Wednesday, April 22, 2026
It’s been exactly one year and two days since the last time I posted about the Kitchen Project and promised you an update… in fact, I started this series which I originally thought would turn into something bigger, on April 20th, 2025, and completely by coincidence, today, as I’m starting to write this, it’s April 22nd, 2026…
There were many reasons why I stepped away from the world of blogging, one of them being the publication of my book. But here I am, to update you on the changes we made—and to apologize in advance in case I repeat things I may have already mentioned, since some time has passed and I haven’t had the chance to go back and reread what I have and haven’t shared about the kitchen updates.
This time though, even if I’m late, I’m coming back with more photographic material even if I’m sure the final result might not be everyone’s taste, but that’s completely okay…
The reason? The absolute black…
The truth is that white cabinets combined with a black countertop and black tiles were the second option, something I’ve also mentioned before, as well as the fact that I couldn’t find a glossy black marble countertop anywhere (and I’ve mentioned that too—I didn’t need to reread it, I just remember it).
I’m sure there are options online, but choosing the countertop was something I wanted to do in person. Unfortunately, I either came across something that just didn’t fit, or nothing at all…
So we ended up with this particular countertop, and if you ask me, I’m both satisfied and not satisfied with it. It’s not marble, it’s not slippery, and it has a matte finish, so you can probably already imagine what that means… matte black equals more cleaning…
The second reason we ended up with this choice was that I couldn’t find the cabinets I wanted in absolute black. You might say, you couldn’t find black cabinets? That should be the easiest thing… and yet, we wanted to buy our kitchen cabinets from a specific store, and the only glossy options available were white, beige, and dark brown…
I won’t bore you with the intro any longer. Luckily for us, the house is quite bright, unlike what the photos might suggest now, and with the help of the LED lights we added (which also came in handy because of the dark color), things are a lot easier.
Below, I’ll share the kitchen photos with a few short descriptions and small additions that came up along the way…
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The right side of the fridge |
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| Coffee corner |
On this side, I also keep all the coffee machines, the kettle, etc., while in the lower cabinet we placed the microwave, both so it wouldn’t be visible and so it wouldn’t take up space…
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| This decorative hand holding the sponge is one of my most recent purchases, and I’m absolutely in love with it! |
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A gift we received for our new kitchen |
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The left side of the kitchen |
As I mentioned in my previous post, my husband paid a lot of attention to the details, like the way he applied the extra materials for a uniform finish around the tiles, how he shaped the corners, and the installation of the stainless steel underneath the cabinets. However, even though he carefully cut every corner with a special grinder, one mistake we made—and unfortunately it can’t be fixed without dismantling the kitchen again—is that we didn’t account for the thickness of the countertop, which ended up sticking out slightly from the cabinets, more than it should have.
But it’s okay, more surface area for me…
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Left column |
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LED installation on all the cabinets, on both sides |
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The result |
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A few more details |
Something else we hadn’t accounted for, but there wasn’t really anything else we could do about it, was the oven, which in the previous layout was not only different but also placed in another spot…
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| AEG sits in the premium mid-to-high range of kitchen appliances, offering strong performance and design |
My husband placed a thick piece of leftover wood underneath it to raise its height and also covered it with stainless steel.
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He covered some gaps between the cabinet and the wall. |
One more thing I think is worth mentioning is that the central shelf with the drinks above the window was actually made from four pallets from Leroy, which my husband cut and modified to create a single, unified shelf in the result you saw…
That’s it! I don’t know if I left anything out… but we’re not going anywhere, we’re here to keep talking!
Sunday, April 20, 2025
I’d been wanting to start a series of posts about the renovation of our new home since 2023, but life moves fast, work piles up, and somehow, the idea just stayed an idea. What I absolutely couldn’t skip, though, was sharing the transformation of our kitchen.
For our first makeover, we chose a white marble countertop for the kitchen — as you may have seen in some of my older food posts — matching marble tiles, and wooden cabinets that we had covered with a waterproof black wood-textured adhesive from Leroy Merlin. It was quite affordable, but surprisingly high-quality, with a textured finish that made it hard to tell it wasn’t real wood.
In my opinion, projects like this require patience, creativity, and time. Of course, it was a pretty exhausting and time-consuming process — one week off work wasn’t nearly enough for him to finish the project — but the result, and the money we saved, made it all worth it.
Aside from changing the layout, we also replaced the sink, installed new white lacquered cabinets, switched the tiles from white marble to black marble, and of course, changed the countertop. I won’t lie we searched all over Thessaloniki for a black marble one, but we couldn’t find one that matched exactly what I had in mind. After a lot of thought, we settled on one that looks like black stone, almost like granite.
He put in new edging strips that matched our new kitchen, installed cool white LED lights under each cabinet, filled the gaps between the tiles with grout, and added special mechanisms so the drawers and cabinets close softly and automatically.
Stay tuned for more updates and photos of our new kitchen.
The original layout of the kitchen was shaped like the Greek letter “Γ,” which I’d describe as an “L” turned upside down. From that initial layout, we decided we needed more space since we’re talking about a relatively small kitchen but its configuration allowed us to expand it into a “Π” shape (that’s how we call it here) that gave us much more storage, with plenty of drawers and cabinets.
I should mention here that both times, the renovation was done entirely by my husband. And honestly, he’s done an amazing job considering he’s not a professional. Aside from a few drywall additions we made to separate the lower level of the house from the upper one, everything was DIY. He measured and cut the cabinets precisely so they’d fit perfectly in place, installed the countertop, and laid the tiles with great accuracy.
Aside from changing the layout, we also replaced the sink, installed new white lacquered cabinets, switched the tiles from white marble to black marble, and of course, changed the countertop. I won’t lie we searched all over Thessaloniki for a black marble one, but we couldn’t find one that matched exactly what I had in mind. After a lot of thought, we settled on one that looks like black stone, almost like granite.
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The kitchen with the new cabinets before we changed the countertop and the tiles. |
He put in new edging strips that matched our new kitchen, installed cool white LED lights under each cabinet, filled the gaps between the tiles with grout, and added special mechanisms so the drawers and cabinets close softly and automatically.
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The opposite side of the kitchen before the upper cabinets and the range hood were added. |
Stay tuned for more updates and photos of our new kitchen.
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