Kitchen diner

We used to flick through magazines ooing and ahhing at dream kitchen diners. And now, we have our own.  And we absolutely love it.

The space was created by knocking through a wall from the old lounge into the utility room.  A couple of  before and afters are here. The only thing we’re still waiting on is blinds – white Venetian.

If you’d like to know the paint colours check out this previous post.

Now, we’ll let the pictures do most of the talking – but, be warned, there’s a lot. I love loads of pictures on a blog, it’s so useful when trying to come up with ideas, so have echoed that here. Admittedly there are maybe a few too many……

Let’s get started at the dining room end:

Don’t you just love our slightly decadent chaise? Looking forward to using it, if we can ever get on it!

Here’s a few details from this end of the room:

We’re relieved that our choice of mismatch coloured dining chairs have worked out so well, it looks much more relaxed and less formal than having them all matching.  And, they’re exceedingly comfy! Our bespoke table is perfect too, with legs painted in the same colour as the kitchen island (Farrow & Ball Railings if you were wondering).

Our shelves provide plenty of space for Jude’s (ever-growing) collection of cookbooks and they also house Oly’s (ever growing) collection of vinyl.

There’s also enough room for both new and old knick knacks and vintage sentimentalities, like an Italian mug, battered but brought back from Italy by my grandfather after the war. Fast forward 60 years to Venetian glass brought back from Italy by Oly’s parents.

Did you notice the random snout shaped rock? It was found on Sand Bay beach in Weston-Super-Mare and proudly presented to my mum by Oly and his brother. She loved it, it made her laugh – so now it’s back with us to make us smile too.

Let’s move down the room towards the kitchen, past our breath-taking Lotus wallpaper.

Not the best pic of the cabinet when lit, but you get the idea – it looks incredible in the evening, the orange in the hand painted cocktail glasses really pops against the DownPipe grey interiors. The beautiful champagne saucers (top middle) belonged to my great-grandmother – we often wonder what stories they could tell.

How are you liking our granite? Ain’t she a beauty? We knew we wanted a light granite with some interest in it but not something that Oly eloquently described as “puke patterned”. We adore what we’ve ended up with and think it’s perfect with the grey cabinets and pewter handles.

Here’s a few details from the far kitchen end, including the ever-so-important Humphrey feeding station:

“You can never have enough kitchen storage” is what you always hear, well, actually you can, because now I do. I have a lot of stuff – ingredients, store cupboard essentials, pots, pans, serve ware and gadgets (Lakeland are my friends) and I’m happy to say it all now has a home.

I no longer have to grovel on my knees to fish something out of the back of cupboard and it’s small things that please me, like having all my baking stuff in one place.

I also have my ‘cooking essentials’ drawer, directly behind the hob. Hugely mocked by friends and family but it contains various oils, stocks and sauces and also alphabetised herbs and spices with room to grow. Please tell me someone else out there puts them in A-Z order?

You’ve made it to the end of the pics, well done!

We absolutely love it – the potential of this space was one of major reasons for buying this house and we’re so glad we followed our vision. Cheers!

PS:  If you’re Yorkshire based and looking for a bespoke kitchen (and interiors) company then we can (clearly!) highly recommend Rob Wordsworth who is based in Pool In Wharfedale, contact 0113 284 2730.

And if you need granite then look no further than Activ Design in North Yorkshire, just speak to the lovely, helpful Jo.

(Note, we’ve received no products, discounts or even boxes of chocolates for these endorsements, they are just genuine recommendations for incredible professionals.)

Addition (September 2014)

We were lucky enough to have a couple of professional pics taken of our kitchen. Who am I to deny readers?…..I think you can tell the difference between these shots and ours! Enjoy!