Which Kitchen?

We are starting to think more about the style of the kitchen now that our planning permission decision date is eeking ever closer!

Because the back of our house is quite dark, part of me wants an all white kitchen to brighten things up a bit. I love the look of crisp, bright whites. Scandinavian and minimal.

 

Old fashioned english macaroons

When I was little, my mum would occasionally buy me one of these macaroons from a local village bakery as a treat. I fell in love with their crispy shell, chewy, sweet marzipan-flavoured interior and edible rice paper base. They are so incredibly addictive. In my humble opinion, they are the perfect "biscuit" (if you can call them that.)

For some reason, I never see them anymore. Perhaps this is because there aren't really any independent bakeries around these days. A tragedy if you ask me. I do love a good traditional bakery. Our towns and cities seem to be overrun with European chains like Paul, Le Pain Quotidien, Hummingbird and Patisserie Valerie. Whilst these are all lovely, where have the traditional British bakeries gone? Baking has always been cool in my house but it has definitely made a comeback since the Great British Bake Off graced our screens! Here is a bakery in Brixton from 1910- a year before our house was built. I would love to see these types of bakery on our streets once more.

Restoring a cast iron fireplace

One of the first things we said when we bought our house was that we were going to reinstate cast iron fireplaces in every room apart from the living room (a wood burner will go in here eventually-more on that later!) to put back the character that had been taken away over the years.
The fireplaces had all been boarded over and we couldn't wait to rip off all the plaster and see what was hidden underneath!

Flash back to summer 2014. Exposing the fireplaces which had been covered over for years #number18renovation #fireplace #houserenovation #redbrick #castironfireplace #edwardianterrace #fbf

A video posted by Number 18 (@number18renovation) on Jun 17, 2016 at 1:36am PDT

Succulent styling

I have this ongoing love affair with succulents. They're everywhere at the moment. 

They add a pop of greenery to any space and it's nearly impossible to kill them! Watering them once a week will keep them happy and healthy. Get yourself a spray bottle, give them a good mist every now and again and they'll be just fine. They're a great way to bring the outside in; especially if you live in a flat with no garden for example. They look great positioned in front of white walls which makes the green stand out even more.

Planning our kitchen extension!

We have finally begun planning our side return extension to our kitchen! Well, we have been planning this in our heads for a long time and pinning ideas to my Pinterest boards but now we actually have designs and ideas on paper!

We want the new room to be a spacious open-plan kitchen/dining/family room, with bifold doors opening onto the garden. Something a bit like this...