Our new kitchen.

I say ‘our new kitchen’ but, strictly speaking, it isn’t new. Dave Hewitt and his team at Nottingham-based company, Alpha Interior Designs, installed it last summer. It’s just taken me this long to tell you about it!

Ever since moving into our house ten years ago, we’ve been dreaming of a new kitchen. The original one was very small for a family home and had minimal worktop and storage space.  Knowing we wanted to install a new kitchen one day, the improvements we made to the kitchen were just a stop-gap. We raising the low kitchen window so we could add a breakfast bar, replaced the shaker cupboard doors for gloss slab doors and replaced the white tiled floor with a more practical slate-effect laminate floor.

This is what the kitchen looked like when we first moved into the house. Cupboard and worktop space was limited. The shaker style doors and beech worktop were difficult to keep clean.

Turning dreams into reality.

Our kitchen dreams became a reality last year when we were left some money by my uncle. His gift enabled us to extend our existing kitchen and add an open plan kitchen/living/dining area to the rear of our house.

It was a significant day when the walls of our old kitchen were removed, ready to build our new extension.

Designing our dream kitchen.

Having waited so long for a new kitchen, it was important that we did our research. We asked friends for recommendations and got quotes and designs from three or four different companies. However, Dave at Alpha Interiors, with his innovative and inspirational design ideas, really impressed us. Plus, his quote was highly competitive too, as the cabinets and doors are made custom-made to a high standard, using premium German hinges (Blum) and fittings.

The brief: A modern kitchen that’s easy to clean and maintain.

As well as wanting a modern kitchen that would stand the test of time, I wanted my new kitchen to be easy to clean and maintain. That’s because my old one was anything but, with its gas hob, cupboard doors with bar handles and a high maintenance beech worktop. That’s why we selected an induction hob, handleless doors and a quartz worktop for our new kitchen. Initially, we considered matt cupboard doors to minimise fingerprints too, but in the end, we opted for gloss as we preferred it’s modern, sleek aesthetics.

Modern with a rustic twist.

Dave listened carefully to all our ideas and incorporated them into his design, creating plans for a stunning modern kitchen with handleless doors. He also added some wonderful elements and features to make our kitchen truly unique. For example, rather than the white gloss doors we’d originally wanted, he suggested using two neutral colours from a warmer palate – cashmere and jasmine (cream). Also, when we explained we didn’t want tiled or painted walls above the worktops, preferring something ‘wipe clean’ and durable, Dave suggested a beautifully textured oak laminate, Boralino Oak. It was an inspired choice as the rough-hewn rustic oak worked so well when combined with the high-gloss cashmere and jasmine kitchen units.

Dave also suggested we use Boralino oak above the wall cupboards too, effectively creating a wall of wood. This provided a stunning backdrop for our kitchen units.  To complete the look, Boralino oak was used as a frame around our tall kitchen units, for the island unit, and inside the cupboards.

We used the same design scheme in our utility too.

Using boralino oak for the interior of the kitchen cupboards makes for a stylish finish.

We love the look of the rustic oak against the sleek grey of the quartz worktop.

Beautiful, yet practical flooring.

We debated the pros and cons of different flooring options for our kitchen for a while. Although we loved the idea of oak flooring, we felt it would be harder to maintain and not as practical as porcelain tiles. That’s when we discovered a stunning range of wood-effect porcelain floor tiles at EMC tiles, Nottingham.  The Vintage Ash glazed wood effect floor tile  (150mm x 900mm x 9mm) looks like real wood flooring and is textured too.  What’s more, the grey/beige of the ash perfectly compliments the Boralino oak, cashmere and jasmine we selected for the kitchen.

Our beautiful vintage Ash Porcelain floor tiles have been fitted and stretch from wall to wall, ready for our new kitchen.

Attention to detail.

We were impressed by the care and attention to detail shown by Dave and his experienced fitters during the installation of our kitchen. I’m a perfectionist, so the quality of the finish was important: we weren’t disappointed.

Our dream kitchen becomes a reality.

We’re delighted with our new kitchen. We think the blend of modern gloss and rustic oak, together with the warm colour palette works beautifully to create a stunning look.

We are so pleased with our worktops. Quartz is more expensive than other materials but we think it’s a price worth paying, being incredibly hardwearing and easy to clean.

The handleless door design, glass induction hob and quartz worktop make the kitchen so easy to clean.

The Vintage Ash wood-effect porcelain floor tiles perfectly complement the oak and the neutral tones of the kitchen units.

Continuing the oak above the kitchen wall units adds to the overall look.

Kitchen inspirations.

For more examples of kitchens incorporating gloss and wood within the design, why not check out my Pinterest board:

Over to you.

Have you considered using laminate as an alternative to tiles and glass above your kitchen worktops? What do you think of the wood/gloss design? If you’re planning a new kitchen what’s on your wishlist and what are your non-negotiables?

As always, I’d love to hear from you.

Please Note: This is not a sponsored post and I am not receiving any form of inducement from Alpha Interiors. I just wanted to tell you about our new kitchen!

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