TONS OF TILES

For months I’ve been dreaming of tiles, tons of tiles.  Wall tiles, floor tiles, metro tiles.  There are bargain tiles and there’s tiles that will cost you a month’s salary for a square metre.  Tiles that look like wood and tiles you can use both inside and outside.  Patterned tiles in a myriad of designs or colours.  So many to choose from both online and on the high street.  And therein lies the problem, too much choice. 

Eventually I bought the wall tiles for my kitchen having whittled the list of potential contenders down to these last four:

My top 4 tile choices

Top of my wish list was Lampas Peacock from Topps Tiles.  A luscious deep bluey green colour but needing a lusciously deep purse to pay for them.  Allow around £500 plus for 7 square metres.

 

Lampas Peacock - Topps Tiles

Running a close second and considerably cheaper at around £300 for 7 square metres was Crackle Glazed Peacock a metro sized tile from Tile Mountain.  Beautiful rich deep colour and likely to be purchased for the downstairs toilet refurbishment.

 

Crackle glazed peacock - Tile Mountain

Third place goes to Aurelia Kingfisher from Homebase.  Lighter in colour than the first two tile choices and flecked with black to add interest.  Often on a buy-one-get-one half price offer, bringing the price for 7 square metres down to a modest £262.50.

 

Aurelia Kingfisher - Homebase

And last but not least the Opal Emerald from Porcelain Superstore.  A beautiful jade green tile and very reasonably priced at £256.20 for 7 square metres.

 

Opal emerald - Porcelain Superstore

The prize for best kitchen wall tile has been awarded to Aurelia Kingfisher which co-ordinates very nicely with Dulux’s soft fauna 5 paint that I’ve used on the walls.  

How your tiles are to be placed on the wall is yet another decision dilemma.  Do you go for a standard brick pattern or the more complex and costlier herringbone effect?  Remember - the fancier the design, the higher the cost of tiling so what you desire and what you can afford may be poles apart.

 

Beautiful herringbone tiling

I asked Google ‘how high should my tiled area be? And got about a million different answers.  At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter if the tiles are only 4 high or if the entire wall is covered, it’s a matter of choice, budget and what might look best with the overall look of the kitchen that you’re trying to achieve.

 

How high should the tiles go?

As high as you want them

Tiled splashback 4 tiles high

In the end, I’ve decided to go 4 high and trim the top edge in polished chrome to co-ordinate with the sockets.  I feel that a painted border space at the top of the tiles frames the cabinets and adds an opportunity for the space to be used for other things such as hanging cooking utensils, cup hooks or rustic shelving.

 

Tiles topped with a polished chrome flat trim

Then there’s grout.  Boy, oh boy, yet another minefield to navigate.  Think about whether you want your grout to contrast or compliment your tile colour and don’t forget practicality when making your choice.  How many of us have struggled to scrub tomato splashes off white grouting in the kitchen?  It never looks quite the same afterwards.

 

Grouting colours - which to choose?

And so as the days slowly tick down to the festive season, the tiles are going up in the kitchen.  Here’s a sneaky peek of the un-grouted tiled kitchen splashbacks.

Tiling round the boxed pipes

Corner finished and ready for grouting

Tiled hob splashback

ELECTRICS - 2ND FIX

For weeks there has been no power in the kitchen - just a series of empty holes where sockets should have been or cables sticking out of walls/ceilings.

 

No electrics & no kitchen

We’ve had to make do with a single socket, extension lead and the builders tripod lights in order to fumble our way round trying to maintain as normal a routine as possible for things such as laundry or washing up.

 

Goodbye old friend

Our sparkie has now returned to do what is termed the ‘2^nd fix’, the final wiring up of power sockets, switches and light fixtures. 

In keeping with the rest of the house, the kitchen’s power sockets and switches are Scolmore ‘Click Deco’ in polished chrome and black obtained online from a company called Switch Lighting.  Look lovely but show up every finger mark so be prepared to continually wipe with your sleeve as you pass by as they won’t remain spotlessly shiny for long. 

 

Scolmore Click Deco supplied by Switch Lighting

There are so many gorgeous lighting fixtures available these days, it’s a devil to pick just one that will be both functional, fashionable and fit in with the overall theme of your kitchen design.  Keeping to the dark side of our kitchen’s colour scheme, I’ve opted for something similar to my old kitchen lights – a trio of modern, black metal shades hanging from a central pendant.

 

Vampsky ceiling chandelier - Amazon

Purchased from Amazon, this light fitting was described as a Vampsky vintage loft ceiling chandelier with black metal shades lined with mirror glass.  

