Kitchen progress notes

Well, we're half way through the kitchen installation (I hope!), so I thought I'd provide an update on progress. It's been pretty smooth so far, mostly. Glitches have at least not been down to me, which is always nice. For example, our builders' boss estimated I'd need four square metres of tiles, turns out I'll need five. But of course no one thought to tell me that until after I'd placed the order with the tile shop. Still, panic over, all tiles are now safely in my possession. One other problem is the back door - it's not very secure, and needs replacing, but apparently our door frame is very narrow, and none of the doors I want come in the right width. We've also had issues in trying to work out how to make the worktop go round a corner without it looking like a botch job - turns out there was only one way to do it, so that's now it is. And it looks fine, which is lucky.

One issue to be dealt with later this week is the larder cupboard pull out which the builder justs seems to think won't work - ironic really since in our last kitchen I tried to have a pull out larder cupboard which didn't really work, so we ended up with deep shelves and kept losing things at the back. I can see history repeating itself.

The look we've gone for is modern country kitchen with a touch of comedy. We like to be original after all. I'll save the full unveiling for a subsequent post, but here's a couple of pics to whet the appetite. This first shot is a close-up of the tiles we eventually chose, after much deliberation. They were actually among the first ones we looked at, and are very similar to what we had in our old kitchen, except in that case we chose cream and blue. They're arranged randomly - 60% off white, 25% ruby (the dark red), and 15% raspberry. The comedy element of the kitchen is also reflected here - there are nine tiles featuring different bugs. We just couldn't resist.


So, we went expensive with the tiles, but slightly less so with the worktops. In theory both of us liked the idea of wood, but the thought of the practicalities really put me off. As well as the cost, of course! I did some research online which described how real wood worktops need oiling every three-six months, and I was just too worried about damaging them by accidentally putting down a hot pan, or putting something wet down on the surface and leaving a ring. And I don't want to worry about these things, I want to cook and enjoy and live calmly in my kitchen. So, nix to the wood. Instead we went for a wood effect laminate called walnut block, which is a lovely colour, and should be a lot more user friendly. Here's hoping...!