Betta Living Design Hacks...

For the last few years, I have been planning a brand new and glitzy kitchen makeover.

The big picture is to have all my kitchen cupboards knocked out and brand new ones put in. A big American fridge, double oven, the works. I can picture it now. It will look amazing.

In reality it's not going to happen for a few more years yet.

Having 4 children, 6 of us in total, we needed a nice big table. The price for a 6 seated wooden table were above our price range. In the end we went for 2 small wooden tables and push them together.

Perfect idea!

Trouble was when your in a big shop looking at ideas, you forget one thing; to remember how much room your really have!!

When we got the tables home there was not enough space in the kitchen for how I wanted the tables to look.

Picture above : How they looked but they didn't have too much space. You can imagine what a struggle it was to get around?

Picture below : My idea of the how the tables would before I brought them.

Long ways: Would have been perfect. Set up with nice plates all ready for dinner and plenty of room for us to all sit around.

For the last year we have manage OK with the tables like this. Something kept niggling away at me though. I needed more room!

When everyone was in the kitchen I felt like I could not breath, their was not enough room. I also kept banging my sides on the corners too. OUCH!!

I have been looking for different ideas to change the kitchen but these ideas cost money.

Also my ideas always lead to other idea that in the end cost a lot of money. Money that could be saved towards the dream kitchen!?

One nice and sunny Sunday morning a few weeks ago when my husband was at work, I deiced I was going to do something about it. Something that would look totally different and not cost a penny. Something could have also gone also gone so wrong too.

First up I took the kitchen shelves, table and everything move-able outside.

I ripped out the breakfast bar, which I love but again not enough room for. Moved all the cupboards. Ekk, what had I done!

I wish someone would have told me about moving kitchen cupboards before I moved them. 3 moved easily, no problem what so ever. Then moving the last cupboard the legs underneath came off one by one. As I put one on, another 2 came off. It was a nightmare.

My youngest son though it was so funny, as you can imagine. Then 2 cups I had forgot to removed came out and smashed along the floor, what a mess!

Very long story short, I eventually got the legs on and all cupboards in place. Great now time to add the worktops again. Grr, 1 inch to long. I quickly ran to the shed to see if we still had that old electric saw.

1 hour later, the kids had all ran off to the rooms because of the noice, the dog was in hiding from the noise and wood dust everywhere. No worries though as I had cut the worktop almost perfect. Not bad for a first time.

Then the big clean up. Everything was in place. Everything had to be put back into the cupboards though. Even my son to help out as dad would be home in less than a hour and we wanted it to look good.

I am really pleased with the end results and it cost me nothing..

Just a lot of juggling and a few old cups..

So my #bettadesignhacks is :

• If you have the money go for what you really want and love. Life is to short to keep it in the bank!!
• If you've not got the spare money at this moment in time but want a change, take a look around at what you do have. 
• Can you change things without spending a fortune? 
• Move things around. 
• Upcycle something old into something new. 
• Add a slash of paint? As they say " A change is as good" 
• Saving the money you would have spent on the things you really want..

About this post:

This is my entry to The Betta Living Design Hacks competition that I seen over on the HIBS100 website. You can find out more here: Betta Living Competition