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At the end of September we embarked on the building work needed to knock our old kitchen and utility room into one room.  In between the two was a large chimney breast which was a unit’s width in depth and took up quite a lot of space.  Having work done on this sort of scale and to such an important room is never going to be stress free, but I felt that I coped quite well with the building work.  The lowest point for me came the day that the building work was finished and the kitchen units had been delivered.  Our kitchen floor had to be resurfaced so nothing could go into the kitchen while that was done.  Our conservatory was piled high with units and work tops, but that was ok as we didn’t need to use that room.  The problem came when there wasn’t enough room for all the units and some needed to go into another room.  It had to be either our dining room or our living room. Our dining room was set up as a temporary kitchen, but that’s where the units ended up.  It was hard trying to cook around all these units, but by the next evening they had gone.

 

After that it all got easier.  Units started to go in; the kitchen took shape; we had a kitchen sink again.  Just need to think about whether to purchase a splashback now. It was still disruptive, but we could see progress: the end was in sight. Now our kitchen is fully fitted and we have the floor tiles down too.  Most of the cupboards have been filled with our things and there are just a few things left to finish off.  Decorating is going on this week, so hopefully I’ll have some finished kitchen pictures to share with you soon.

George Home recently asked me to take a look at their site and it will be no surprise to regular readers that I felt drawn to the kitchen section. As we are in the midst of redoing our kitchen at the moment, it’s very much an area where I am looking for design inspiration and some special touches, so I’ve been putting together my very own kitchen wish list.

For me a kitchen has to have a clock. From a practical perspective, it’s good to be able to time your cooking, for example if baking times are key. But a clock is also a stylish accessory and looks good hung up on the wall.  This one from Jones Clocks has a 1950s feel and is based on school clocks from that era.  Perfect if you are going for a 50s vibe or want to add a slightly masculine touch to an otherwise feminine kitchen say.

For me, kitchen storage should be pretty enough to be left out on display.  Glass containers are top of my list because they look good and you can see what’s inside saving valuable cooking time.  I also like these clip lid jars with their pastel coloured tops.  Or this heart jar with a screw top lid is very cute and would be perfect for storing smaller quantities.  It would be great if you wanted to make a feature of your storage too by putting it on display.  Perhaps you could use it to store something pretty like sprinkles.

Being practical doesn’t have to mean that an item lacks in style.  This multicoloured chopping board set looks great, but it really helps with food hygiene too because you use a different coloured board for a each food group. A lot of attention to detail has gone into the design of these with their coloured handles to make it easy to pick out the board you require and their sturdy stand to keep them in.

 

 

Ever since we moved into our house, 3 years ago next month, we have been keen to replace the kitchen.  We knew when we viewed the house that we would not be happy with the kitchen for long.  It’s not our style, it’s too fussy and dark, plus it had seen better days.  There are plinths missing and there are lots of dust traps on the decorative carving.  It’s a nightmare to keep clean.  So after 3 years we finally have the money to realise our dream.

Living with the kitchen for a few years has helped us crystallise what we really want from our space.  We have the advantage of having already refitted a kitchen at our last house. From that experience we’ve learnt a lot.  We know what sort of cupboards and cabinets we liked, what worked well, what didn’t and what we’d like more of.  Our larder cupboard was a big hit at the old place and we wished we’d had two as not all our food fitted into the one larder.  So this time we are having two.  Ditto to wide drawers.  We loved these before and now we are going to have two sets.

For a long time we couldn’t decide whether we wanted to knock the kitchen and utility into one.  As we have to walk through our utility room to get to the conservatory, it’s never been the sort of space where you could just hide things away behind a closed door.  Opening up the room means more space as we lose a closed up chimney breast from the old range and more light as there’s a big window in the utility.  The kitchen tends to be a bit dark as it is west-facing, but the sun is often hidden by the side of the neighbouring house.  The utility room window doesn’t suffer as badly with this and gets quite a lot of light.

As we are keeping the fireplace in the room above, we are having some steels put in to support the chimney and so it’s a major building job.  Work starts on Friday in earnest and I’m both dreading it and looking forward to it.  I’m not keen on the idea of camping out in our dining room while we have no kitchen.  That said I am longing to say goodbye to the hideous rustic chimney hood above our cooker.  I’m keen to have a hob on which all the burners work.  I’d like to have plinths on the bottom of my units, so that dropped items don’t roll underneath them.  Good riddance to the nasty handles that are quite easy to painfully catch yourself on.  Goodbye to cupboard doors that keep falling off.  Farewell old kitchen – I’m glad to see the back of you.