Join me on a tour of the Ask Charlie kitchen!
This week I'm giving you a tour of the kitchen!
I have so many people asking about how to best layout your kitchen and how to make it work for you, so I thought I would show you mine.
Your kitchen is a very personal thing, you've got to have a layout that works for you. The kitchen is the heart of the home, I find. I'm spending so much time in here, so I need to know exactly where everything is.
Everything has its place. If one of the children says, "Mummy, where's that?" I can say, "It's in the second drawer down on the right-hand side." And they can go to it. They also know if they're emptying the dishwasher, exactly where everything lives. It's so important that you have things in the same place, and you are organised within your space. It's also important not to have it too cluttered. We've got a big kitchen island in the middle where everybody dumps everything, and it can get so frustrating!
When I designed our kitchen 10 years ago, we had some wonderful local kitchen designers that I worked with named DG Clifton. I have to say back then I was never planning to do the extent of cooking that I am nowadays! But I love it.
Ours is very much a family kitchen. I do have quite a lot of things in the space because I'm doing so much cooking and catering. So nowadays my cupboards are possibly more full than they would be if I wasn't doing that. Our fridge is full at the moment, as is the larder. We had a big food delivery that arrived yesterday, it's not always quite so jam-packed, but I filmed this tour during the third UK lockdown so took advantage of having a delivery slot already booked and stocked up on things.
The Island:
I've got a big kitchen island with three bar stools. I spend a lot of my time sitting at the island, and I often work from here with my diary and my laptop. Under the island, three cupboards contain cake tins and dishes, and things that I don't use every day. So they're not easily accessible, but it's important to have in my kitchen. I can get to them if needs be, but I'm not in and out of there all the time.
Cupboards to the left of the fridge:
Behind the bar stools, I've got cupboards and our fridge, which is just the best fridge ever. Inside the cupboard, I have got my Kenwood, my Magimix, and various bits that go with the Kenwood and Magimix. Up above those I have my medicines. They're easy to get to because we're in this space all the time. If the children come in from outside, and they need a plaster or something else from the box, I've got it to hand up there.
Drawers below the cupboards:
Inside these drawers, I've got various scales and things like that.
Above the fridge/freezer:
Up above, I've got big cooking pans for the AGA.
Cupboards to the right of fridge/freezer:
Inside these cupboards, we have got our toaster. I keep Nesquik, my matcha, which I drink all the time and hot chocolate in there. We've got our mugs, wine glasses and various mugs up there that I'm not using all the time, or they're special ones I don't want to get broken that the children can't reach easily.
Drawers below cupboard:
I have all of our everyday cutlery in the top drawer. The drawer below is full of plastic bits and pieces that the children can easily reach and help themselves to. But I'm hoping that as they're getting a bit older, we're not going to need this drawer for much longer and then I can have an additional drawer for linens! Below this drawer, I've got oven gloves, tea towels, and similar pieces which is handy if there's a spillage. The children know that they can just grab one of these. They're just everyday pieces, not special things that I'm precious about. Those I keep in a dresser elsewhere.
Beside the drawers:
To the right of the drawers, I've got an under counter fridge. This is predominantly a drinks fridge, but if I'm catering it's really useful.
Above the fridge:
Above the under-counter fridge, we've got a microwave which is hidden away. I don't like microwaves, and I don't use it very often. But it's handy in the summer if the AGA's turned off and I need to heat something. But I do like to keep it hidden away.
Above the microwave:
In here I just have everyday china. I've got egg cups and some serving dishes, and then some jugs and additional glasses and things.
The right-hand side of the kitchen:
I have a bit of a system going on here. I have got my dishwasher on the far right, which is handy because the children can bring their plates over from the table, or if they're eating at the island, they can just put them on the worktop above the dishwasher.
Butler sink with two sections:
The left-hand sink I tend to use for soaking and washing veg. I've got my corner strainer, which lives there all the time and is handy for rinsing veg that's coming from the garden, or straining peas, or something like that. And then my sink on the right is my 'clean' sink for washing up. The draining side is on the right. So we go from dirty to clean.
