Our old kitchen was tiny
Jo MacFarlane wanted a kitchen she could eat in
Feature Alison Gibb Photos Doug Gibb
RESTORE YOURSELF
Jo often buys furniture at auction to paint and distress. She uses Annie Sloan paints and loves the results you get from the wax finish; the stools were £5 each and are painted in Emile, the freestanding cupboard was £30 and is painted in Original.
When Jo and Stuart bought their detached Victorian villa, it was divided into two flats; there was a tiny kitchen downstairs that they knew would be inadequate for their family. ‘We quickly decided to turn what had been a back bedroom into the kitchen,’ Jo explains. They used an app designed by the interiors website Houzz to help them visualise their choices. ‘You input the dimensions and the window positions and it helped us decide whether to put the kitchen in the front or the back of the house, work out the layout, and even how may units we needed. It is great for helping you make decisions,’ Jo claims. They considered knocking down the wall between what is now the kitchen and the dining room, but decided to wait. ‘Knocking down a supporting wall is a major undertaking and we were just not ready, we actually quite like the separation and enjoy cosy suppers and casual lunches in the kitchen and save the dining room for entertaining and family get-togethers.’