Renovating our Kitchen
Holding our daughter, in our lovely new kitchen
AD. This post contains references to products received as part of a brand collaboration.
It’s been an awfully long time since I’ve written a post for this blog. And, when I say a ‘long time’, in reality it has been over two years since my last post (where on earth did that time go?), and goodness, life has changed. Since I last posted here, we’ve continued to renovate the farm, run our holiday let business, travelled to Hong Kong and Japan, juggled our ‘normal’ jobs alongside all the fun of the smallholding… oh, and we had a baby!
Life has really changed for Will and I, in such a beautiful way, but I’ll be the first to admit that motherhood has taken almost all of my brainpower, and what little I have had left has spent project managing the work we’ve been doing, leaving little to nothing left for writing or creating work for here/social media. But, I have always loved sharing my work and words with you through this blog, and I’m hoping, as I’m starting to feel more myself again, and as my daughter gains a little more independence, that I can see the possibility of writing more frequently peaking over the horizon!
With such a long break, part of me has also been thinking, ‘where on earth to start’? There’s truly so much to update you on, as we’ve continued to plough through the renovation work at the Farm, and are now entering our fifth year here. But, I thought the best place to begin is probably with the biggest physical change we’ve made to the Farm, and the change that has made the biggest difference to our living experience here...
Renovating our Kitchen!
Now, to really understand the impact and scale of this project, I first need to explain the format of the Mistal (the house where Will and I live), and the layout when we took ownership of the property. If you imagine a row of terraced houses, you will have in mind a picture very similar to the set up of our Farm. Half of the row is taken up by the main Farmhouse, where my parents live, and the last quarter on the right is the Cottage, which we run as a holiday let. The quarter in the middle, sandwiched between the Farmhouse and the Cottage, is the Mistal, our home.
The Mistal is quite an odd house. It would have originally been a single storey barn, which a hay loft was then added to, and which was then converted to a dwelling in the 1980s. It was “renovated” in the early 2000’s - renovated in inverted commas because actually, effectively a new build house was built inside the frame of an old barn. Not a single drop of character was left, no sign at all of the history of the building, and unfortunately, the workmanship left a bit to be desired too, both in terms of function and layout. And so, the question of ‘what on earth do we do with this funny house?’ has been a constant topic of discussion for Will and I, with many ideas thrown around over the years… ripping it all out and starting again being the decision more than once!
However, practicality and budgets have always been the end of that discussion. We have neither the time, the money, or the inclination to completely tear out what has been done previously, so our decisions to renovated in the Mistal have had to remain within the framework of what already exists. Downstairs, when we moved in, there were two rooms, both very long at around 7m, and comparatively narrow at around 3.5m. The feeling of narrowness was heightened by the format of the rooms; you entered the lounge directly from the front door, and to access the kitchen you had to walk the full length of the lounge, then turn into a tight doorway cut out at the bottom of the stairs. With windows at both ends of the rooms, it all felt a bit tunnel-like. Not to mention, the layout left huge expanses of dead space in both rooms, that just did not work for us at all.
The kitchen itself was ridiculous. In such a large room, the kitchen took up approximately 6m2, and consisted of a dishwasher, a sink, an oven, and 3 cupboards. The cupboards weren’t even proper depth cupboards; they were 30cm deep intended to be wall hung, but had been fitted on plinth so the previous renovators didn’t have to remove a section of partition stone wall. This wall had been left as a feature, with a laminate worktop bridged over the top of it to fashion some kind of breakfast bar. Absolutely fine for a very basic holiday let, which I think must have been the intention, but absolutely useless for a family home, especially as both Will and I love to cook and host.
After around 3 years of living in it whilst renovating the Cottage next door, trying to understand how we use the space, and how we wanted to use the space, in January 2024 we finally settled on knocking out an opening between the two rooms to create a more open plan living space. We had intended on starting the work in early 2025, and had found a builder who would do the knock out for us, as Will and I drew the line on doing that ourselves! But, as always, life has a habit of tipping any of our plans on their heads, and on a random Friday in March 2024, whilst on holiday on the south coast with Will’s family, I got a phone call from our builder saying he had had a cancellation on a large project, and needed to move some things round, and that he would be arriving the following Tuesday to get started.
