How to design a kitchen: Stage 5 - the fun part!
I’m opening up my little black book to tell you where to buy everything!
Congratulations! You’ve reached the final stage of designing and possibly even installing your own kitchen! In this last instalment we’re going to be chatting about lighting, work surfaces, drawer and cupboard inserts, appliances and gadgets and all the gorgeous bits! What’s more, I’ll be telling you where I sourced everything too. I can’t possibly go into every option available to you - that’s a book in itself. So, I’m going to concentrate on what I chose for our kitchen. Are you ready?
We finished installing our kitchen right at the end of 2022. So much happened in that year. I designed and planted our garden, fixed all the exterior issues like the guttering, renovated and remodeled the kitchen, living room, master bedroom, guest bedroom, built a conservatory and on an on it went. It was relentless and it flew by. One minute I was scared witless to the point of peeing myself, holding on for dear life to four flights of slippery scaffolding pole whilst I painted soffits and fascias (still petrified of heights btw and no, holding onto a large greasy pole did not make it better), the next I was gracefully faffing around with jolly eucalyptus twigs and jingly cow bells at Yuletide. My life was and still is a veritable kaleidoscope of extremities and that’s exactly the way I like it!
At times I found it so difficult to keep up with ensuring that I was telling you all on my blog (I only moved to Substack in August 2023) and on Instagram about what was going on. Needless to say, a huge amount of info was not relayed to you about the kitchen finishes and that’s the best part. So, today I’m going to fix that. There’s so much I want to show you, like what’s inside my drawers ( you saucy devils) and my cupboards and where I sourced everything. I want to show you my pantry of dreams (well, actually it’s not my pantry of dreams, that’s a tad overboard JP, but it’s a very nice pantry none the less) and the utterly beautiful storage containers inside it.
So, let’s get down to business. If you missed the post about my bargain of a library ladder and aged brass rail, then you can find that here. Everything about the open shelving I used and where I got my mug hooks from and the fancy upside down glass holders, can be found here. Now let’s talk lighting. Ooh this is going to be good!
Our lighting
I want to talk a little about spotlights. I’m not overly keen on them, you see. There was a period in the nineties when everyone went spotlight loop the loop crazy. They were halogens then, banned now of course, for the inferior, but environmentally friendly LED.
In 1998, if you didn’t have four perfect rows of halogens in your kitchen, then you weren’t worth knowing. There wasn’t a Changing Rooms1 kitchen makeover without a good old dose of the halogens and I can guarantee you Cherie Blair’s No.10 kitchen would have been bounteously festooned with perfect runways of bling illumination. Every kitchen of the era was so bright you needed sunglasses. Rows upon rows of blinding bulbs up and down the country, most of which were utterly pointless as they often lit up empty space, or they were behind you instead of where you actually needed them!
Please, if you are going to have them, then don’t make them the same finish as your switches and sockets, that’s very B&Q!2 There is absolutely no requirement to highlight the position of a spotlight. It’s just a ring of light, nothing special. It’s there to do a job and should not be confused with the highfalutin likes of the pendant light, or God forbid, a wall sconce! They should disappear. I only have four in my current kitchen and it’s a huge room. They aren’t in a row either. They are exactly where I need them to prep and cook. I use warm white LEDs, which have a matt white fascia to blend in with my ceiling. If you have a coloured ceiling, then I suggest painting the fascia’s to match. The rest of my lighting is made up of hidden LED strips from IKEA for task lighting which have clever wall-mounted remote controls. I also have moody lamps and a large fuck-off pendant light from The Soho Lighting Company. I rarely type a swear word, but it’s the best description for it.
Read on to find out where I sourced the worktops, appliances and drawer inserts. I’ll be telling you all my paint choices, storage containers, the brassware I chose, my fancy tap and so much more!