Something's Cooking In My Kitchen

As requested by you lovely people here's a tour of our kitchen. I'm standing in the doorway, the former tradesman's entrance.

What a pair of slackers, we had the brickwork repointed earlier this year and choose to go to India rather than get the exterior painted. Oh well, the house has been standing since 1760, I doubt if it's going to fall down just yet.

So here's the kitchen in all it's freshly scrubbed glory. Needless to say most of the stuff is second-hand, inherited, found or bought at a knockdown price.

 I don't "do" fitted kitchens. I loathe things to match and like to move things around and try out different looks from time to time. Years spent in the catering industry left me with a hatred of anything clinical or functional so our kitchen is more like a room than a production area.

The table was an eBay find about five years ago, cost £22 and a short drive up the road to collect it. The oak chairs were inherited, I've sanded them down, painted and recovered them using some of my vintage tea towel stash.

The cupboard was one of three bespoke oak kitchen pieces we picked up at a car boot sale for £30. I found the Art Deco chrome-cased thermal tea pot in a skip on the way back from the pub when I was 18. The silhouettes on the right were of my Grandparents and done on their honeymoon in 1940. Everything else you see is from a car boot, jumble sale or charity shop.

The Portmerion Greek Key pottery were presents for my parent's wedding in 1966, the Deco teapot was from a jumble sale earlier this year, it's Goblin so would have been part of an early teasmaid. We use loose leaf tea as it's way cheaper than teabags.

 

Another of the bargain car booted units. The cupboard underneath is part of a Welsh dresser from Jon's Grandparents' home. There's some of my 1950's Terence Conran ceramics and part of an Art Deco tea service I bought from a jumble sale over twenty years ago.

We bought the Indesit range cooker from a catalogue when they offered 25% off our first purchase (but paid for it immediately as I don't believe in credit). We're restoring a 1930's Rayburn (bought off eBay for £180) to go in this space but progress is very slow and it's currently languishing under a tarpaulin in the garden.

We bought this retro styled A* rated Baumatic fridge from another catalogue offering a 25% introductory discount.

The Belfast sink unit was £125 from eBay. The brass mixer taps and draining rack were £1 each from a car boot sale and the ceramic knobs were an eBay find.

This 19th century glazed cupboard is Hungarian and was from our friendly curio shop. The leather suitcase is handy storage for some of my collection of vintage party ware.

There's an eclectic mix of vintage French enamelware, post-modern ceramics, Victoriana, bottles we've dug up in the garden and tat from jumble sales on here. The railway lights are from eBay and the bricks and railway sleeper are from a local salvage yard.

Some of our wall art (£1 car boot sale). Jon likes to contemplate this when he's having a roll-up and a coffee.

More vintage tat.

The Victorian glazed cupboard was a boot sale find. The unit was from a local junk shop and Jon tarted it up with some skip-found tiles, a ceramic knob and car boot sale beading. We inherited the microwave but we never use it.

Hope you enjoyed your trip. I'll show you some more next week, providing I can keep the house tidy until then.