The Kitchen

Let’s continue the tour around the house then. The kitchen was our first room in the New Home, and the only one that really has been premeditated and planned and designed, unlike the other spaces where we have partly been forced to play by ear and partly done so because it’s the fun way to do it. And because, you know, as they say, that you should live in the house for some time before you start poking around it, so you know what you really need in that particular place. 

We do like food and preparing it, so it’s important for us to have a kitchen that’s functional and cosy. The old fittings were from the 1980s and custom made for the high rooms, but also organised in a way that made the space seem quite small. It was kind of surprising and simultaneously reassuring that we, having labelled ourselves as a couple who work on gut instinct, could have real discussions over the design of the future kitchen.

I guess I have mentioned a few times that this is an old house, and that this house has belonged to the same family for the nine decades of the entirety of its existence. Because the history is there, it should show. We kept the original wood stove even though it takes up space – but doubles as a side table when it’s just much more convenient to use the electrical one. We also kept the not so original plastic floorings, because they’re cool and there’s really nothing wrong with them. I was going to have them changed, but then our schedule forced us to have the kitchen fitted weeks before we moved in, when Granny still lived in this house, so it would have been just way too much of a hassle for her. And actually the brown squares go really well with the rest of the kitchen.

Back in the 1920s the kitchen had a sink right where it is now. It was moved on the wall next to the doorway back in the day, but we thought the cupboards in the corner would cost more than be useful, so stuck to just having fittings on this one wall. It was a puzzle, and we had to have an extra small dishwasher in order to be able to get everything in. Compared to the old days, when we had a normal-sized dishwasher, the only difference is that now we don’t have to wait two or three days for enough dirty dishes to pile up!

Opposite the sink/dishwasher/stove wall there is the fridge and the pull-out pantry cabinet. I was fixated on having all the food in one place. It almost worked: the spices and the like are in the cupboard next to the stove, and we keep the bread, coffee and extra bags of sugar or flour or whatever in the sideboard under the stairs. Anyway, it’s handy when you come from grocery shopping, unload the bags on the island and then just put the things in the fridge and the pantry.

What’s not handy is that we have our freezer downstairs. It’s a space issue, but also an inherited thought from the Old Home, where there wasn’t a freezer in the kitchen either. So we’re used to fetching our frozen food from afar and are fine with it. Also, we have a cellar downstairs for potatoes and wine and beer and soft drinks and whatever you need, so the freezer kind of fits in there really well.

And we have a basketball hoop in the kitchen to make up for the absence of the freezer!

The island was something I imagined from the moment we decided we would move house. It’s a perfect work table and you can check on the kids through the window. Under the island there are three huge drawers but on the back there’s also space for legs when you sit. And people sit there a lot. I envisioned schoolgirls doing homework there, and having their breakfasts and snacks, and me having a cup of coffee and reading a magazine and lo! that’s what I got.

I also had a fixation on having all my cutlery and crockery in one place. That nearly happened. In the uppermost giant drawer we keep the cutlery and the utensils. In the middle one there are all the everyday cups and saucers. The last drawer contains pots and pans and tins for preparing food.

Finally, this is the sideboard, bought by my grandmother a good seventy years ago. It brings the families together, you see. And it’s a perfect size for where it is and for the appliances and for my love of gingham. The sun is from Sicily.