The heart of the home

My kitchen

When I was pregnant with my son we were living in London

I wanted to move back to Wales to have my babies so they could have the green and outdoorsy upbringing that my husband and I had had growing up

As I was pregnant, changing jobs, moving house and city all at the same time we decided to buy a new house and then when we got settled and the baby was born spend our time looking for an older house with period features

We bought the house before it was built and had no real choice in the kitchen or bathroom (we had a choice between three or four really horrible kitchens) but we didn't really care as we intended to move within a year

Over twelve years later we are still here

This is why

my daughter, my sis, my nephew and his 'girlfriend' and my golden retriever's bottom yesterday

our home is in the middle of a forest and our house is two doors from a gate that leads into the forest

the house you can just make out in the background is next door but one to mine

We have extended, knocked down walls, added oak flooring, panelling to most of the walls in the house to give it the kind of character we like

the kitchen which was there was a limed oak effect plastic covered chipboard which I never bothered taking a photograph of

What we wanted was a simple, painted kitchen with modern appliances

We wanted the kitchen to look as though it was an old one we had 'tarted up'

We couldn't find what we wanted so drew it ourselves and had a carpenter make it for us about five years ago

we then had to find someone to paint it for us - we chose Farrow and Ball paint in White Tie oil eggshell for the unit and the same colour in Estate Emulsion for the walls

where the fridge ends there was a wall to a utility room which we had removed to make the kitchen bigger - the utility was a real dumping ground and a waste of good space

I really didn't want wall units as the kitchen is not a really big space but on the back wall there is a boiler so I had this concealed by a long cupboard with a matching one on the other side. Smaller cupboards and an open shelving unit kind of give it the feel of a dresser

on the long wall opposite the fridge we hung an antique French game shelf to store my collection of jugs

we had subway tiles in two shades of off white behind the sink and on the window sill and then beadboard put all around the walls to just a foot or so about the worksurface

On one wall we had beadboard put all the way to the ceiling so we could put a notice board and the children's pictures on it

we eat family meals at the dining table but my children have breakfast and do their homework here

I found the bench and the French game shelf at an antique shop in London but had gone there on a day trip on a bus and couldn't get them home

where there's a will there's a way

I bought them and they agreed to keep them for me until a few weeks later my sis and her husband were passing through London on the way to the Cotswolds for the weekend - they picked them up for us and met us in the Cotwolds - we drove there after work, had a quick drink with them then drove back

we got home around 1.30am and went to work the next day

I never let logistics get in the way if I want something!

Lucky me for having a husband who is willing to go with the flow!

as you can see I like hearts (padded, slate, twigs, heart shaped stones, Welsh love spoons..)

And finally the crap corner

I don't trust anyone who doesn't have a crap pile in their kitchen!