A kitchen extension ranks excessive on many residence house owners’ renovation wishlist. Jennifer and David Livingstone, who stay in a five-bedroom Victorian terraced home in Surrey with their three younger youngsters, have been no completely different.
Whereas it had a beneficiant footprint, the couple needed to switch the present conservatory with an extension to create an open-plan kitchen and eating room that was extra family-friendly. This left them looking out for kitchen concepts that will incorporate the present furnishings with new options.
‘The kitchen was the explanation we purchased the home. It has a really excessive ceiling and a beautiful feeling of house,’ says Jennifer. ‘Like many households, we stay within the kitchen, so it made sense to us to place this room high of our checklist of priorities,’ she explains.
They enlisted the assistance of Rachel Scott, designer from Harvey Jones to grasp their imaginative and prescient and listed below are the 9 design secrets and techniques that gave the house a brand new lease of life.
1. Preserve the extension consistent with the type of the home
The one factor we stored in the home renovation was the kitchen, as a result of it was so fantastically strong and properly made, and we cherished its conventional type,’ explains Jennifer. ‘It was simply too good to throw away.’
To create a family-size eating space, adjoining to the kitchen, they demolished a lean-to conservatory and got here up with an orangery-style kitchen extension concept with a big roof lantern, which they constructed on the identical footprint.
‘The conservatory was too chilly in winter and too sizzling in summer time. This extension is way more snug and usable, and its type is extra consistent with the age of the home,’ she says.
2. Add banquette seating to hyperlink the eating and kitchen areas
Eager to incorporate some banquette seating within the new eating space, Jennifer made a telephone name to designer Rachel Scott of Harvey Jones, who had created the kitchen ten years beforehand.
‘Once I was a toddler, we rented a vacation home that had banquette seating across the eating desk and I nonetheless keep in mind pondering it was enjoyable,’ says Jennifer. ‘We are able to accommodate fairly a number of folks round our desk, together with further little bottoms, so it’s a versatile answer.’
Rachel got here up with the right banquette seating concept, consistent with that imaginative and prescient, linking it to the kitchen.
3. Use what’s there already
To finish the brand new look room, the beforehand cream-colored cupboards have been repainted in Farrow & Ball’s Robust White, to offer recent distinction in opposition to the pale blue partitions, glass handles changed with good polished chrome knobs, and two shades of gray used for quartz surfaces to switch the well-worn wood worktops.
‘I’m glad that now we have been in a position to recycle the kitchen cabinetry and hopefully give it not less than one other ten years of life,’ says Jennifer. ‘It’s a house that works brilliantly for our household.’
4. Create a work-from-home workplace nook
A neat desk makes a house admin centre within the kitchen, out of the best way of the principle cooking space, with a playroom across the nook in order that Jennifer and David can control the youngsters while on the laptop.
The highest drawer of the cupboard incorporates built-in sockets for charging telephones and tablets, whereas the cabinet under contains pull-out trays for the printer and paper refills.
The countertop is made in the identical quartz because the kitchen work floor – a intelligent strategy to incorporate a house workplace concept and make it really feel like a part of the kitchen.
5. Have a placing point of interest
The Mercury vary cooker has a five-burner fuel hob constructed into the chimney breast, forming the point of interest of the design.
A central island presents prep, storage and socializing house, bridging tall cabinetry with dried and chilled meals storage on one facet and the eating space within the new extension on the opposite.
6. Set up two wash stations for ease
For max flexibility in a busy household kitchen, a prep sink on the island is fitted with a faucet shelling out filtered, chilled and glowing water, in addition to ‘common’ cold and hot. ‘Considered one of us may be making drinks or cleansing greens right here, the opposite doing the washing up on the principal sink,’ says Jennifer.
The bigger principal sink has a ‘common’ kitchen faucet that additionally dispenses kettle-hot water, making it straightforward to shortly fill a pan with boiling water near the vary cooker. There’s a dishwasher positioned shut to every sink.
7. Match the seating with the kitchen cabinetry
The bench seating is designed with comparable beaded panels to match the kitchen cabinetry, with cushions made by an area upholsterer so as to add consolation. Wall panels above have been designed by Jennifer so as to add depth to the room and full the look.
8. Add storage in sudden areas
In addition to being a trendy spot for eating, the banquette additionally doubles up as a vital kitchen storage concept.
A shelving unit – designed to enrich the present cabinetry – has been constructed on the again, with a countertop for serving, so it acts as an ideal spot to retailer further crockery and cookery books.
9. Use completely different worktops to zone the house
Selecting a special shade to your island worktop helps zone the completely different capabilities within the kitchen. Right here, a darkish gray quartz island worktop from Caesarstone highlights the washing space and is an fascinating distinction in opposition to the sunshine gray within the prep areas.
It additionally provides definition to the light blue and off-white scheme, whereas pure heat comes from the oak flooring and bar stools
