Family is normally the guiding energy behind a renovation enterprise – in any case, all of us want a dwelling that lets us loosen up and spend time collectively.
For lots of households, the motivation for a kitchen renovation is to create an space the place family and mates can accumulate to share a meal and the place youngsters can play or do homework whereas their dad and mother cook dinner dinner.
With a view to create their dream family kitchen, Olive and Hugo Customer – with the help of designers at Neptune – sought to rework a former stables proper right into a spacious kitchen-diner.
Designing the correct kitchen
‘We wished to create a haven for our family that felt warmth and alluring,’ says Olive Customer. Nonetheless, their dwelling, Glebe Stables, was an incredible distance from this imaginative and prescient when she and her husband Hugo took over the property in 2020.
‘Until the Fifties it had been the stables for the Georgian vicarage, Glebe Dwelling,’ Olive explains. ‘Throughout the Nineteen Eighties, Hugo’s dad and mother had turned it proper right into a residential outbuilding – the hay loft was reworked into two bedrooms, whereas the outdated regular beneath grew to develop into the storage with a very small kitchen house. The place our new kitchen extension is now had as quickly as been the pig sties.’
Extending the world
(Image credit score rating: Neptune)
With a view to acquire their dream, Olive and Hugo deliberate the two-storey extension to create a model new mild and spacious typical kitchen, plus two new bedrooms and a bathroom above.
‘We reside in an house of wonderful pure magnificence so planning can be extended,’ says Olive. ‘It took spherical two years to get planning permission for the extension and one different yr for the assemble.’
(Image credit score rating: Neptune)
An island was a should have
(Image credit score rating: Neptune)
One vital issue of creating their dream family-friendly kitchen was a multi-purpose island.
‘Not solely would not it current space for us to prep, however as well as someplace for family craft initiatives and for the boys to play. They’re 4 and two years outdated, and we love cooking with them – baking biscuits, rolling out pasta – and normally getting very messy,’ says Olive.
‘Having an enormous kitchen island space along with considerably seating and consuming house means we are going to all reside, play and work collectively in a technique that doesn’t actually really feel like we’re all on excessive of each other.’
Creating an Italian-inspired kitchen
(Image credit score rating: Neptune)
When it bought right here to cabinetry, the sturdy oak and painted timber of Neptune’s Henley kitchen was the correct match. Its fundamental nation kitchen trend and the uncovered picket of the underside fashions complemented the distinctive Georgian setting up whereas embracing warmth kitchen coloration traits launched much-needed character to the extension.
‘We love how kitchens in Italy have blissful colours and loads of character, and we wished to ship just a few of that to our dwelling,’ says Olive. ‘We moreover get impressed as soon as we’re out on walks with the boys on the native seashores. We love the oranges and patchwork of greens of the distinctive cliffs alongside the shut by Jurassic shoreline, and it led us to decide on the great and comfy terracotta shades.’
‘There could also be moreover a postbox-red boat that sits on the seaside at Branscombe, and we love the idea of getting a daring pop of purple someplace, which galvanized the colour for the purple island.’
The world was completed with a fragile chequerboard terracotta kitchen flooring. ‘It was an precise labour of affection – I hadn’t pretty appreciated it might need six coats of sealer, nonetheless it was worth it,’ says Hugo.
Together with lights
(Image credit score rating: Neptune)
For artist Olive and chef Hugo, pure mild is vital, every for his or her creativity and work.
Having house home windows on three sides of the kitchen undoubtedly brightens the room and the eye-catching inexperienced frames distinction with the partitions and emphasise the pure mild.
Softer golden kitchen lighting ideas supplied by lamps, wall lights and glass pendants add to the setting and illumination. Understanding the precise strategy to plan kitchen lighting is vital in winter – it could rework a cold darkish space proper right into a warmth and cosy spot.
Residing the dream
(Image credit score rating: Neptune)
‘Beforehand, we didn’t spend quite a bit time inside the kitchen as there was not ample space,’ explains Olive. ‘Nonetheless, our new kitchen-diner has surpassed all expectations – we’re always gathering in proper right here now as a family.’
‘We actually really feel very house proud and have an prolonged guidelines of mates to ask over for our Christmas celebrations.’