Taking on a dark and dingy kitchen, Caroline Hartley injected life and colour by moving it to a lighter space and going bold with two-tone cabinets
WHATEVER THE WEATHER, MY KITCHEN FEELS
My problem kitchen
Although we loved the house and the beautiful extension we inherited, the dated kitchen wasn’t to our taste, but we lived with it for several years. Its original position was in the old part of the house. The layout was awkward, with lots of small corner cupboards, and it was dingy and drab.
How I made it work
We wanted to create a light-filled kitchen, which meant we’d need to move it from the dark corner space into the extension and create a more functional kitchen-diner. We also reconfigured the layout of the downstairs to incorporate a utility room, pantry and snug for the kids to hang out in.
My favourite part
The kitchen island – and the number of cupboards we now have! Cooking is a joy as the island has so much space, and I love the colours in here. It was a daring choice for us but has worked a treat. The kids also love having friends round as they can eat at the island or the table, which now feels more inclusive.
Even though this house, and the extension done by the previous owners, was fabulous the kitchen was a bugbear and we knew we’d need to change it at some point. It was originally located in the darkest part of the house, and it was almost like a corridor. The breakfast bar seating faced into the house, and we felt like we always had to have the lights on as it was so gloomy. My kitchen felt very far away from the sunny garden!
We lived with it for a few years but it was gradually falling apart, so we knew it was time to upgrade. We needed to make some other layout changes to the ground floor, to create a snug for the kids, so we decided to do the kitchen at the same time.
After living with the drab old one for so long, the main goal was to make the new kitchen as light as possible, plus we wanted it to have a well-organised layout for cooking. So, we moved it closer to the doors out to the garden, and chose to have the units along one wall, with a long island with a breakfast bar.
We needed to raise the island because there was underfloor heating at that end of the room. Luckily, my brother is a fabricator so his company, Metal Solutions, designed and built a frame for us to attach the units
