Back in 2003, Tony and Sheila Huggett’s bespoke kitchen was featured in Ideal Home Magazine, showcasing their painted Shaker style cabinetry:
“After 20 years of living with their small, impractical kitchen, Sheila and Tony Huggett decided it was time for a complete change. ‘We wanted to increase the size of the room as the old one was really too small for us and our two grown-up children, Nicky and Christopher, who are both in their early twenties,’ Tony explains. ‘I’d fitted some old pine units in 1981, which, in the past few years, were starting to look very dated and worn with the usual wear and tear. We also needed to fit a new floor as the old one was very uneven. It was made up of a combination of quarry tiles, concrete and floorboards, all of which were covered with patterned lino.’
The couple didn’t want to gut the entire room as they had an original 1930’s built-in dresser that Shelia loved. ‘We decided to add a small extension onto the end of the kitchen, and kept the old picture window so that it could be fitted at one end of the new room,’ says Sheila. ‘There was also a small area that used to be a boiler room so we worked that into the design and turned it into a utility area. I had always wanted an Aga, and we had the great idea to use it as a sort of divide between the two different zones.’
With the extension in full swing, the couple started to think about the style of units and the colour scheme of the room. ‘Tony wanted stainless-steel units throughout,’ says Sheila, ‘but I preferred the look of hand-built painted cupboards and drawers. I also thought it was important that the units fit with the look of the Aga and the existing 1930s dresser.’ Tony made a few sketches and they approached D.G. Clifton & Son to design the bespoke kitchen units. ‘Having resolved our differences over the style of units, we couldn’t decide on the exact shade of the paint to use,’ laughs Sheila. ‘In the end, we went with a suggestion from the kitchen designer, who recommended a lovely shade of blue.’
Once the Aga had been fitted, the couple chose solid maple worktops and a vinyl wood-effect floor to break up the run of blue units. Plain off-white wall tiles, enlivened with a strip of dark blue, provides a stylish, classic backdrop to the Aga, which is also framed by two fitted cupboards and a mantel, all made by kitchen designer D.G. Clifton & Son.
‘We’re so happy with the finished look, as it incorporates old and new, with the wooden dresser and Aga sitting perfectly with the hand-made units and new stainless-steel appliances,’ smiles Sheila. ‘It’s inspired us to tackle the rest of the house now, but only if we can both agree on styles and colours!’
To download a PDF of the full article, please click here.
To visit the website of Ideal Home magazine, please click here.
Supplier Details
- Cabinetry – D.G. Clifton & Son
- Paint – Farrow & Ball and Fired Earth
- Appliances – Liebherr and Neff, supplied by RDO Kitchen Appliances
- Aga – Hoad & Taylor
- Sink – Armitage Shanks
- Taps – Lefroy Brooks
- Flooring – Competitive Carpets
- Tiles – Fired Earth
- Table – Habitat
Tags: Aga, Belfast Sink, Ideal Home, Kitchen, Painted, Pewter, Shaker
