Country style kitchen and bathroom renovation in Queensland

"Refresh Renovations bring good old-fashioned know-how to the table coupled with the integrity, patience, and understanding that paves the way for an excellent outcome" - Jennifer, the homeowner.

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Jennifer came to Martin Peirone, her local Renovation Specialist, with a dream she’d been sitting on for a while. She wanted to revamp her family home.
Situated in Austinville with surroundings of the beautiful Nimmel Mountain Range, this country-style home was built by her husband over 30 years ago and had plenty of character that was ready to be revitalised.

Initial Conversations

Though her husband was the original craftsman behind the excellent build, he didn’t want to take on the giant task of renovating. He also wasn’t as motivated as Jennifer to see the renovation happen… so she took the project into her own hands and began the process with Martin’s support.
Looking back on the overall ambition, Jennifer notes that “we wanted to modernise our thirty-year-old home and still retain the country charm.”
During the briefing stage, she discussed that the main areas that needed renovating were the kitchen and two bathrooms. With these in mind, Martin and his renovation team got to work on developing a concept and assessing feasibility.
Working with Sentimental Value
Because Jennifer’s husband had built the house himself, there was a lot of emotional attachment to the home. Having lived there for a few decades, she had developed her own ideas for renovating but didn’t quite know how to execute them with care.
Martin and his renovation team heavily considered this aspect throughout the design process. This helped them establish a secure project intention early on that focused on restoring - not replacing.

Fine-tuning to Budget

After concept designs were drawn up, the project became all the more real and exciting. However, the costings presented spanned a little too far beyond Jennifer’s budget.
As a solution, Martin and his team suggested restraining work on the second bathroom to a light makeover rather than reconstructing. By opting for this smaller renovation, she would have the funds available to get the ensuite and kitchen she really wanted while still modernising the second bathroom. Thrilled with this solution, they went ahead with the adjusted plan and a final budget of $52,747.

The Renovation

The kitchen was completely modernised while maintaining the country-style charm. Creating space for an island bench and unique timber barstools, builders extended the old kitchen flooring into the living room and replaced it with new slate tiling. This exquisite tiling was also installed in the ensuite and really established a rustic atmosphere throughout the home.
What followed was a full replacement of the plumbing and electrical along with an interior repaint in both the kitchen and ensuite. With these basic elements renewed, designer cabinets were installed featuring black composite stone benchtops in the kitchen and warm-toned timber benchtops in the ensuite.
For the second bathroom, the light makeover involved repainting the walls and bathtub, repairing tiles, and the new instalments of a shower screen, vanity basin, and lighting.
Though the project ran smoothly, Martin and his team did face a big challenge presented by Covid-19. Set to begin on a Monday, borders had closed the weekend before and subsequently blocked the construction manager from travelling to Queensland from his home in New South Wales.
But despite this challenge, the renovation team found a way to make the renovation happen as close to the timeline as possible. “They stand 100% behind their promises,” says Jennifer.

Final Thoughts

With the project complete, Martin says that he really loves the outcome and would be more than happy to have the kitchen as his own.
A perfect blend of modernity and country charm, the kitchen certainly did steal the show in this home’s refined renovation.
Elated with the final results, Jennifer exclaimed: “this is a team that deserves to be not only commended but also highly recommended...They listened, talked, designed and redesigned. They organised, managed, and coordinated. They turned the nearly impossible into the very possible. They brought thoughts into reality.”