View from my kitchen island

 I once read an article on kitchens that said instead of making your kitchen the heart of your home - find the heart of your home and make that your kitchen. In other words, find the area of your home that is the natural centre point, the area where your home converges, and have your kitchen there. Not everyone is lucky enough to be able to do this, but when we renovated our house 18 months ago, we were able to do exactly that! It is a double volume space and is in the centre of our L-shaped house.

This was before the island was installed. The units on either side of the range cooker are inexpensive carpenters workbenches that you can buy from any hardware store.

This was the inspiration for my kitchen. It is the cover of a recipe book which epitomised the French farmhouse feel  that I was after. (The author is Marlene van der Weshuizen. She lives in Cape Town and has a home in France and runs cooking schools both in South Africa and France.)

The area is double volume so the chandelier had to be hung from a great height!

We bought the huge chandelier for a song! It used to hang in the Artscape Theatre complex in Cape Town.

The shelves to the left and right of the range cooker house my silverware collection and everyday crockery.

This is looking up from behind my island. Our bedroom is through the door you can vaguely see on the left and the children's wing is to the right. The chalkboard you can see is where I write the children's weekly schedule so I can see at a glance what kit has to be taken to school.

This is another view from behind my island towards the staircase.

This will explain the layout better.

This is the view looking past the family room to the pool.

And this is the view straight ahead towards my entrance hall and patio.

And this is the view towards my dining room on the left.

This is a view from the landing near the childrens bedrooms. They often chat to me from up here and, if they're feeling brave, through down their dirty laundry!

This picture makes me feel a bit dizzy!

. This is a view from the upstairs landing outside our bedroom. You can see the kichen layout better. The island was made by my brother who has a furniture manufacturing business. The top is oak and I have a big slab of marble in the centre where I do most of my food preparation. The island is over 2 metres long.

And here we have a night-time view

 Hope you enjoyed this little tour.


Till next time

Sharon x