Mid-century kitchen inspiration: Creating your dream kitchen

Renovating your home is always a lot of fun, but it does come with additional stress and cost that you need to be prepared for. Particularly with such a large room as the kitchen, as I’m sure Meera and Evija will be able to tell you.

There’s a lot to think about when you’re renovating a kitchen: the colour, the style, the design. And you want to add a touch of your own personality to whatever you end up creating. There’s so many decisions to make and it could be the small details that take your kitchen from ‘meh’ to ‘wow’.

When you first decide that you want to renovate the kitchen, you may not know where to start or how to do it. When you’re ripping everything out and starting afresh, it’s overwhelming. So, here’s what you need to do.

 

Know what you’re looking for

To start with, you’ll want to make sure that you know what kind of thing you want to do. Do you need to knock walls down or extend the current space? Do you want new windows as well as the new kitchen.

What size and shape do you want the new kitchen to take: L-shape, U-shape or galley?

What style do you want. You could go bold with a mid-century kitchen or safe with a classic shaker style.

 

Ask the experts

Whether you’ve decided what you want, or just confused yourself more, you should look into asking the experts.

You may need to bring in residential architects to help you come up with the idea, or, you may want to hire a contractor or individual trades people. Either way, know who you need to work with to bring the design to life.

 

Set your budget

Before you get swept up in tile samples and tap styles, it’s a good idea to set yourself a realistic budget. Kitchen renovations can be pricey, especially when you’re starting from scratch. Costs can creep up quickly with unexpected extras like plumbing work, electrical upgrades or even just splashing out on those dreamy worktops you spotted on Pinterest.

Break things down into categories: cabinetry, appliances, labour, lighting, finishing touches. Then add a buffer—around 10 to 15%—for those little surprises that always pop up along the way. Having a clear budget helps you stay on track, avoids unnecessary stress, and lets you make decisions confidently without the dreaded mid-renovation panic.

 

Choose the right design

From here, you then need to choose what kind of design you want to go with. And this is often the most important part of all. You really want to make sure that you’ve set the right tone off with the fittings and fixtures. Yet when it comes to buying a kitchen, you’ll want to get this just right. Know what kind of design you want, and see if you can visualise it when you’re purchasing with the brand’s kitchen builder.

If you’re after a mid-century kitchen, take a look at my inspiration further down the page! And if you’re after beautiful interiors to go with your kitchen, you can take a look at some mid-century modern furniture by Two Seventy Nine.

 

Finish it perfectly

Once the new kitchen is installed and fits perfectly, then comes the fun part.

Because you may not be all that involved in the decorative process – fitting a new kitchen can be best left to the experts. However, when the bulk of the work is done, then you can get to work yourself!

Accessorising the kitchen is often the most fun of all. So, you’re going to want to think about what you can do to bring the space a live and give it some personality. Have fun, and make sure that the end result is the kitchen of dreams.

 

Mid-century kitchen inspiration

DeVOL’s Haberdasher’s Kitchen

This kitchen is truly for those that adore mid-century furniture and the feel of an English gentleman’s haberdashery or even a Victorian-esque pharmacist and medicine shop.

Deep grey walls only increase the moodiness of the space and add character to an otherwise plain and plastered room. The kitchen is full of small, but important, details, like the apron hanging in the corner and the small trinket bottles lined up on a shelf on the counter.

The kitchen was designed by DeVOL’s director, Paul O’Leary and makes use of oiled oak and glass to create the glass drawers that seem to hide all kinds of treasures waiting to be found.

This is not a kitchen for those who love clutter – the insides of every drawer is on show. This is for the minimalists who love neat, tidy, clean spaces and don’t mind the inside of their cupboards being on show.

The kitchen launched last year and was designed to bring nostalgia to the owner. It takes people back to the days of visiting traditional fabric shops, opening up glass doors and sliding drawers, row upon row of lift-up oak cubbyholes full of ribbons and buttons, patterns, fabrics and soft balls of wool. They always had a rich look to them with all the wood and dark moody colours, they also felt very organised and warm and inviting. This kitchen has brought all those lovely feelings and memories back and turned them into a really practical collection of cupboards that look so wonderfully atmospheric and are incredibly versatile.

 

Essential Home’s Dining Chairs

I love the Perry dining chair from Essential Home’s collection. It’s inspired by the typical mid-century style, and is made of walnut wood. The metal shoes on the legs provide a modern twist and add a kind of Scandi feel, making this chair the perfect addition to your dining room and kitchen.