If you’ve been following me on Instagram stories of late then you’ll know that over the last month I’ve turned into a bit of a decorating ninja! I’m not sure what comes over me sometimes, but what started with the garden makeover turned into a refresh on the stairs (both paint colours, this time without decorators tape) which then morphed into repainting the walls on both floors of the hallway, the bathroom walls and woodwork, and before I knew it each room in the house was looking refreshed and polished with one exception. The kitchen.

The kitchen is the sad room in our house. There are things I like (the floor, the worktop) and things I definitely don’t (the textured faux wood doors are top of the list, bad spatial planning not far behind). So when I discovered the GoodHome by B&Q store format, offering a new way of shopping for home improvement projects,  I was intrigued. When I saw the six adverts at our local station I was even more surprised to discover that this new venture was starting in the town we live in, before being rolled out! To my knowledge nothing ever comes to Wallington first, although I do hear stories of early David Bowie concerts in our enclave of deepest south London. So this is rather exciting. GoodHome by B&Q has a super user-friendly design, without loads of overwhelming aisles,  so you can browse and pick items from the onscreen monitors, with over 6,000 core products immediately available. You can also consult with a GoodHome by B&Q expert on your decorating needs and get paint matched on site.

There is a real versatility of offering, not only are there a wealth of useful core products instore alongside helpful advice from easily visible staff, but you can also order in for five minute click and collect on over 6,000 items, with the option to order in for next day collection or delivery on thousands more. This kind of convenience is dangerous for me, I may have repainted the whole house by the months end! So, when tasked to trial the new GoodHome by B&Q store with a small home improvement project there was one area I had to the forefront of my mind – the kitchen.

I have a lot of ideas for the kitchen as it’s next on my list to tackle, but I knew that before any of the more major changes could take place I’d needed to repaint the room. Happily I want to keep the same colours I already have, but this room was first painted three and a half years ago, and with a hectic family life and constant cooking, the paint has really taken a toll! There are stains everywhere, icky ones with cooking fat, smudgy ones from toddler hands, and perhaps the ceiling which has taken a hit from the cooking and a previous bathroom leak worst of all.

Now, I already had enough wall paint left over for the walls but the ceiling I wanted to get the best white I could. The ceiling needs to be wipeable as it takes such a battering from frying pan spit (are we alone in this? Perhaps we’re using too much olive oil…) but also this is a relatively dark north facing space at the back of the house and it doesn’t have the high ceilings of the rest of the house. After talking to one of B&Q’s instore experts I went for a ceilings paint in satin with a slight sheen from the new GoodHome paint range. Now, if you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ll know that I’m very into the chalky look with paint so this was testing my natural ground, but I’m so pleased that I was brave and went for it. I had been assured that the light wouldn’t pool as it does with gloss, instead this wipeable surface gently bounces the light around in harmony with the natural light at different times of day. And it makes such a difference!

Seeing that GoodHome by B&Q stocked the Purdy range of premium brushes and rollers that I’m always hearing such rave reviews of, I picked some of these up to try and was seriously impressed. With core staples on hand in the new store, I picked up all the essentials I would need for the project, including dust sheets, in one quick and easy click and collect transaction. And whilst I was in store I also browsed the digital displays for kitchen inspiration and picked up some hooks for the summerhouse, it feels very customer focussed, and there was a wealth of bases covered from the quick pick up to the more detailed consultations and colour matching service. As I said in the opening, we don’t get many firsts in Wallington, but this one is a keeper, anything that allows me to cut out the searching in endless aisles in home improvement stores is a winner.

GoodHome by B&Q opened this month at 31-35 Stafford Road in Wallington with the grand opening today. It is open 7 days a week and you can find all the store details here.