Stephanie approached me at the beginning of 2013 for some general building advice regarding a kitchen she was planning on. Basically the kitchen in Stephanies victorian terrace wasnt working for her and she wanted a complete re-design on the layout. It was decided that the position of the existing back (left hand side of where window is now) was in a really awkward position which made any further designs on the kitchen difficult. We discussed the options of changing a few things around and we settled on the idea of bricking up the exisiting doorway, installing a window in its place and then creating a new doorway in the wall on the right hand side of the kitchen (to right of sink position) We decided we had enough space in that wall to install french doors at 1400mm.

The only issue with this new positioning of the french doors was that there was a stairwell into the cellar on the other side of that wall so effectively if you opened those french doors and stepped outside you would drop approx 8ft into the entrance to the cellar! Not a great past time so the idea of a wrap around raised decked platform was born. The decking was raised up to the height of the french door sill and then a trap door was installed to create access into the cellar. The decking continued around the rear of the kitchen extension and into the garden approx 2 metres. We also incorporated a storage area underneath the raised decking to store toys and garden accessories.

Back to the kitchen! Ok, Stephanie was absolutley 100% sure on the door style she wanted (despite my attempts to pursuade otherwise!) which she had seen in John Lewis in Cheadle Hulme. After a couple of attemps to find what i thought was the door style i realised a trip to the store was in order. I visited the store in Cheadle Hulme armed with the name of the door and colour chosen by Steph. I also took my camera to ensure i was looking at the right one! A few odd looks later and i had my photos of the door in question! After sending and being confirmed by Steph the hunt was on for the supplier which after a week or two i found! I got the samples and took them to Steph to make sure we were 100% on the same page which we we were. Marvellous! We went through a few ideas on design and came up with the design that you now see in the photos. The door that Steph had chosen was a white (was stone initially but Steph does like to change her mind lol) oak veneered door hand painted white which looks absolutely stunning now that it is in. Very contemporary and minimalistic yet still retaining the oak look and graining in the door.

The Blue Pearl worktop really contrasts beautifully with the doors and the blue ceramic style tiles really tie everything together well. Underfloor heating was installed underneath a ceramic tiled floor.

An altogether fantastic transformation from old to new which we are all extremely happy with!