Very glitzy but a fingerprint magnet

The chandelier can be used with those gorgeous old style Edison bulbs although I’ve found that for cooking, those bulbs often don’t provide sufficient light so I’ve used something brighter.

 

Low hanging lights - good for low ceilings

Good for rooms like ours that are lacking in height, this chandelier has a drop of 32 cm which means those of you that are not vertically challenged like I am won’t spend your time dodging the pendants.

 

Ready for our clam chandelier

At last a fitting new home for our old Art Deco wall lights and clam chandelier both of which have been wired up to provide a touch of bygone glamour in our new dining area.  The cardboard template is where our geometric mirror will be fitted once the walls have been painted.

 

Wall papered and ready for lighting

Wall light back plates fitted ready for clam shades

Outside the building, a pair of black exterior wall lanterns to light up what will be the new path linking the patio area to the side of the house and an exterior power socket for the lawn mower.

 

Outside lights fitted

Searchlight Outdoor Wall Bracket

Electrics completed – tick.  Allow a budget somewhere in the region of £1,200 to £1,500 to cover all your electrical needs and don’t forget to include the outside of the building as well when drawing up the specification list for your project.

DO THEY KNOW ITS CHRISTMAS?

It’s Christmas!  Santa’s arrived at Chichester canal, fir trees festooned with twinkly lights adorn the town, the shops are crammed with festive goodies, every other advert features a flying fairy magicking up presents or delicious treats and it won’t be long before our ears are assaulted by an endless loop of crimbo tunes. 

 

Only 46 mince pies until Christmas

Magicking up some late night wallpapering

Deco Paradiso feature wall in the extension

Confused?  I know the clocks have now gone back but seriously, Christmas is still a month and a half away! We don’t need all this commercialist clap trap for the next 50 odd days - it’s a sure fire way of killing the magic of Christmas.  Shelby’s so bored of it all, she’s having an extra long nap behind the sofa.

 

Wake me up when it's all over

I may only have half a kitchen but now that the new oven has been connected I’m making the family Christmas cake, a tradition that’s been followed for decades.  It wouldn’t be crimbo without one of my extra special fruit cakes laced with Southern Comfort and wrapped in tons of marzipan. 

 

Mama's got a brand new oven

Putting the new kitchen through its baking paces

Not having a proper kitchen can’t be used as an excuse for not bothering to bake so excuse me whilst I jingle all the way to the Neff having stirred up my booze soaked dry fruit and sampled a wee dram or two to make sure I've got the recipe correct.  Bottoms up!

Mmm - does this fruit need a bit more booze?

STELLAR WORKTOPS

Now that the kitchen units have been fitted, project pace is hotting up making it trickier to co-ordinate everything such as gas connections, plumbing and wiring. 

The new worktops unexpectedly arrived with only a day’s notice but look stunning.  

Worktops fitted

As this is the last kitchen I’m ever planning to buy then I’ve pushed the boat out and gone for a long lasting Silestone quartz worktop also supplied by Covers of Chichester.  Silestone is a hybrid surface of premium minerals, quartz and recycled materials blended together to provide a worktop that is resistant to stains, scratches or high impacts.

 

Silestone quartz - Stellar Night

The worktop is 30 mm thick in a design called Stellar Night, beautiful glossy black with glittering specs (stars) that spangle when the sunlight catches them.  Not that we’re getting much sunlight at the moment (squelch, squelch) but when we do our worktops will look like a glittering galactic disco ball.  Perfect!  Everyone knows the best parties are always in the kitchen.

 

Ready to party

Unlike standard laminate worktops, quartz ones have to be templated and fitted by professionals.  They will create the right gaps for sinks, hobs or pipes so no risk of accidentally cutting the wrong sized hole for your fixtures.  If you buy your worktops from a company like Covers then the cost of templating/fitting is included in the price. 

 

Holes cut to accommodate gas hob

New sink looks fabulous 

Quartz worktops are not cheap.  Even with staff discount, these still set me back almost £1,500.  I can’t imagine what the bill would have been for a larger kitchen at the standard price but be prepared to sacrifice an arm, leg and probably several fingers/toes too if you want these.  However, these worktops are likely to be around longer than I am so well worth the money.

 

Nicely rounded corners so you don't catch yourself

Once cut to size, the worktops are then glued into position on top of the kitchen base units.  Weighing a ton, these worktops are going nowhere so I’m not sure how you would fare if you ever decided to change your units for those of a different colour.  Probably something to bear in mind when future proofing your kitchen, select units and worktops that will age well, remain fashionable and provide value adding if you sell your property.

 

A classic look that should stand the test of time

The overall effect with the grey units and oak doors is lovely although it’ll be interesting to see how much more visible dust or crumbs will be on this type of surface.