K is for Kitchen

I love being in the kitchen, it is a place that I associate with fun, friends and (of course) food.

I was incredibly lucky that the kitchen we had in our flat in Wimbledon was not only large but full of light. I had a window to look out of whilst doing the washing up and a second aspect towards the common which not only provided us with a great through draft if I had burnt something but the boys and I could keep a look out for when Daddy would come sweeping round the corner on his bicycle after a day a work. In additon to the two windowns it was, as far as London flats go, palatial. There was a table that seated four comfortably or seven at a push, a slim line dishwasher (which I miss terribly), and a fan oven that was just great at being the right temperature and producing amazing cakes.

When  we first looked at the house we moved to in March one of my concerns wad that the kitchen was TINY. The rest of the house was totally huge in comparison and was going to suit us perfectly so I thought that it was something that I would just have to put to the back of my mind and deal with.

Or so I thought.

Come moving day and the subsequent week spent unpacking boxes my new kitchen just absorbed everything into seemingly endless cupboards. In fact, I would go as far as to say I have more storage space now than I had previously. So what had happened?

I had been deceived by the smaller floorspace and hadn't taken into account that the cupboards went back into the corners. The room is also darker due to the single window which also visually shrinks the space, but the view is lovely and I have been able to watch my roses grow and the yellow plum tree bare fruit.  In fact, despite the lack of dishwasher (something that I am still coming to terms with) there were many other good points to this kitchen, for example, above the oven is a nifty concealed space in which the microwave can hide. The itself oven was higher up which had two really good pluses to it, it was now out of reach of the Two Monkeys (the combined name for our boys) as well as having a very deep drawer underneath to stash all my various baking tins and stoneware. 

And yes, my kitchen may not have the little ikea pine table in it any longer, but instead we have a whopper of a walnut table in the dining/family room which is right next to the kitchen and actually means it gets used as a table for arts and crafts rather than the dumping ground it ended up in the flat.

So all in all, it all came right in the end. The kitchen hasn't been a disappointment at all, if anything it has become more of my own "space" and I even have a bit more freedom in this kitchen as there are no child locks on the doors - instead we put a gate across the doorway which allows us to be in the kitchen and also have the back door open without either of the Two Monkeys escaping into the garden unsupervised or invading the cupboards.

What's more my dear husband has been doing some excellent DIY and put up a floating shelf for all my cookbooks as well as making  me the most beautiful handmade spice rack too.

And who knows...with a bit of shuffling of the cupboards I may even get a dishwasher!