Essential Kitchen Bathroom Bedroom Magazine September Back Issue

As the editor of an ideas-filled magazine like this, I thought it would be easy to plan my own kitchen project – boy, was I wrong! I’ve been trying to settle on a cabinetry style and colour scheme for nearly a year now, and am no closer to making a decision. For me, being constantly surrounded by images of beautiful kitchens is proving more of a hinderance than a help in some ways, because there’s just too much choice right under my nose. So I was quite surprised to find out that three of the real-life case studies this issue are owned by interior professionals who, like me, are constantly inundated with inspiration yet they have been able to pin down their own personal style and inject it into their home. Reading their stories, I was impressed by their decision-making processes and will certainly take some of their advice on board when narrowing my own choices down. As a design director of an interiors company, Andrea Milward purposefully bought a ‘wreck’ and promptly knocked down most of the walls to create her own dream home, although she admits she was her own worst client – see Project Perfection on page 22. Architect Angus Eital designs extensions and conversions as part of his daily life, and freely admits he uses his family house as a metaphorical guinea pig to try out his ideas, at least to a degree. Read In the Zone on page 38 and you’ll find out his carefully planned kitchen-diner certainly passed the test. As a double whammy, Debbie Pearce works for kitchen designer Neptune, as well as running an architectural planning and design business, so she was super-qualified when it came to her own kitchen project. She could have gone all out design-wise with her background, but actually created a beautifully subtle Scandi-esque feel – turn to Gently Does It on page 70.