I spend a lot of time standing at the kitchen sink, so I think it's lovely to have a sink with a view. Whether that's to outside, to the garden, ours is onto the breakfast room so if the children are sitting there eating, I can chat to them if I'm not sitting at the table with them. I've got a TV up there as well. So if I'm spending a lot of time washing up, I can watch that! It's just lovely to have a really pleasant view and is just perfect because whatever I'm doing, I'm very much part of what's going on.
AGA:
I leave things to drain next to the sink, but I also do a lot of my drying up on my AGA. I'm going to be running an AGA course on the 25th of January, it's a five-day online course where I'll be talking about all the benefits of having an AGA in your home.
Ours is central to our home. We use it in so many different ways for so many different things, which I will be delving deep into during the AGA course!
Beside the sink:
To the right of the sink, I have got my bins with two sections, rubbish and recycling, which is handy to have close to the sink and dishwasher.
Under the sink:
So under our kitchen sink, I've got bin bags, tissues, clean cloths, my rubber gloves, everyday kitchen cleaning products, washing up liquid and dishwasher tablets. Then I've got a dirty floor cloth that the children know they can grab if something's spilt on the floor.
Corner cupboards:
I've got two great corner cupboards, which store things like measuring jugs, glass bowls, and sieves and saucepans, Le Creuset's, a little milk pan, and I've got salad strainer down there as well.
Drawer above:
This drawer has various things inside including charging leads.
Corner of the kitchen atop the work surface:
I've got my chopping boards and my utensils that I'm using a lot of the time in the corner. I've also got tea, coffee, sugar, biscuits and my Soda Stream. I drink a lot of hot water with lemon and ginger so I keep that out because I'm probably making six, seven, eight a day.
My chopping boards sit on a great chopping board divider so they're not touching one another, which is much more hygienic. You don't want your chopping boards all stacked up together because all the bacteria and germs can breed in between.
Shelves above:
The shelves above house everyday cookery books with a lovely picture that Sigh brought me saying "Victory is in the kitchen," beside them which I love!
The Garden Room:
Our garden room was originally the patio and housed my washing machine, outside loo and the boiler. It was great to get those moved into the house. We did a lot of work when we bought this house to make it a home, and one that works well for us.
Other side of the island:
On this side of the kitchen island, I have got things that I'm using all the time. Inside the drawers, I have got various utensils, which I am using frequently, smaller AGA trays and various dishes, and my cheese grater, frying pans, lots of different pieces of Bacoglide, and my big AGA tray.
In the cupboards either side of the drawers, I have got Tupperwares and a few more dishes, the handy compost bin, pudding bowls, a few more jam jars, quiche dishes, and my pestle and mortar.
The kitchen floor:
I chose to go for a wooden floor in our kitchen because it's just gentler on everything. It's easier to stand on all day, not like a stone floor. It's gentler on the children when they were smaller and they'd fall over and bump themselves. It's easy to maintain. If you drop something, it is less likely to break and shatter.
I hoover our floor every day, and I mop it once a week. It's got underfloor heating as well.
They're engineered Oak panels, and I love them! They've been down for 10 years and could probably do with a little bit of TLC, but actually, I don't mind the rustic worn look, because it just shows that it's a well lived-in family home.
The Larder:
Last but not least, one of my favourite, favourite cupboards in the house is our larder. Now ideally, if you are designing or kitchen from scratch, you would have your larder cupboard on an external wall to keep it cool. We didn't have that option here. It's double doors and we've used the doors as storage. It's lined with shelves, and everything is labelled and organized.
I hope that you have enjoyed my kitchen tour. If you'd like more info about the AGA course that's coming up on the 25th of January, please do let me know! If you're interested and watching this after the course has ended, drop me a message, send me a line because I will be doing future courses at some point.
Wishing you all a very, very happy weekend. Thank you for watching. I hope you found it useful!
Love, Charlie x