Before & After: ‘It took us 20 years to get our dream kitchen’
After 20 years of living with a cramped 1930s kitchen, one couple decided to extend the space to create a large open-plan multifunction room that would better suit family life. An architect helped them to realise their dream and the result is a gorgeous space with views over the garden to cook, entertain and relax in.
Who lives here
Julie Mason and her husband Dom, who own Mason Cycles, live in a 1930s semi-detached house in Hove, East Sussex, with their teenage sons, Seb and Harvey.
Before
‘Our home was in an awful condition when we moved in 21 years ago, and the whole house needed modernising. We inherited a dated 1930s kitchen, which was far too small for our busy family.'
How did the project start?
Ever since we moved in more than two decades ago, we’d been living with a cramped kitchen that didn’t work for us as a family. Then in 2013, we came into an inheritance, which we used to start our cycling business. As it grew, we were able to save up for our much-needed kitchen extension. Eventually, in July 2020, the building works started. The back of the house was torn down, and we built into the side return and the rear garden by three metres.
Who came up with the design?
We couldn’t find anything we liked and thought all the kitchen extensions we looked at were quite uninteresting. Then at a party we met an architect who suggested we go for an asymmetric design. This was a much more appealing idea, as it was so different to anything else we’d seen. Inspired by buildings designed by Swiss French architect Le Corbusier, we also wanted floor-to-ceiling steel-framed doors.
You’ve gone for a very smart look...
It’s inspired by a grey and wooden kitchen we saw on a Danish interior design website, and Wood Works Brighton made our units in a similar style. Our aim was to create a characterful space that didn’t look like a kitchen. It was important to us to use reclaimed materials where possible. Dom designed the steel chassis to support the island, and we clad it with reclaimed antique oak veneer. We bought pallets of Victorian pavers at a salvage yard and handpicked bricks that were chipped for that ‘lived-in’ look. My brother, who’s a tiler, laid the huge porcelain tiles for us, inside and out.
And the rest of the decor?
Still a work in progress – we prefer not to rush decisions. We’ve hung Dom’s collectable skateboard decks and artwork drawn by his mother on the walls. Lots of the items, such as some Robin Day 675 dining chairs, have been in our family for a long time, but we did treat ourselves to a new sofa from Heal’s.
What’s your favourite part of the room?
Dom loves the Quooker hot water tap and uses it for his morning coffee, while I enjoy practising Pilates in here because I can look up and see the clouds through the skylights. This is a gorgeous space to relax and entertain in. And when it’s lit up at night, it’s beautiful. We’ve gone from a cramped kitchen to this huge space we can all enjoy. It took a long time to get it, but it was well worth the wait.
SOURCEBOOK
Oak kitchen, woodworksbrighton.co.uk
Door furniture & lights, busterandpunch.com
Plug sockets & switches, corston.com
Hob, elica.com
Instant hot water tap, quooker.co.uk
Porcelain flooring tiles, naturalangle.co.uk
Steel-framed doors, landing.fabcosanctuary.com
Architect, scdcons.uk
COSTS
Kitchen £35,000
Door furniture, lighting and switches £1,600
Hob £1,291
Tap £1,100
Flooring £4,000
Steel-framed doors £18,000
TOTAL = £60,991
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