Finally, our hand built kitchen is ready to reveal. We have had so much fun being able to cook and move around freely in here that this post has been a long time coming, thanks again for waiting! This project has been so much fun and the best bits have been finding and rescuing all the materials to make this space unique to us.
We made almost everything ourselves (apart from the electrical items, hardware and the base units). Using reclaimed wooden floorboards and recycled crates cut down for the shelves, old pipes from under the floors for curtain and hanging rails and one of my favourite things – oak laths from a local restoration centre for a rustic look to conceal our over hob extractor.
This is a super sunny south facing room which is flooded with sunbeams, so we will be adding more linen curtains over this picture window that looks out over our garden. I am going to use the same method of hanging clips to clip the curtains half way up so we don’t lose our whole view.
I have battled my inner demons to leave our cookery books exposed – the multi coloured-ness of them all lined up makes me a bit crazy but they are the pages we leaf through every week. Recovering them all in brown paper to be matching seemed a step too far for things that will be used day after day. But – I might still do it ;)
The open shelves have been brilliant and all the things on them are in heavy rotation, so no time for too much dust to gather. Dean’s coffee paraphernalia takes up one tidy shelf while my tea is spilling down to a second shelf. I do like to have all the loose tea one woman can drink available to me though. This month’s favourites are a chai blend from Steenbergs and Earl Grey from Newby.
Having all our bowls and glasses ready to grab in easy reach has worked out really well, these are the things that we use most days and never have to rummage in a cupboard for (all the rest is is a lovely cupboard in the living room).
In the attic I found some old ceramic jars that we had bought years ago in a local junk shop – perfect for keeping our teaspoons and chopsticks at the ready. The crate was a welcome gift from our estate agent when we moved in here almost six years ago. We sawed it in half and made two shelves, then stained that and the oak laths for the cooker hood with a home mixed blend of Annie Sloan chalk paints, water and dark wax to match the old reclaimed wood shelves. I think it came out pretty similar!
Trying not to dent and mark our beloved handmade elm worktops has been quite the challenge. At first we were a bit too precious about it – but we have eased up on ourselves and given in to the marks and patina that daily use over time will inevitably bring.
The chalk paint on the cupboards is also getting a bit worn with use but for now, we like that aged look and it just makes room to repaint them in another colour maybe in the future?!
I really don’t mix well with technology, but understand we need certain things to abide by building regs and obviously cook and keep our food chilled so we have minimal electronics and have hidden what we couldn’t live without. The cooker hood seemed huge but now it’s hidden within a custom built box and clad with these oak laths I love it.
It as a very satisfying job to gently knock all the tacks in a row at just the right height and the sides are made from so ply off cuts which I stained to match everything else.
The table and chairs are a random assortment, the bistro chairs were picked up over the years or given to us and the pine farmhouse table was grabbed in desperation on Christmas Eve last year when we happened to be visiting a local garden nursery. It was a serendipitous find as we had a new kitchen, guests coming over and nowhere for them to sit or eat!
The wonky shelves where we keep all our favourite collected ceramics and pottery pieces are made out of a fallen eucalyptus tree that fell down in our garden in a storm the year we moved in. We saved it and took it to a local sawmill, who planked it for us. We then stored it for three years to dry and finally now have made something useful out of it. As you can see the wood is slightly buckled and wavy but I love that – even if it does make taking level picture hard.
We have swapped out our grey linen curtains for natural ones as coming into autumn and winter we need as much light as possible. They are already lifting the mood in here on dark rainy days.
I always get asked where we bought the light – it is the Fowey Pendant from Rowen and Wren (and I think it is now half price) I almost did a cry when I found out!
It has been great fun filling this room with love, food and what we think are beautiful things, made by us or given to us by lovely friends and family. Please don’t think I am tidy, the table has never been so clear and behind the scenes is always mayhem. It’s very nice to treat myself to some flowers and actually be able to make the most of them – within a couple of days they will be swirling in a sea of books, papers, twigs and other nature finds, sourdough starter and soaking grains. Come back soon as I will be sharing our bedroom in all its new moody glory. Another room that had long been neglected, we made do for a long time – but now it is a cosy haven away from work. Just need enough sun to take some pictures now!
