Kitchen update

*To set the scene, we’re currently 4 months into a whole-house renovation project and have 2 months left before we move back in*

5 years ago when we bought our house we instantly thought about making the “big room” the kitchen. A huge 6m x 8m room with 9ft high ceilings. It was a barely used room that was too big to be good at anything and ended up being a kind of multi purpose room. My desk in one corner, a playroom set in another, a way too small dining table in one part and formal seating in the rest. It kind of resembled a furniture warehouse 🙈

It also came with one of the worst ghost elements of it’s old shop heritage…2x humungous windows that sat right next to the road accompanied by 2x humungous and vile sets of net curtains. I’m actually almost vomming in my mouth at the memory of those curtains 😷 Unfortunately a neccessity if you required any privacy at all from passing prying eyes 👀

Here’s a before of when we first moved in and after so you can see just how big those ugly-ass windows were. We matched the sizing of the windows to the rest of the house so it looked in proportion but actually raised the base level of the ground floor road-side windows as they were shin height inside which was a total pain for furniture placement. We had beautiful sandstone heads and cills made to match exactly the original ones. Next job is to sand off the flaking black paint from the rest of the original ones.

Sooooooooo, now that the main structure is in place for this room, the fun can REALLY start 😄

When we first moved in to the house I started a pinterest board and the kitchen was pretty much the only thing I focused on. Back then it was all pale greys but the further I’ve got into the research process I’ve got the bolder I’ve got.

Our last house was done up to sell on so we were alllllll about the neutrals, and having not painted or done any kind of decorating for FIVE WHOLE YEARS I’ve got a very big itch that is crying out to be scratched.

Soooooo it might seem a little bold for a house in a village in the middle of nowhere but I am IN LOVE and I don’t care who knows it!!!!

And it’s a rich and dark love affair.

These images have featured massively in my inspiration and they all have incredibly similar features:

dark cabinets – detailed work top – brass accents – and a whole load of light

No matter how many times my head told me I should go for a light grey kitchen, my heart was skipping every time I looked back at these images.

And after months of agonising and painting a gazillion swatches I finally found ‘the colour’. My perfect cabinet colour is Farrow & Ball Railings, a deep blue/grey colour.

We have decided to make the walls neutral to emphasize the rich blue colour. Gray silky walls will blend perfectly with the marble style on the worktop. We are currently looking at using a professional company for the decoration. When you work with professionals such as Manhattan Painters you don’t need to worry about the result, you can just relax and enjoy the selection of colours and other designers’ details. Sounds like a pretty stress free process.

This will be accented with small brass handles, most probably in aged finish.

For flooring we have decided on engineered herringbone planks from Wood N Beyond. We are going for the Modena Oak in 90mm x 1000mm planks. This is quite a light and cool colour which will work perfectly with the coolness of Railings. Weirdly I decided on these long before finding the middle image above…but if it aint broke 😆

For worktop were going for a Quartzite which is harder than Granite and more stain resistant about also resembles marble in it’s striations.

What do you think? I’ll share taps and lights etc with you in my next post as I don’t want to bore you to tears 🙊

If you fancy following our renovation journey in more detail then have a look at my dedicated build Insta page @frillymrst_builds