Thursday, December 18, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
A Clucking Great Weekend
The day finally arrived when we could pick up the new Box family members, Pru, Constance and Roley. We drove down to Surrey to pick up our three ex-battery chickens (ex-bats) and the girls spent a few hours this afternoon roaming around the garden. They're now tucked safely away in their lil hut for the evening - anyone for fresh eggs?
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Kitchen coming along nicely.
The kitchen is getting close, and we're really happy with how it's coming together. The objective for this room, apart from making it very cool!, was to add more storage, but make the room feel bigger. It's a pretty small room with little natural light, and it previously felt very cramped.
In a moment of pure genius (in our opinion) we had the brainwave to remove the worktop, base units and wall units on the left side of the room (where the fridge is) and replace it with floor to ceiling shelves - creating an open larder-type setup. We thought the open shelves would make the room feel bigger (as the room full of wall units felt really claustrophobic) - and we absolutely love them!
The tiles are really cool, retro style white bricks with a neat bevel and were laid in a brick-wall formation. We have some more open stainless steel shelves near the oven, which I am dubbing industrial-chic.
But it doesn't end there. We've added a belfast sink, which has been sunken into the worktop, so it kinda sits above the work surface. We love belfast sinks, and had one in Tooting, but this installation is a little different from the usual exposed approach. We think it works well in the small available space.
So, almost there with this room. Only things left to come are doors for the kitchen units and a cooker hood from above the cooker hob (setting the smoke alarm off is getting a little tedious). We think it's going to be one of the coolest small kitchens ever (modesty, innit).
In a moment of pure genius (in our opinion) we had the brainwave to remove the worktop, base units and wall units on the left side of the room (where the fridge is) and replace it with floor to ceiling shelves - creating an open larder-type setup. We thought the open shelves would make the room feel bigger (as the room full of wall units felt really claustrophobic) - and we absolutely love them!
The tiles are really cool, retro style white bricks with a neat bevel and were laid in a brick-wall formation. We have some more open stainless steel shelves near the oven, which I am dubbing industrial-chic.
But it doesn't end there. We've added a belfast sink, which has been sunken into the worktop, so it kinda sits above the work surface. We love belfast sinks, and had one in Tooting, but this installation is a little different from the usual exposed approach. We think it works well in the small available space.
So, almost there with this room. Only things left to come are doors for the kitchen units and a cooker hood from above the cooker hob (setting the smoke alarm off is getting a little tedious). We think it's going to be one of the coolest small kitchens ever (modesty, innit).
All but done in the bathroom.
Bathroom... tick! (almost). We didn't really do too much in this room, but the small things we have done have made a huge difference. We took out the original basin cupboard, which was pretty minging, and replaced it with an amazing edwardian table from 1850. The lady at the antique shop we bought it from wasn't too happy to hear we would be cutting off part of the back leg and drilling a hole through the top, but we did it anyway! With a bowl basin plonked on the top, it looks the business. Soooo much better that what was previously there!
The shelves we added to the left of the mirror are really useful for storage, especially considering we lost the space under the previous basin. And the tiling we added to the side panel on the bath (same tiles as the floor) looks a lot better than the previous beech wood panel that there.
Sometimes it's the idea that's more important than the items added. Only thing yet to be added in here is a big, gorgeous mirror.
The shelves we added to the left of the mirror are really useful for storage, especially considering we lost the space under the previous basin. And the tiling we added to the side panel on the bath (same tiles as the floor) looks a lot better than the previous beech wood panel that there.
Sometimes it's the idea that's more important than the items added. Only thing yet to be added in here is a big, gorgeous mirror.