We’re in an apartment building from the 1930s. The latest kitchen renovation took place about 25 years ago. The room is about 15 sq m and none of the walls are straight. It’s charming but it is also falling apart. The pipes and old plumbing are left here and there. The kitchen counter is some kind of disintegrated laminate. The tiles are fashionable peach … The wooden floors have twenty years of food crumbs in the cracks. Oh dear. Where to begin?
The first thing we do is to measure up the room and the adjacent space and draw every detail into a CAD-program for architects. When it’s all on paper it is easier to see the potential of the rooms. We want the kitchen to be functional and aesthetic. Based on those two principles we work towards the goal: a beautiful, unique kitchen.
Not everything needs to be new. The floors for instance will need to be sanded and treated. We’ll apply a thin coat of joint compound on the walls, sand and pain over. The old pipes will be removed and recycled. The heater is not longer needed and the room can be opened up to the small adjacent one. Our drawings are modified accordingly and the kitchen begins to take shape.
Meanwhile we have had long discussions with the owners on how they use the kitchen, what they prefer, what they needs are. Some people want to incorporate book shelves for their collection of cookbooks. Some want a wine cooler. Some want the under the counter refrigerators. Some even a duck carcass press …
The range hood has apparently not been working very well and by closer examination we discover that it has been poorly installed. The good news is that we are now free to move the stove somewhere else, closer to the outer wall and that greasy smell from the roast will not pester the kitchen anymore.
Instead of laminate we use limestone counter tops with a double bowl inset sink and choose an elegant faucet. Instead of 90’s peach tiles we use stainless steel keeping to our promise of a practical and aesthetic kitchen.
The owners have lovely linen that they have inherited from relatives. We suggest a spacious high-cabinet with pull-out drawers where the linen is accessible from both sides. Our carpenter makes special boxes to keep everything clean and organised.
We look at our wood samples; our customers go for ash. We agree. We finish our drawings and present the suggestion. The customers takes time to go through their needs again, easily visualised now. After a few changes the kitchen drawings can be sent off to our carpenters who may have additional comments.
Now we wait just as impatient as our customers.
The production may take some time. Making cabinets from solid wood with unstandardised measurements and individual details requires more than what you get readily off the shelf. But it’s worth it.
In the meantime the old kitchen is removed, the room or rooms are prepared. The floors are sanded and repaired. The plumber and the electrician do their work. The family anticipates the arrival, almost as if a new member is on its way.
Finally one day a lorry arrives. A lot of big carefully protected packages arrive. Appliances too. Suddenly there’s a furry of activity. A lot of mess. But our carpenters are in control and soon what we have imagined has become reality.
