I'm generally one for creating a distinctive look and feel for each room in the house, but since we knocked down the dividing wall between the living room and the kitchen, the two rooms need to work together.
The north-facing kitchen's much brighter since we knocked through the dividing wall/Photo: Susie Lowe
In fact, we’ve done very little with the kitchen since buying the house – the cupboards and black granite work surface have remained – but we did remove the black floor tiles to reveal the original wooden boards (after three long days of chiseling, sweating and swearing).
In addition to removing the floor tiles, in terms of major kitchen changes, we have:
- Painted the walls in F&B Manor House Gray, and the woodwork in White Tie, to match the living room
- Removed the built-in fridge in favour of a pale blue retro Smeg (I wanted a pink one but PHH vetoed – he was probably right but don’t tell him I said so)
- Swapped the halogen lights for an IKEA pendant that matches the one in the living space
- Designed a breakfast table to wrap around the archway and provide cupboard storage on the living room side. This was created by the talented Scottish furniture maker Christopher Butler
Looking south from the kitchen towards the family living room/Photo: Susie Lowe
Other things we've done:
- Chucked in a rug from Anthropologie, which works nicely with the blue/green/orange colour scheme (the Pink House Mother thought this rug was doomed to be covered in food/kitchen crap, but it has remained remarkably unscathed, partly because it washes well in the machine
- Painted the underside of the archway gold
- Hung our vintage Rockett St George ‘Archway Station’ bus blind above the new archway (see what I did there)
- Concealed the new boiler in a cupboard by the window, which we covered in Cole & Son’s Woods wallpaper, with a brass fox knob from Anthropologie
- Suspended the Buster+Punch black-and-brass Hooked pendant light above the table
- Added two orange Kartell Masters chairs, and a walnut-veneered Fritz Hansen Dot stool which is handy for supervising kids' tea time, and tucks under the table when it's not being used. It's also the comfiest stool I've ever sat on.
- Replaced the existing chrome taps with a beautiful brass mixer from Barber Wilsons (we used the same company for the bathroom taps etc) - I'm not ashamed to say I would sell my children for this tap; luckily it didn't come to that
The boiler is now concealed in this cupboard, which is covered in Cole & Sons' Woods wallpaper/Photo: Susie Lowe
When it’s the kitchen’s turn for a proper overhaul, there are LOADS of things I’d love to do – I’ll write a dedicated post on this soon (clue: there will be lots of brass).
