls.
‘We wanted the kitchen to hug the dining and living room, without overcrowding it,’ Annie says. ‘It is definitely the feature of the house, so we didn’t want it to feel boring and beige; it needed to have a bit of pizzazz.’
How they maximised space in the new layout
‘The kitchen was tucked away into its own closed-off room with a window… It felt cold and unwelcoming, almost like a tired, run-down community hall kitchen from the ’70s,’ Annie adds.
But one of the biggest reasons they converted the kitchen to an open-plan footprint was to create a dedicated space for the dining table. This shaped the bare bones of the layout, leaving them with enough room for a little work-from-home nook at the opposite end of the kitchen.
They initially moved in with nothing but their appliances and a temporary kitchen, which was just enough to tide them over until they could install new joinery.
The budget-friendly hack that levelled up an IKEA kitchen
As the renovation budget for the house itself had blown out, Annie was conscious about keeping the new kitchen relatively cost-effective. She reached out to Ren Studio, a local company that creates designer-quality doors, drawers and panels for IKEA flatpack kitchens.
‘We had initially planned on getting the whole kitchen made custom by a cabinet maker who warned us that it was going to be very pricey,’ she says.
‘Once we got the pricing and possibilities from Ren Studio, we were shocked at the comparison. It was at least half the cost of a completely custom fit-out.’
They opted for veneer fronts, some left natural, while others were stained in a custom deep blue shade, delineating the work-from-home corner. Working with flat pack cabinets plus custom doors also saved significantly on labour costs, as Simon was able to handle the installation himself.
Their biggest renovation regret
‘Don’t buy your appliances too early. We did this probably a year or so before we actually started working on the kitchen, thinking we were being really smart and organised,’ Annie says.
‘We came to regret this as the design of the kitchen we had initially drawn up was quite different to the one we ended up with.’
‘If we had our time again, we would have opted for a smaller cooktop and oven, to allow for more bench space across the back wall. We also ended up having to buy a different dishwasher to fit into the IKEA formation of the drawers, so that was a huge waste of money.’
Some of the best ideas evolved during the project
Luckily, they managed to get the kitchen completed quite quickly, as having a baby on the way helped them make some rapid design decisions!
Annie says one silver lining of leaving the kitchen until the end of their reno meant they got to workshop new ideas along the way, including changing their vision from terracotta tiles to the Inax Yohen Border Tiles from Artedomus.
‘We also hadn’t thought of having a kitchen island in the final design, but were using one from IKEA in our temporary setup, and grew rather attached to it,’ Annie says.
‘Once the new kitchen was in, we decided to leave it in and simply change the top to match the rest of the benches. To be honest, it is the part of the kitchen that we use most.’
Budget breakdown
Tiles: $850
Stainless steel ledge: $300
Cabinet fronts: $12,583
Cabinetry (carcass): $4000
Tapware: $605
Handles: $672
Fridge: $1772
Stove/oven: $3460
Rangehood: $599
Sink: $219
IKEA dishwasher: $1199
Custom cabinetry carcass: $350
Benchtops + shelves: $3500
Flower Pot lamp: $290
Matchstick blinds: $684
Kitchen island: $749
Nemo wall lamp: $424
Plumbing: $350
Custom carcass: $350
Benchtop: $250
Overall total: $33,206
