the kitchen of mass destruction....

in a state of bliss...now its all finished!

i have been putting off the HUGE post i need to do about my recent kitchen makeover, which actually included demolishing a wall, blocking up one door and putting in a new one to the garden, building a 'summer house', installing a kitchen, new flooring and putting up a new garden fence (my facebook friends have lived it blow by blow for the last 6 months!).  it all began in January (after years of procrastination and endless indecision) and goes a little something like this.....first get a huge shed installed on my decking with a view to being a future craft room/den/place for visitors to sleep (!) but for the immediate use as a storage unit!  the lovely Polish boys and my [super]Dad did a grand job of getting it in place, despite the cold weather (and odd snow flurry that day) in late January!

in the cold of winter...the deck is ready...just hope they don't use a spirit level!

up go the walls!

job done!

next came the mammoth task of packing the whole of my kitchen and living room into boxes....and saying goodbye to the chaos!

the kitchen chaos before was beyond ridiculous...i had to move a ton of junk to get to the cooker!

it really had gotten totally OUT OF HAND!

CHAOS!

how did i EVER live with this mess?!

time to start packing!

stop mucking about and get on with it!

stick all the boxes in the 'summer house' (it didn't remain this tidy looking!)

rip the bloody doors off!

say goodbye to that wall...see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya!!

in February my brilliant builders, Dean & Will, came to knock a couple of walls down and put in a new door to my garden....

brrrr....there's a terrible George Raft (draft) in 'ere!

the summer house looks nice tho....

ta daaaaa...new door!

from the outside....i think the pigeons approve!

....and down comes the inside wall!

then it was a few months wait, while i settled into a new job and decided [finally] which kitchen  i wanted to buy (in the end i went for ikea cabinets & appliances, howdens beech style counter tops and wickes oak effect flooring) before Dean & Will were back (with a little help again from super-Dad)...ding ding...ROUND TWO...kitchen installation, block up side door, new fence, new floor!

Will contemplates...where do I start?

move the old kitchen into the garden....

ikea delivers the kitchen...how am i sposed to get around? oops!

Dean and super-Dad get to work....

making up the carcasses....

at least i have a little alleyway to get upstairs!

we're getting there!!!

the door's sealed up...and the flooring's down...happy feet!

next its the new garden fence....

meanwhile...old kitchen is still in the garden....

and the foxes think it's their own personal obstacle course!

and finally....we're on the home stretch!  the kitchen is in...the fence is up (& herb garden installed) - i just need to paint and i know just the man to help...!

the kitchen is done!

the lovely 3-ring hob is in and the butcher tiles are up!

i start to fill the shelves with all my lovely things i've been missing for months (including this gorgeous tea-set, a charity shop find!)

3 trips to ikea and i find the perfect bar stools...now all i need are some barflies to test them...!

the fence is lovely and the herb garden and plants are settled in now that the old kitchen has been removed!

the paint-a-thon begins...with a little help from a friend...

johnnie brundle-chef - after a hard few days painting tests the kitchen and barfly facilties!

...and it really is lab-white brilliance...so its time to unpack the shed and find a home for all my books and pictures (this is an ongoing process.......!).

emptying the summer house....this could take some time...

labour intensive decision to color-stack the books...but well worth it I think!

achieving a state of whitenessssss.....

a place for everything and everything in its place...including my new BARFLY!

my first new purchase...a fly print from the lovely & charming Rory Dobner...collected today from his studio in Hampstead!

i can't believe its really over...and it looks absolutely FABULOUS!  i've already been inspired to make some delicious food and had a number of friendly bar-flies round to to test the bar-stools - so after months of hibernation i think the party is ready to start....the grand opening will be a wicked party August bank holiday weekend...i just have to get all the boxes unpacked by then!!!

lighten up

so beautiful...but if i can't have three...do i want one?

am torn over making a decision about lighting in my new kitchen (currently a work in progress) and tho i have been daydreaming for a while now about owning a fabulous Tom Dixon copper pendant -at a whopping £320 its a bit out of my price range.  i've also just remembered i had wanted one of Jake Phipps' spiffing bowlers (cheaper at £155) when i spotted it at a design festival a few years ago....hmmmm....and i think perhaps the titfer might fit better as the other is quite large....its just not terribly kitchen-y and probably won't give out a great deal of light!

what a catch, what?

i was also rather tempted by these Benjamin Hubert labware lovelies when I saw them a while ago...but i think they might be overdoing it slightly...and i'm bound to bang my bonce.  naturally if money (and space) were no object i would def invest in one of these!

perfect for experimentation.......

a few days away....

 

having spent the week packing up the ground floor of my flat in anticipation of building work next week...i decided to take a few days to visit my folks in Hampshire.  on the way to the station i spotted 2 bed bases (no mattress) and a sofa on Leghorn Road, NW10...to send me on my way.  i spent most of my time relaxing chez famile...and my dad delighted in showing me his new (vintage) Velocette bike (a 1955 model) with beautiful chrome wheel guards and the fab "naked lady" motif on the tool box.

 

this makes SEVEN that he has bought, taken apart and put back together...he needs to open a museum!  he loves to potter in the garage and while i was there he kindly stripped and re-painted this lovely american-style matchbox holder i bought on etsy a few weeks ago..it will look lovely in my bathroom - which my parents couldn't understand, until i explained about the old trick learnt in Thailand for getting rid of nasty niffs in the toilet...just light a match and hey presto!

 before

after

also got to spend a lovely day in Bournemouth with my Aunty Jennie, cousin Sarah and her two children Renee & Freddy - who i really don't get to see enough, but always enjoy their company as we share a love of beach-combing and doodling in the sand.

 

my aunt and cousin also share my love of charity shop trawling and we were in heaven with the NINE shops we managed to visit in Parkstone, a suburb of Bournemouth - where my dad and aunt used to go to the cinema as kids, and my dad got banned from the local church of St John's (his namesake!) for trying to "blow the place up"...as he and his tearaway mates used to set off bangers of a sunday morning...he was always a naughty (tho angel-voiced) choirboy!  anyway i managed to pick up some real beauties..including a fab 1960s Poole Pottery  soup pot with mushrooms on the lid, a few plates & glasses and also went mad on three fab Arthur Wood vases.

i also got to visit the fab Le Creuset factory shop in Andover (one of the only good things about the place) to salivate over the beautiful kitchenware, and managed to nab myself a gorgeous red iron handled pot - a sample from the US, not for sale in the UK, which had made it onto the sale shelf!

 

my mum said i could have removed my dad's socks from the Aga 

before i took the photo but i think it all adds to the ambience!

i came home to my empty flat and was greeted by a message from a friend in West London with a photo of mattresses outside her door on Acklam Road...nice!