High street kitchens

I had taken a good look at the handmade kitchens available to get some much needed inspiration for my own kitchen. This is my first ever kitchen of my own so I did not want to make any mistakes both practically and expensively. Now I had to get realistic and look at the high street kitchens available within my budget (which wasn't vast!). You may notice some similarities between the kitchens.


I looked at B&Q


 I looked at Wickes






I looked at Magnet
 

I looked at Howdens
 

I looked at Ikea
 
Images: B&Q, Wickes, Magnet, Howdens, Ikea

I was surprised by how nice these kitchens were and all the nifty gadgets they contain. Kitchens have come a long way! Drawer dampeners stop drawers smashing back into their units, metal basket drawers, pop up plugs, pull out larders, islands, even dishwashers and fridges that are housed in drawers! It's quite amazing really and I can understand how people can spend so much on kitchens when you look at what is available. My favourite kitchens were narrowed down to Howdens and Ikea. However as you have to use a builder to buy a Howdens kitchen and we wished to cut down costs by installing the kitchen ourselves I went with Ikea. What I have noticed about kitchens is the fact that stores are very vague with their pricing (another reason why I went with Ikea as I wanted to know exactly what everything cost). If you are considering purchasing a kitchen yourself it maybe worth getting quotes from all stores you are interested in purchasing from and then use these quotes to make the stores compete for your sale. I have heard that some people have had good reductions doing this. Also another way to reduce the cost is to offer to pay cash if a percentage is taken off the total cost of the kitchen - anything is worth a go as it's a very expensive purchase!

Kitchen inspiration

As previously stated our kitchen was in need of a complete overhaul. As this is our first house and I have never bought a kitchen before I started to browse the Internet for some inspiration. I started with handmade kitchens in order to see how the professionals design kitchens (and to see the most beautiful styles available!).

 

 

Images: freddavisjoinery.co.uk, harrisonpope.co.uk, chalon.com, handmadekitchen.co.uk, touchwoodkitchen.co.uk

These kitchens all look amazingly beautiful as well as practical. They feel homely and not severe. I can imagine baking a cake or making a cup of tea and relaxing. Of course this was all wishful thinking as everybody would love a beautiful handmade bespoke kitchen but of course that beauty costs. So I used these images as a starting point for my own kitchen. By taking ideas from the kitchens I could start to build a plan for my own. I noticed that I liked the more classic style of kitchen, the shaker style of kitchen door, deep drawers rather than cupboards, white / cream / green door fronts, double ceramic sinks with a chrome high spout tap, wooden worktops, an island and a range cooker. Now came the tricky job of finding these styles within a high street kitchen at a decent quality and a price I was willing to pay - a tall order indeed!

Old kitchen

Our kitchen was a right nightmare. It had been installed in the 80's and was in need of a complete overhaul. There was awful vinyl on the floor that was sticky to walk on and was ripped in sections so we would often trip up. The grill had stopped working, well to be honest it would set fire which meant it was too dangerous to use and then the oven only worked on the one side which meant moving our food round constantly to evenly cook it and hence doubling the cooking time. We did not have enough storage so it always looked messy and the cabinets had no backs and there were often creepy crawlies in our crockery - yuck! For a temporary measure when we first moved in we replaced the cupboard doors which were bought at a very cheap price (£1 a door!).

However this could only last so long. This year we decided that we needed a new kitchen so I started to look.......

Sunny front room

I thought I'd share with you a picture of my front room in the pretty morning sunshine.

We have been renovating our little Victorian terraced house slowly over the past few years and currently our kitchen and bathroom are looking a little 'worse for wear'. So being in this room in the sunshine makes me feel I can pretend we are living in a nice clean house and feel proud of what we have achieved so far. We have gone for the country cottage / shabby chic / period look to try and tie in with the age of the property but still have a modern and homely feel. This room started off with white walls, a horrid blue carpet and somebody had painted the beautiful bird tiles on the fireplace a garish blue - urgh!

Sorry about the naff photo quality - but you get the idea! It took a lot of scraping to remove that blue paint and recover the birdies. After this we painted the walls. We painted the wall behind the dresser and the chimney breast in Farrow & Balls 'Cooking Apple Green'. F&B describe this as "An old fashioned non-strongly coloured green.." I agree as it's a beautiful putty green that's very calming and pleasant to live with. We teamed it with F&B's 'Lichen' in the alcoves (behind the shelves) & the wall opposite the chimney breast (not seen) this is described as "Quieter and subtler than No.13 Olive for well lit rooms". This is again beautiful but darker than the cooking apple green so provides a subtle contrast and plays with the light in the room (we get the light in the mid morning, late afternoon & evenings). We used the estate emulsion as this gives a very matte finish. If you are considering using Farrow & Ball paints I would strongly recommend buying a tester pot first, I know they're expensive (I have found them £3.99 from Homebase or they can be bought directly from F & B or other suppliers) but the colour changes so drastically depending on the light and time of day as an example I have loved a colour in one room and hated it in another. I'm not linked to F & B in any way I just love the quality and coverage of the paints plus they do not have that horrid 'chemical' smell that many other paints have and thus do not give me any headaches.

After this we sanded and varnished the original floorboards (120 years old!)  which added a beautiful warmth to the room. I do have to warn you that this is very very messy but worth it in the end!

The TV stand was an up-cycled piece that the OH's grandad had made in the 1970's. We gave it a few coats of F & B's Tallow eggshell and it was as good as new. Tallow is described by F & B as "Warm. A light off-white with a yellow tint" This is indeed a very mellow creamy colour that has not been picked up by the camera very well.

The meter cabinet had a vile mahogany effect varnish on it which was promptly covered by F & B's Tallow eggshell.