Of course, I just said ‘yes, no problem, see you then’. And then, I had to explain to Will what I had just agreed to! I distinctly remember broaching the subject with something like ‘don’t be cross, but we need to go home and move out of the kitchen tomorrow’.
We drove the 6 hours home on Easter Sunday, and spent the Bank Holiday Monday frantically packing and clearing our downstairs, ready for the building work to begin.
I should probably mention, at this point I was 4 months pregnant, so I was practically no use whatsoever! Poor Will had to crack on on his own, and get us all cleared out. Anyway, the Tuesday arrived, so did the builders, and so did the dust. Oh, the dust! There was a lot of it, and Will and I stayed living upstairs throughout the knockout (thinking back now, we should have just moved in to next door, but hindsight is a wonderful thing!). In fairness to the builders, they were absolutely excellent and kept it as tidy as they could, but that’s an almost impossible task when removing a 200 year old, 60cm thick, solid stone wall. The wall was a beauty, and a beast to remove, but eventually, after a few weeks of backbreaking work, the steels went in and the space was transformed. Suddenly, what was once two tunnels of a kitchen and lounge was a huge light and bright space (though still very, very, very dusty!)
The builders had done their bit, and now the rest was up to Will and I. We must have been mad, but we simply didn’t have the budget to pay the builders for more than the initial knock out, so, off we went. We started by pulling down a false wall that was built part way across the party wall, exposing beautifully coursed dressed stone and gaining us another 6 inches or so in the room. It took an awful lot of work to clean that wall up (goodness knows how many wire brushed gave up the ghost in that endeavor, alongside using horrible brick acid to dissolve old lime wash, and a lot of repointing), but my goodness does it look good now. Due to some surprises along the way (old houses love to do that!), we made the decision to have a split level between the lounge area and the kitchen, to zone the spaces.
At this point, we realised we should probably be thinking about what kitchen we wanted to fit in the space. We knew we wanted something that would feel contemporary, but with a nod to the traditional and a classic atmosphere. We also knew that we would probably be limited by ceiling height, as the head height in the kitchen is just 2.2m due to the split level, so wanted to focus on base units, leaving the walls clear to showcase the beautiful stone work. We also had some quite quirky requests; I absolutely had to have an old doorway as open shelving, and a double Belfast sink under the window was a non negotiable! Some friends of ours had recently completed a barn conversion, and had their kitchen made by Smile Kitchens. Whilst theirs was a significantly different style to what we wanted to achieve in the Mistal, they had spoken so highly of the team and the design process that we thought it was worth a look.
As soon as I opened the Smile Kitchens website and spotted they had just launched a new shaker inspired kitchen, I knew that was just what I was after!
The Jenson range embodies a refined interpretation of the classic shaker style. With its clean lines, delicate beading, and soft matte finish, Jenson blends traditional aesthetics with modern functionality. Designed with versatility in mind, Jenson's aesthetic and thoughtfully proportioned cabinetry allows the range to complement a variety of interior schemes; whether you're creating a warm, welcoming family kitchen or a calm, curated culinary space. Crafted from high-quality painted timber, each piece features subtle beading which gives a lovely softness to the overall look of the kitchen. The range is available in 17 curated shades, or Smile Kitchens offer a colour-matching service, allowing you to create a unique hue based on a RAL code or paint sample for a truly bespoke touch.
After a quick chat with the marketing team, I have never wanted to work with a company more! The team were incredibly lovely, and were super excited about our projects, the work we had already completed at the Farm, and also just incredibly helpful. Within days, we had a design meeting scheduled with Corinne, one of their wonderfully experienced designers, and off we went!
Smile Kitchens provides an entirely digital design service, including 3D visualisations and home-delivered samples. In our initial meeting, which took place over Zoom, we provided a rough floorplan of the space, and Corinne talked us through the layout options we could work with to maximise storage without compromising on the aesthetics. We had already settled on a ‘horseshoe’ approach to the layout, but seeing this brought to life in front of us via a ‘live design’ session, whilst discussing the different possibilities, was so incredibly exciting, and honestly just the boost in motivation we needed whilst in the mess and dust of a big old project. One of the biggest things I learnt in our design meeting was never to underestimate the power of a great designer - Corinne had so much knowledge, it was truly one of those situations where every other sentence, she had another amazing idea that we just wouldn’t have thought of.
