How This Londoner’s Weekend Kitchen Refresh Turned Into a 4-Month Renovation

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Domino Reno: Before + Afters, DIYs, and Advice From the Pros

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OK so in a few years, Emily Jane Lathan and her husband Dan plan to turn their kitchen into a bedroom. In other words, they didn’t see the point in sinking a ton of time or money into a big overhaul right now. But as any seasoned renovator knows, once you start, things just snowball. What was supposed to be a weekend project—a coat of paint and some open shelves instead of upper cabinet doors—turned into a four-month ordeal involving stripped linoleum, a new butcher block counter, and a $3,900 budget. But Lathan insists it was worth it: “I had envisioned the initial changes would be temporary, but now I just love it.”

While Lathan is still debating whether to keep the 1970s bungalow’s original geometric carpet, the kitchen’s gray linoleum flooring was an immediate nope. Rather than layering more vinyl or tile on top, she was curious what was hiding underneath. “We should have torn it up first thing,” she says. “It made all the difference.” They were looking at 54-year-old hardwood planks in nearly pristine condition.

A deep sanding and an acacia wood stain were all it took to bring the planks back to their former glory. Lathan used the same finish (her go-to because it’s warm without being too yellow) on the $980 oak butcher block counters too.

After nearly two months of peeling old blue wallpaper off the walls, Lathan was left with uneven texture and a gaping hole where the old vent hood used to be. A simple paint job wasn’t going to cut it for warmth and visual interest. Instead she went with sheets of tongue-and-groove MDF painted snow white. “It was the perfect solution to cover all the new plaster’s imperfections,” she says. Not to mention it mirrors the existing paneling in the living room.

Lathan found a Smeg fridge on eBay (for only $430!) after she finally accepted that the lack of a real freezer in the original Kelly green appliance just wasn’t going to fly. The one issue? Positioning the fridge within the L-shaped cabinetry meant they’d run into it every time they walked in. Tucked into the far corner near the exterior door, it’s no longer in the way. Plus she loves how it looks when she’s sitting in the garden.

Overlooking the greenery, the glass doors let plenty of light into the space, but those rays were being blocked by a few pesky solid wood upper cabinets. They had to go. (An antique bookcase now displays her tableware collection instead.)

However, it wasn’t worth it to Lathan to tear out the rest just to replace them with IKEA boxes. “All of the frames were still incredible quality,” she says. Here, a $50 gallon of paint was the quick (and cheap) answer. Torn between marigold and sage, Lathan went with her gut and embraced the bungalow’s groovy past with a mustard coat on everything, including the new budget-friendly drawer pulls ($12 for a pack of 20). Golden hour, but make it all day long.

Kate McGregor covers everything related to the home, from design inspiration to IKEA hacks. She has been the market assistant at ELLE Decor where she focused on curating product for the print magazine’s market pages.

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