It’s been over two years now since we moved in to our Eden Brae home. Recently, I was asked what the internals of our house looks like after the build was completed. I actually didn’t expect that my blog would be as responsive as it has been – so firstly, thank you for reading it thus far. I hope you’re finding it useful.
What had we planned for our kitchen? Looking back, we briefed in a pencil sketch drawing with Kitchen Culture which turned out to be quite on-point with what we wanted in the end. Our aim was a modern, neutral coloured kitchen, hopefully appealing not just to us but future families if we choose to sell one day.
I’d recommend to:
- Keep the sink, the fridge and stove within the ‘work triangle’ space. That is, an easy distance between these three main areas in the shape of a triangle.
- Maximise your cabinetry and bench areas. Fill the area above and around the stove, plus pantry areas with additional space.
- Think about areas that you could re-purpose with cabinetry for example, the breakfast island bench. Will you have a full family seated here permanently? Or do you have a dining area nearby and this is more like drop-in seating? Can you add another cabinet to half of the bench in lieu of seating?
- Consider adding a power point under your breakfast island bench. Trust me, you’ll find this useful once installed.
- Consider a water outlet to be added during your build behind the fridge/freezer area.
Things I would change for next time:
- Whilst I like the window splash back behind the stove for aesthetic appeal, if you actively use your stove, you may find this quite annoying after some time. I would re-consider filling this area with a solid, tiled splash back/wall, as I found it more frustrating wiping it down frequently after cooking – and a little impractical.
- Reposition windows to garner more natural lighting.
- I would have loved to have kept the butler pantry (we reversed this out to become a workshop in the garage, which we still love). But again, the more space you have, the better. We have a small family so we have ample space as is but if I could have both, I would.
Hi there, I’m just looking at doing the same with my sink on the island bench. Are you happy that you have it to the side to allow extra bench space and not in the middle?
Hi Meagan, thanks for your message. I personally don’t mind the sink to the side, but it’d also depend on where your stove, fridge and main cabinetry is as well. If you’re someone who enjoys cooking and baking etc., you do need long, continuous bench space – and for me, I only have the island to prepare on, or smaller sections around the kitchen. We did consider having the sink in the middle, but I thought it’d get in the way. Alternatively, you could use the other side of the bench where the seats are, however then all of my pantry items wouldn’t be at arm’s reach and I’d have to keep walking back to the other side. Hope that helps? Let me know if I can help with anything else. Cheers, Jacqueline