Never let it be said my blog posts aren’t concurrent with each part of our renovation project. We only finished the kitchen 18months ago. But better late than never, here is a blog post on our kitchen remodel and hopefully this will answer some of the FAQ’s.

Moving a kitchen into another room
We have in fact actually moved our kitchen. What used to be the kitchen is now our office. Both Mat and I work from home and wanted an office downstairs, therefore, we have turned what was the dining room into the kitchen and what was the kitchen into our office. I wanted to knock the wall through to open the space, but Mat wasn’t up for working from the garage.

As this room doesn’t have any exterior walls, we are semi-detached and the conservatory leads out from the kitchen, therefore, the trickiest part was getting waste and water out, but for those who often ask, it can be done.

Wooden Flooring
I do often get asked if there is anything I would change and I did always want stone flooring but last minute decided on wooden flooring as I felt the stone could be cold and we couldn’t justify the expense of underfloor heating. That said I do love the flooring.

Time: our friend kindly laid this for us and got it done over approx. 10 hours.
Cost: Unfortunately I don’t think most labours can be paid in whisky like our friend?
Flooring cost: After hours of searching, I went with UK Flooring Direct  I paid £35 per sqm and selected the engineered oak brushed flooring linked here.

Kitchen worktops; Mixing wood and Quartz
Mat wanted all wood, I wanted quartz, and therefore, being the compromising partner I am. I came up with the idea of having a mix of the two. The kitchen company we used were a local company called Design House, they sourced everything, but the kitchen tops came from their supplier – Meridian Stone.

Kitchen Cabinets
Again the kitchen all came from Design house. I wanted a modern country look and love different textures, therefore, decided to expose the fireplace and mix traditional country tops, with quartz to keep this fresh and bright. I went for a mix of colours on the cabinets; picking dark blue ‘charcoal’ for the island and ‘chalk white’ for all other cabinets.

Lighting
For me this is always a key element to a room, therefore, I wanted the various lighting to set different tones. I went for spots, under cabinet lighting, pendants and lighting above the cooker.  Chrome Spotlights: B&Q and Pendants: Next.

Brick Fireplace:
As the initial fireplace gap wouldn’t have fit the cooker size we wanted and also it was central, we decided to build this out, therefore, covered with brick slips.
Time: This took approx. 3 days
Cost: Aside from the labour costs, which was a day rate at 3 days. This will need to be checked. I chose the Victorian reclaimed brick slips and for the entire fireplace this cost £260. If you’re doing something similar, make sure you but the corners too.
Brick slips: I went for the Victorian Reclaimed Brick Slips linked here.  Each brick slip measures 76 x 225 x 20mm and there are 50 brick slips per m2. It costs £50 an m2.
Tiles: Laura Ashley tiles linked here.

What Paint is used in the Kitchen?
Wall Colour: Little Greene ‘French Grey Pale’
Ceilings: Dulux ‘Bright White’
Stools: Eico ‘Battleships’
Skirting: Farrow and Ball ‘All White’

Before and Afters