In this year of change, our homes and in particular, our kitchens, have taken on new meaning as they become spaces that fulfil all our needs – an office, a classroom, a gym, a quiz night venue and, if you’re lucky, serving up Michelin quality food.
We are spending time and money on making our homes more pleasant places to be in and that means equipping them to fulfil their new roles. Even during the easing of lockdown restrictions, Google reported that searches related to home improvements such as “homemaking” and “interior decor” remained at much higher levels than 2019.
Could now be the time to rethink your kitchen living space?
With no idea of when things may return to some level of normality, it might be the right time to invest in your home and create the living space you’ve always wanted.
We’ve been building bespoke kitchen for over 40 years and the move from separate kitchen / dining / living rooms to a more open plan style of living, is evident in most projects we now carry out.
The kitchen living space is where family life takes place and with COVID restrictions and a more permanent shift to homeworking, that means being able to accommodate families as they work, study, eat and socialise, not to mention where the pets eat and sleep.
It’s important to design elements of the kitchen and living area so they work together within the available space.
When we create a design in conjunction with our clients we take them through a series of questions to tease out what they want so the living space works for them – from the more obvious choice of appliances and sinks to whether they want islands, larders, easy access storage and drawers or bespoke bookshelves, seating or anything else we can build. Our kitchens last a lifetime so it’s critical to get the design specification right.
And it’s not unusual to be asked back on a project when clients’ plans change or families grow. With one client, after building their first kitchen, they called us back 11 years later when they wanted to take down the wall between the kitchen and dining room to create a more open space.
The layout of the new kitchen was basically to follow the old kitchen but with a few additions and minor changes. Alongside the alterations in the existing kitchen, we created complimentary and matching storage on the dining room side, including a glass cupboard with pull out drawers to store those essential gin bottles.
Knocking out walls can reveal surprises. When we removed the old kitchen and the wall we discovered an old doorway. Not to be thwarted by the irregular space we designed a unit to make good use of the newly found space – the top became double doors with shelves; below, the drawers were very deep and went all the way into the corner.
To help the transition between kitchen and living space we built a raised oak worktop with a stunning illuminated light. Perfect for those lockdown kitchen discos.
We even created an area for the cat’s bed under a bookcase. The most important person in the house!
You can see images of the full project here.
If your plans have changed in this tumultuous year and you are rethinking about your kitchen and living space, we offer a free design consultation where we can chat about your ideas, plans and wishes.
Give Guy a call on 01730 894611 or contact us using our website form.
Here’s hoping we can help redesign your kitchen living space for the long term.
