The heart of your home

Kitchens, the hub of our home...where we cook, relax, spend time with family & friends. It is central to our household & way of living. Balancing functionality & efficiency of space with aesthetic appeal is essential for it to be both the space you love being & working in. Light, bright, well equipped, purpose built storage (or clever use of space equivalent!), seating with comfort & style in mind, complete with family treasures that give our kitchens such personality & character. The perfect kitchen to some is completely minimal, a sculptured form, with the visual focus purely architectural design, with the latest appliances giving it functional identity. For others, it means combining warmth in both materials & atmosphere, all tangible, practical & welcoming

Each of the kitchens featured in this post illustrate such personality & style, all special & unique to the homes they live in.

My kitchen canvas includes white walls (of course!), polished floorboards, granite benchtops, plenty of pantry storage (the envy of my friends) & a combination of stainless steel & white appliances, on display & much loved. My decorative touches include fresh flowers always, fruit -single colors for impact (at the moment, green apples in one hurricane lantern, oranges in the other), freshly picked herbs & cumquat branches from my garden, a large linen story board that is continually updated with chapters & captured moments of our life with family & friends, a ladder well stacked with my favourite food magazines, very subtle scented candles for the nights I'm not cooking but otherwise tealights for when I am.

It is light, bright & always welcoming. The view from the front door takes your focus straight through to the garden, where depending upon the season we can enjoy the view & fragrance of wisteria, jasmine, & enjoy watching the ivy wave with the wind. The wooden fruit sits well with tealights & herb pots on the window sill, canvas mounts that showcase artwork (divine handmade gift cards, a present in themselves) that feature on the wall above the ladder, whilst on the bench sit rattan trays with favourite cook books & collection of stone pears. Nothing particularly different, but all things I love using, sharing & above all else we enjoy.

The kitchen, regardless of your style, your look, your culinary expertise or design appreciation, connects you with your family & friends, in cooking, talking, nurturing, entertaining, being you.