Bedroom
At entrance level there is a formal dining room to the front, whose focal point is its canted bay window. Wallpapered in a tea rose pink below the picture rail and painted in a soft white above the eye is drawn upwards to the impressive plasterwork. Under current restrictions this room is doubling as a home office.
To its rear is a sitting room which has been incorporated into the large kitchen; fitted with oak units it features stainless steel and painted MDF countertops. The owners enlarged this part of the property by about 25sq m to the rear and to the side to incorporate a small courtyard into its footprint. Warmed by a gas-fired Rayburn cooker this is also currently doubling as a cosy Work From Home space. Double doors open out to a city-sized patio and garden with a southerly aspect. From here there are views to Bray Head.
My wife’s hairdresser is retraining to become an interior decorator. I always look forward to Vinnie’s visits (when he’s allowed to cross our threshold, of course) and he speaks sense, especially about priorities in a home.
Shortly before the latest lockdown, I asked him about tiles for the bathroom my wife and I are planning to acquire for our tiny pre-fab house in Wiltshire, which is being made in a factory near Winchester.
‘People don’t give enough attention to tiles,’ he said. ‘And yet they are crucially important because at any stage you can change the colour of your walls or buy a new sofa, but seldom would you bother to change your tiles. So make sure you get them right in the first place.’
A recipe for the perfect cooking space - inside the kitchens of the kitchen makers
Four industry experts on how to mix and match, and whether their own cooking spaces live up to expectations
10 January 2021 • 6:00am We wanted to make a statement without it being in your face : Lloyd and Leila Touwen, co-founders of Brixton-based kitchen furniture design company Pluck
Credit: Heathcliff O Malley
A kitchen has become more than just a space in which to store and cook food. Modern lives dictate that they should be dining, living and entertaining spaces all in one – or as the past nine months has also revealed, somewhere with an interesting backdrop as you make yet another Zoom call from the multifunctional kitchen table.