Kitchen Essential

The perfect kitchen is toasty and warm in winter, cool and airy in summer but, alas, the situation is often reversed.

The Kitchen Floor

However magnificent they may look in an old farmhouse, cold, grey flagstone floors don’t conjure up a sense of winter comfort. The fact is, if your feet are cold, so is the rest of you. Ironically, in the right location, solid floors are an important factor in maintaining a good ambient temperature. Continue Reading »

Sinks and Taps

Essentials like sinks and taps are such an integral part of the kitchen that it’s easy to forget what a variety there is to choose from.

Old-fashioned porcelain butler’s sinks (the deep rectangular tanks that have been turned into so many container gardens over the years!) are still very appealing for country-style kitchens. The disadvantage with traditional installations was that the join between sink and adjacent wooden draining board was difficult to seal, allowing water and waste to get into the gap. If you’re buying a new butler’s sink, look for a design with an edge that overlaps the worktop, to avoid this problem. Continue Reading »

Simple and contemporary

White or plain wood cupboard fronts — with a few glazed doors too. Try mixing white and wood together: white units with a woodblock work top, or wooden base units with white-painted wall cupboards. Stripwood floor. Plain white roller blinds for the windows.

Sleek and high-tech

Everything discreetly fitted, right up to the ceiling — no open storage except for ultra-functional chrome utensils on hanging rails. Recessed lighting. Granite-effect work tops. Black‑’ and-white tiled floors. Slatted window blinds. Continue Reading »

Sharp or squared off corners and edges on worktops

Adults can sustain bruises, grazes or scrapes and small children more serious knocks to the heads and eyes from sharp corners. Laminated work- tops can be obtained ready-made with smoothly rounded edges. Always ask for radius edges or post-formed worktops.

Unhygienic work surfaces

Hazards of food poisoning can be reduced by thoroughly scrubbing any wooden or tiled work surfaces after each use. Danger can lurk in the grouting. Likewise, joins in laminated worktops must be butted up tightly and evenly to minimise places where bacteria can accumulate.

Kitchen step stools should be well maintained and used rarely. If they are in constant use, consider rearranging cupboard contents to make things more accessible. Continue Reading »

Plumbing work

Water by-laws state that any fitting connected to a water supply must not misuse, waste or contaminate the mains supply. If a dishwasher and a washing machine are to be fitted, the hot and cold services may need extending, especially if the existing pipe diameters are too small to carry sufficient water to the draw-off points. It may be necessary to renew services right back to the hot water cylinder or cold water storage tank.

It is essential that access to the stop-cock inside the house is retained wherever it may be — on the wall or in a cupboard. Disguise it if you must, as in photographs (right).

The by-laws also require one tap — normally fitted in the kitchen — to supply drinking water only, i.e.connected to the mains. Continue Reading »