The pine dresser started off as a vile orange junk shop find which I sanded back, painted in F & B's Tallow (again!) and applied Danish oil to the knobs and top of the dresser. I now love it and feel proud of what I have achieved (this was my first attempt at up-cycling).

We still have plenty of things to do in here such as install a wood burner, paint the shelving (though I'm not sure whether to keep the shelves in here yet) and construct a better meter cabinet (this is just left to the guitar). But for some reason it feels like a lovely calm room. Sorry for the very long ramble it's just I'm spending a lot of time propped up in this room following spraining my back and even though I'm in pain this room as well as the people (and cat!) I love around me have all helped me to smile.

Take care x

Ooooppps!

O dear what have I done?!

There I was innocently chewing on my muesli and sipping my orange juice browsing the Internet when I just happen to pop onto the NEXT website. I also just happen to look at the daybed section and saw this beauty.




Isn't it lovely?! It would be perfect for our guest bedroom. It has a gorgeous Laura Ashley feel to it with a much lower price tag of £150!!! Of course that's without the mattress and the trundle beneath but that's still a very good price. NEXT just happened to sell a single mattress for £100 so that's £250 for both!! Wowwee! (I would have to save for the trundle at a later date as that would be another £200). Now I just went to the checkout and registered my details and double clicked continue. Then what happened? I received confirmation that the order was complete and the expected delivery time. WHAT?!!! I hadn't paid for it yet! Well I've never bought from the Next website before and it turns out you do not pay for your order until you  receive the goods. O dear! I phoned customer service and explained that I had not meant to order at that point and was told it was too late to cancel the only thing I could do would be to refuse delivery when it arrived. Not likely! So even though I've been caught out by being a bit too generous with my clicking there is no way I could turn this beauty away! The only problem now is that we have no space whatsoever at the moment due to renovating our kitchen and bathroom so the other half is going to roll his eyes and go "Now where are we going to put that?!" 

 Even Pip's havin to find what little room there is (in guitar cases) to get comfy!

Sew? Yes please!

Yay! I'm all excited today. Look what the lovely postman gave to me this morning!!!

Well I must admit I had purchased this book last week on Amazon so I did know that it was due to arrive at some point. But wow I'm so glad it's here! This book is sooo cute! In case the cover did not give it away this book is called 'Sew' by Cath Kidston.

Inside the front pocket contains all the material and buttons needed to complete the sweet little bag on the front cover - why thank you Cath!

There are also detailed  instructions of how to stitch the cotton pieces together. I find it amazing that these little pieces of material make a bag.

There are 41 projects in total in this book with an accompanying pattern sheet to trace to cut your material. As well as instructions for each project there is also an introduction to your essential equipment, sewing machines,  hems, seams, edgings, fastenings, ties, handles, applique, quilting and decorative details - phew! This is a lot to take in for a novice! I have noticed that the majority of the projects require a sewing machine. My mom has kindly offered to lend me hers before I make an investment myself (thanks mom!). I am very excited about this book and so is my mom who's a seasoned sewer so I suppose this book suits the beginner and the more experienced sewer.

 Until next time take care

Suffering with migraines

I thought I would share with you my experience of migraines and how I have helped to reduced them. Please do not confuse migraines with very bad headaches as they are actually a different condition. Where as headaches will indeed be very painful and make it difficult to carry out daily activities migraines are much more debilitating.

From the age of 13 I have suffered with migraines. These are migraines with aura. This means that before a migraine starts I will get flashing lights and my vision will distort in my left eye (much like a kaleidoscope). This can be scary and as I can't see properly I have never learnt to drive through fear of losing my vision whilst driving. After 5 - 10 minutes the same thing will happen to my right eye which means I won't be able to see properly at all. I will then start to get 'pins and needles' up and down my arms, hands, head and even my tongue. After 30-45 minutes of this I will start to feel pain in my head which will be so intense it will make me feel very sick. This can last for days. My temperature will also drop and I will be freezing. The only thing I can do after this is lie in bed in a dark room. Now painkillers I have found don't really do anything. I have tried Paracetamol, Ibuprofen, Aspirin, Migraleve, Sumatriptan and Co-codemol.

After many years of badgering doctors to help me with my condition I was referred to a neurologist. I was prescribed Beta- Blockers called Proprenolol (which did not work), medication for epilepsy called Topiramate (which did not work - but some migraine sufferers actually have epilepsy so it maybe worth getting this checked out) and anti depressants that also did not work. During this time I cut out cheese, bananas, red wine and chocolate from my diet. I was told by my neurologist at the age of 25 that my migraines were probably caused by my getting older and stress. When I said that I had suffered from 13 he said it may have been caused by hormones.

Now at this time I didn't know what to do. The medication had given me terrible mood swings and my weight had initially dropped with the Topiramate and then increased considerably with the anti depressants (these anti depressants actually seemed to make me feel depressed probably because I wasn't depressed to start with) . Plus I was still getting at least 3 migraines a week with no distinct pattern which made it difficult to work.

Then I moved out of my parents house and in with my partner. He started to notice that I would seem to get migraines 2 days after popping around my mom and dad's for tea. So I started looking at what I would eat round my parents and started to eliminate these foods one at a time from my diet. I found my culprit after a year - GARLIC! Now I love garlic but found whenever I would eat it, 2 days later I would get  a migraine. So I no longer eat garlic and after the last 2 years I have had about  6 migraines - result! I have also found that parsley, coriander and Asian spices can bring on migraines.

I'm sorry for rambling on but after years of suffering I would have been willing to try anything so if there's anybody out there in the same position I would urge you to give this a try as it may help you and doesn't cost a thing.
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