Living with Building an Extension

We see the results of renovations and extensions often, the lovely styled rooms all painted and pretty. Design Sponge posts regularly before and after photos of projects. But we don't see much of the process, the rubble and dust, the build site, the months of living in upheaval, the stress on families and relationships.

Since February there is a project that I have helped on the planning and design of an extension and new kitchen. Each month goes by and each step an achievement. Last week the kitchen was installed.

 This was the original kitchen, with the stove and the sink separated, the fridge around the corner, little surface for preparation, it was inefficient and unpleasant to work in. The building is a 1950's home built for military families. It is a solid piece of architecture, rooms with enough space and a window in each room. So it has good bones. It was efficient at the time for the way people lived then, but today with our preference for open plan for gathering of friends and family it became too congested.

We began the project with several discussions of how best to use the space, to make it more efficient, bring in more light and more accessible to the large garden.

Staying in budget was essential, so dashed were plans of going for planning permission. We worked within the limits of an extension of 3m x 3m, anything over meant we would have to apply for permission and would take that much longer and extend the costs.

It was a building extension of recycling and reusing, keeping the existing utility space, thoroughly insulating it, replacing and enlarging the doorway directly onto the garden. Reusing the windows which were replaced by doors helped stay in budget. Then adding the kitchen extension next to it with a glass roof. Changing a window to French doors leading from the living room to the garden helped to make the space flow and link to the outside.

When the back exterior wall was taken down after the extension with a glass roof was built, you can see how open plan makes a more agreeable space. But you also see the upheaval a family has to live with, for example all the kitchen equipment and food supplies have to be moved. You wind up living out of boxes when you are still feeding a family.

Just after the kitchen was installed, my builder, the best builder in the world, sent these photos:

Using an Ikea kitchen with hard wood Iroko worktops kept us in budget. Still lots more to do, finish the painting, install the lighting, the flooring, then the styling.... stay tuned!

Progress

A few weeks ago I shared and posted some very beautiful and intriguing photos by Ellen Silverman about the Cuban Kitchen. There were several reasons I shared those photos. One reason was I was in the midst of deconstructing the kitchen in my flat. With the tiles pulled off, the old wallpaper stripped off, the condiments, pots and pans and bowls of fruit were put elsewhere, all stripped to the bones of the building we began rebuilding.

First a wall was removed and the entrance made wider, bringing in lots more light and sense of spaciousness. As my dear friend says, more civilized.

Layers of old paint was exposed when the tiles and wall paper were removed,  with the yellow ochre paint, patches of plaster and concrete it resembled the Cuban Kitchens in the photo essay.

With progress, a new floor, walls skimmed, old surfaces and cabinets removed, it has begun to look more pleasing. Still much to do, boxing in some pipes, paint the ceiling and walls and finding new places for the essentials of daily cooking.

 Yes much more to do, but looking so much better and cleaner. I will update after I paint it.

White Kitchens

Automatism

For all who have been through renovating their own kitchen and to my clients who I have helped to renovate their homes, my heart goes out to you and urrrrrh! We endure...  but what keeps us going is the vision and the well ordered space to come, it is satisfying to see it come together.

I am still waiting on the plumber to install the first fix and the wood to adjust to the temperature inside, but clean newly plastered walls, wow. I am planning on all white, just white to make the space feel bigger and lighter and it is soothing.

Here are few white kitchens that look wonderful from some of my favorite blogs

79 ideas

79 ideas

Emma's Design Blog

Spare Beauty: The Cuban Kitchen

"The Picture Show" is a page on the NPR website of photo essays, photos from around the world people submit with a comment to explain their story. I look at it fairly frequently, it is intriguing and always fascinating. Yesterday I saw a collection of photos about kitchens in Cuba by Ellen Silverman.

There were many reasons I was so attracted to these photos having designed many kitchens, some posh and great, some humble and old, just getting a new coat of paint. Another reason is I am in the middle of renovating my kitchen, my apartment is in an old building and with the change of the boiler, cabinets removed and striping off old wallpaper, my own kitchen looks similar to these humble and human kitchens in Cuba.

But more than the similarity to my renovation is the beauty and simplicity. I often find beauty is from within, for a kitchen is where we cook and prepare food, it is more than yards of exotic granite and powerful appliances it is where we sit and nourish ourselves and feed our loved ones.

Ellen is a food photographer and in her travels to Cuba over the past couple of years she was captivated by the elegant but decrepit old buildings. After being invited in, from her statement she explains:

"I began to see the beauty of these sparse kitchens created from necessity by the people who live in these exceedingly difficult circumstances. It forced me to confront the profound difference between what my eye saw, my desire to make beautiful, strong images, and the reality people’s situations."

The composition of Ellen's photos are beautiful, she captures in her frame a balance of light, the "natural and organic arrangement" of vessels and utensils and the color of faded paint. Her images are strong but so touched by humanity.

I grew up in Miami where there are many Cuban emigrants and one of the delights is their food, I can so easily imagine the rice and black beans cooking, the cafe con leche and tostadas. And also when my daughter lived in Tulum Mexico, when I visited her we made guacamole in a sparse kitchen.

This photo reminds me of the movie, A Street Car Named Desire.

What more do we need, nourishment and a song. Please view this poignant collection of photos from Ellen Silverman's website