All posts tagged: Kitchen

The Coach House – Phase 2 – Open Plan Kitchen Diner

Published by Karen Knox

Hello summer 2023! (it’s raining today). You may remember a couple of years ago, I shared the completed living room at The Coach House project in Harrogate. Here it is… Before, this room, along with the rest of the house was rather dull and uninspiring. Having been recently “flipped” by a property developer, it was presentable enough to sell, but in order to make it feel like home for its new owner, it needed a little love and inspiration. Before – 2020 And now in July 2023 Before During phase two of the project, the glazing throughout the house was upgraded to black Crittall style frames. Much more in keeping with the period of this property and newly updated interiors. After If you’d like to see more photos and read about the process behind this particular room, head over to the designated final reveal post. But to continue reading about Phase two, scroll on down… In March 2021, Niche Design Architects began working on plans for a modest extension and remodel of the rest of …

How to add personality to a new build

Published by Karen Knox

Hello everyone, it’s been photoshoot central of late so i’m back with my second post of the month. It’s another final reveal post, plus I’m sharing some tips on how to add personality to a new build property. The homeowners, a young couple were keen to put their stamp on their new four bedroom home so contacted me to help them with the ground floor. We worked together remotely during lockdown Mk1, me finally visiting for the first time in summer 2020 once the project was underway. Before I’ve written before about how new builds are some of the hardest properties to re-design as there can be very little to be inspired by. There are no fireplaces, chimney breasts, no alcoves or nooks and crannies to build shelving into, no high ceilings or period features such as cornice, dado and picture rails. The rooms in a new build are often purely functional, rectangular rooms which have been kitted out in low-mid range fixtures and fittings. One of the reasons people opt for new builds is …

The Harrogate Kitchen Design – Pre- reveal Post

Published by Karen Knox

Hello hello everyone! I know, it’s a rare occurrence for me to post twice in one week, but am so excited to share the updates from my recent trip to the Harrogate kitchen design, I just couldn’t wait. If you’re not familiar with this one (it’s been a long term project) you can catch up on everything in this previous post. Dining Room – Before (Estate Agent Photo) There are a few tiny things left to sort, some shelving, a TV and coffee table (and a bit of faffing of course) but that’s about it. So you’re getting the very nearly final reveal post today. Nothing has been styled properly yet but I wanted to show you the completely amaaazing transformation of this open plan kitchen/dining family space. It’s not your average kitchen knock through. During Now It’s breathtaking. It really is. That full height, corner glazing the diagonal floorboards, the artwork, it’s finally all come together to create my client’s dream kitchen. Let me show you are few more before and afters, because they’re oh …

Meanwhile… back in Harrogate – The Kitchen Diner Project

Published by Karen Knox

I’m sure you’ve all seen the Edwardian house in Harrogate i’ve been working on for about two years already. We have been slowly working our way around all the different floors, creating some knockout spaces for this family of three. The Drawing Room Upper Brook St Bedroom Family Bathroom and Hallway The Trumpet Bedroom The Copper Bedroom Well for the past year or so, we’ve been planning the biggest job of all. Knocking through the back of the house on the ground and first floor. Today it’s all about the ground floor and here are some before photos from the sales listing so you can acquaint yourself with the spaces we’re currently working on. The Dining Room A long (blue) narrow space with lots of odd boxing in. A bit of a let down compared to the rest of the house’s loft proportions, don’t cha think? Just, no to these blinds And here was the equally depressing kitchen: Another long, skinny room that felt dark and cramped, sitting two at the very end right next …

The Victorian Cottage Kitchen – Pre-reveal

Published by Karen Knox

It’s been a long time coming but the Victorian Cottage Kitchen project has been ticking along nicely (and sometimes not so nicely) in the background. If you remember we were “faking it until we could make it” by reusing all of the existing cabinets and updating lighting, wall coverings, worktops and appliances. You can read all about the plans and where all of the new elements are from here in this post. A quick reminder of the kitchen as it was on my very first visit: All of the next set of photos have been kindly sent by my client (last night at 9pm in fact) she sent me a tiny pic at about 8pm and I was like SEND ME MORE, I NEED TO SEEEEE! I honestly get so excited when one of my rooms comes to life in someone’s actual house. Especially when the client keeps telling me how much they love it. Makes all those sleepless nights worth it. Just. During So here we are, very nearly at the end of the project. …

‘Fake it until you can make it’ – What do you do when your budget won’t stretch?

Published by Karen Knox

You may (or may not) remember I started working on a rather big and exciting project earlier this year. The Old Forge The plans for this cottage renovation and soon to be holiday let are all pretty much sorted and despite a slight glitch with planning (which was super annoying and dished out but a week before the build was due to start) it’s looking positive we can get started within the next few weeks **crosses fingers**. During the wait for all the faffy paperwork to be shuffled, signed and filed, we’ve been chugging away with the family home instead. They sure do love a project! The floorplan below gives you an idea of their home, how the nooks and crannies of the cottage fit together and how they’re used. The sections marked in red were the bits to be demolished ready for Phase 2 of the big build. You can see how small and quite fiddly the kitchen/dining space is, there are seven doors in and around the heart of the home, along with beams, …

Kitchen Facelift – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

I told you it was coming soon! If you read my last post, you’ll know it was time for me to say goodbye to our gloss white kitchen. Feel free to have a little read of that one if you want to know the what’s and why’s… Adios white gloss! Here’s the wall cabinet layout i’ve had in my head for years and the one I think it going to make our little kitchen look hell of a lot better AND give us more much needed storage.I wanted to move the existing wall cabinets up towards the ceiling, wrap a third cabinet around the extractor hood and add two more open cabinets below, either side of the extractor. Simple no!? I didn’t want handles but I also didn’t want the traditional handle-less J profile design our original kitchen doors had. If i’d gotten my way, I would have had doors than opened by telekinesis, but as my powers of mind-control weren’t quite up to scratch, we went with push openers instead. Fair enough. It’s difficult to …

Kitchen Facelift – Goodbye white gloss

Published by Karen Knox

There’ll probably be a lot of people out there reading this blog post thinking, “there’s nothing wrong with your kitchen, love. What ya updating it for?” And one of those people is my husband. So I just wanted to say from the start, I get it. Me, wanting to update a perfectly fine kitchen might seem a bit unnecessary. Especially when it was originally like this: You can read all about the kitchen knock through we did in 2013 here. It’s still one of my most read posts as it seems a lot of you out there are still researching knock-through options, so it’s defo worth a look if it’s on your list of house jobs. And whilst i’m so happy with the new layout and extra space we created in 2013/14, the actual kitchen doors began to annoy me, more and more once i’d taken the step into interior design in 2015. I’ve been patiently waiting to get this kitchen looking more like me without making any huge changes. I didn’t want to buy new …