Berlin Renovation – the Kitchen

People who love to eat are always the best people – Julia Child

I love to cook but I am not the chef of the house. I am lucky that my husband has taken on that role with a passion for food and all kitchen gadgets. I will never be skinny but I enjoy my food! In each place we have lived the kitchen has been a core feature and according to Feng Shui principles, it is one of the big three areas – the bedroom and bathroom being the other two. Check out my Feng Shui section for selection of colours and elements.

Challenges

The kitchen was a strange pink and navy, Jetson’s style, with strange curves and no – I have no idea what was in the mind of the architect. There were pipes that stuck out that needed to bee covered and a small wall that needed moving. We chose to pull the whole lot out and as we did, we discovered a major pipe leak which had damaged the wood floorboards. I have become paranoid about water leaks over the years and have developed a good nose for wet cement. We moved the false wall along to straighten out the wall and cover the pipes. We were going to need to be creative.

Our Choices

Our kitchen is the New Beginnings and Health and also the Wealth and Prosperity sector of the Feng Shui Bagua map. You may not be interested in this but I love the sense of placement and balance that it produces if followed with the Form school practice. The colours for these areas are blues, greens and the elements of water and wood and a partner element is earth. We visited various kitchen places and spent far too much on magazines and hours of internet inspiration search. We chose to go for the elements rather than strong colours as they blend with the living area and settled on a big kitchen installation company to help us. This meant visiting various showrooms as we wanted a modern, smooth look with an aspect of fun. We chose the kitchen with the following tips:

Keep it simple – stick with the 60%, 30%, 10% colour rule, we chose a buttermilk colour complimented with a soft caffe latte for the cupboards, knowing we were going to add strong touches of blue. Initially, we had the darker colour on the upper cupboards but went with advice to keep the colour of upper cupboards light and add colour in the lower cupboards. We added a wonderful blue retro style fridge that also works with the Health sector Feng Shui principles.

Countertops – we have had granite and marble and wanted to see what alternatives there were. The various stones just didn’t grab us; we had seen them all before. We turned around and thought we saw a brushed concrete and fell in love with it – it was laminate! They have come a long way and are able to be manipulated into curves and round corners which adds a softness to the kitchen. It also makes a great splashback. It is a great open area where people can lean and talk, which they do.

Storage, storage – big pull out drawers were chosen to store pots and pans and large dishes. Fold up cupboards were recommended to maximise space. To break up the cupboard look, we put in two sections of shelves. A tip: be creative with drawers and use IKEA inserts or other inserts for tools. I found bathroom inserts in IKEA that worked better than the kitchen selection.

Lights – we have under-cabinet lighting to create warmth and found a great gadget that allows you to turn them off automatically. This is where the fun element comes in; three jar pendant lights with the word Sucre to hang over the main countertop.

Flooring – the original floorboards were water damaged and needed resurfacing. A coat of marine varnish was added and it is still fine a year later. I have chosen tiles in the past so if you choose tiles, make sure you have large ones without a lot of grout to keep clean. I am. not a fan of cork or floor laminate and marble can be cold, so choose wisely as it is a big expense.