Our sample box arrived a few days after the first meeting, containing a selection of painted door samples, internal wood finish, quartz worktop samples in different depths, and a lovely range of hardware. The Jenson range boasts 20mm thick, matt-finish doors complemented by 18mm high-density panels and soft-close hinges, ensuring both visual appeal and durability. Each door features a visible wood grain texture beneath the paint, adding depth and a natural, tactile element to the cabinetry. I really wanted the cabinetry to coordinate with the ‘fixed’ features we had already put into the house, such as our doors and windows. We had these made by a local joiner a few years ago, and they are painted in Little Green’s Portland Stone, so you can imagine my delight when on opening the sample box, I found that Smile Kitchens’ shade ‘Pearl’ was an almost perfect match to Little Green’s Portland Stone Light, a shade lighter than our windows and doors. It was meant to be!
We paired these with 30mm Carrara quartz worktops, for a more classic feel, and brushed nickel cup handles and drawer pulls from Smile Kitchens’ Mix range. Nickel I find has a much warmer feel than chrome, and just feels a bit friendlier to me. Internally, we opted for the Lissa Oak effect cabinetry and solid oak drawer boxes, which feel so luxurious. We had a follow up call with Corinne a few days after the samples arrived, and drew up the final plans for the kitchen. We received a really comprehensive design pack, which included beautiful renders that were incredibly helpful with visualising the space, and really thorough drawings of each elevation, which were absolutely indispensable when it came to completing the fit out.
The best part? We had just 7 weeks between our initial design call, and the delivery of the cabinets. It was unbelievable - especially given were were on a very set deadline of a baby due in August! In very typical ‘us’ fashion, Will and I had decided we would fit the kitchen ourselves, though we did draw the line at the Quartz worktops and had those installed professionally through Smile Kitchens. The kitchen arrived in mid-June, and went in absolutely beautifully… once we had knocked out the stone partition floor, exposed and restored the stone wall, levelled everything off, replastered throughout and painted the beams (controversial, but it completely transformed the place). The Jenson units were incredibly simple to put together, and the adjustable legs meant it was relatively simple to square everything up and ensure it was level. We had thought it might be tricky to fit, but in comparison to the knockout and weeks of ‘putting right’, it was a doddle! We screwed the cabinets to eachother and to the walls once they were in position, and then came the exciting part - hanging doors, fitting handles, installing the appliances (oh, the feeling of having a kitchen sink after months without!!!), and having the worktops templated.
We used Smile Kitchens worktop company, who spent an afternoon on site templating before going away to cut the worktops, and returning to fit them a few weeks later. The team were incredibly flexible and understanding of my very particular nature (read: pain in the bum), and were super helpful in altering the cuts of the worktop to get the joins just where I wanted them! We even managed to run the worktop into the windowsill behind the sink, which looks so very lovely, and is also super practical. I love the brightness of the Carrara Quartz; it reflects the light in such a lovely way, and the very subtle veining just adds that little bit of interest rather than it being totally flat. We bought engineered Oak flooring from a local flooring company (Studley Meadow Oak) to finish off the kitchen, and ran it throughout the ground floor, creating a seamless approach throughout from zone to zone. It compliments the lovely neutral cabinetry and exposed stone wall so beautifully!
You can probably tell from this post, but I am pretty enthused by the entire process of working with Smile Kitchens. Now, this is a sponsored post, and I received a PR discount on the kitchen in exchange for providing some work to the company, but I am nothing if not honest, and honestly, I couldn’t have been happier. From the level of support we received, to the quality of the materials, the ease of install, and the beautiful results, I absolutely would not hesitate to use Smile Kitchens again in the future, and I cannot recommend them highly enough! If you’d like to discuss your kitchen project with the Smile Kitchens team, use code ROSIEANDTHEFARM to receive a FREE Design Consultation and £100 off your kitchen.
Use code ROSIEANDTHEFARM to receive a FREE Design Consultation and £100 off your kitchen.
