Home Improvements and a New Office

At last we have some news on the home improvements front. At the moment our outhouses are being transformed from a shed and coal house to a washing room/utility and a new larder. It is ridiculous how excited I am simply about having a larger utility and the opportunity to finally get a tumble drier. Then there is the larder! As we live in an older house storage is a huge problem so to have a room specifically for food storage will be a huge help. After my visit to River Cottage I am even hoping for some space to hang cured meat!

But something else that can now happen inside thanks to the building work is that I can finally have my own work space. The room that is now our small utility is to be my office. Having my own work space has got me thinking about how I will decorate the room, what will I furnish it with, as it will be my study I will need some work furniture. I already have some beautiful images for the wall which I think are fitting for my blog..

Ideas How To Improve Kitchen Storage

I do love my kitchen and I have told my Kitchen Tale in the past all about how we had to redesign our kitchen before we moved into our home. This was such an exciting project for us, but particularly for me. I have never had the opportunity to design my own kitchen before. This is our first house and we hope that it will be our last. When we designed the kitchen we added all of the storage that we could with the budget that we had. However three years down the line we have realised that we need more storage. That is the one thing that we really do lack. This got me thinking to how we can add more storage.

As you can see from the picture above we really do lack storage space. Our kitchen is not long but is very wide. So it is paramount that we utilise the space that we do have to the best of our abilities. I am no interior designer so I did what most of us do, I went online to look for ideas. After looking through many different websites I came across Homify. This website is jam packed full of ideas for every part of your home. From kitchens to dining rooms, from gardens to study and office areas, from living rooms to bedrooms. They have ideas for every room that you may have in your house including the outside area!

Extension Update - A Dining Area to Plan

You may remember a while ago I mentioned that we were planning to extend our house. Things are still going ahead but it will now be next year when we get the work completed. We have also changed our mind on the use of the extension. 

Originally we had planned for the new area to be and kitchen, dining and living area. Now that we have had all of the plans drawn up we are not too sure if there will be sufficient room to make the extension everything that we wanted in one area. At first I was disappointed but after a lot of thought we have a solution that will work better for all of us and maximise the space.

The extension will be built onto the back to the house, as previously planned and the area will be a living area and the kitchen will be open plan. But we will now change our current living room into a large dining room.

Therefore I now have an extra room to plan for!

This is both exciting and a bit daunting!

Even though we are not getting the work completed until next year my mind is already full of ideas! What furniture I would like, what colours to pick, what style to go for, what carpet to select and what blinds to go for.

The list is becoming endless!

Here are my ideas so far...

Dream Kitchen

You may remember a while ago I wrote about my hopes and dreams for a new kitchen area. Well things are moving in the right direction. If you did not read the post let me set the scene!

When we bought our home two and a half years ago we had huge hopes for it. The kitchen needed completely redoing, the bathroom moved from downstairs to upstairs to create a utility next to the kitchen, we took out the old fire place and had new carpets and floors downstairs. It was a lot of work in a short space of time. We saw the house as a blank canvas that over time we could make into our ideal, perfect family home.

Two years on things are now really starting to develop and we can see that our dreams are going to become a reality.

So what are our dreams?

What is our dream kitchen are going to be like?

This is what my kitchen looked like when we moved in...

The Extension Dream Will Come True!

Recently I wrote a blog post about my kitchen and how I dream of having a lovely large extension to create an open plan living/dining area.

Well, in the new year my dream will become a reality!

We will be extending the kitchen and making it the true heart of the house.

We will also be adding an extra bedroom which will mean that in the future the three children will all have a room of their own!

Along with the prospect of building work has come the excitement of being able to furnish and decorate the area. This is something that I am really looking forward to. It is going to be fantastic having the extra space and being able to make it all exactly as we desire.

I already have ideas floating around in my head. That is why I am writing this post. It is going to be great to look back on and see what ideas we had before the work is done, while the work is being done and the end result.

So far my ideas are...

A beautiful big Oak dining table with enough room for us all to sit

comfortably around with room for guests! I love this Oak design

with the matching sideboards and cabinets!

A lovely large corner settee is a must! This area is going to be a

place where we can sit and enjoy looking out onto the garden

while the children play. A place where we can all be together.

Then of course I will have fabric to choose for blinds! As our

garden is East facing we have the sun shining straight in for a

lot of the day blinds will be important! I am wanting to have

an open roof with skylights in to allow the maximum amount

of natural day light into the room. This will mean that we will

also need blinds on those and as they will be high up we will

need to make sure that we can get ones that we can close

with a remote control!

I would love to incorporate something like this into the skylights.

I can imagine having a sloping open roof with plants on the

window still against a pure white ceiling and blind.

(photograph courtesy of Roof Blinds)

Thankfully we have a lovely long garden so we will

not miss the part of the garden that we will be loosing.

The hubby is already planning how to transform this

part of the garden and adding a large decking area

coming off the extension. We dream of having large

patio doors that will open up onto a decking are with

an area for a table and a built in barbecue.

These are our ideas so far! We have so many exciting plans to make into a reality during 2015. It is amazing to think that this time next year we will have the home that we have been dreaming of and I cannot wait to share our journey with you.