Saturday, March 10, 2012

Fully operational

At long last I can declare the cafe at the nouvelle chez Daly open!

kitchen done

The old me would have baked a lasagne. A cake. Brownies. Risotto perhaps.

The new me made a low fat, low sugar, low gi pear and raspberry bread.

pear and raspberry bread

The induction cooktop is so far proving to be amazing - so fast and clean. The all white colour scheme is beautifully layered, it might be all white but there's definitely no matchy matchy.

My favourite thing about it is the honed matte surface of the smartstone - it provides a texture that almost looks like a patina on marble, I feel it has so much more character and life than all the ceasarstone colours. The whisper of grey in the splashback was a wonderful suprise - has to be the effect of starfire glass on Dulux Lexington White because you can't get much whiter than that colour. I'm so glad I didn't go for plain toughened glass, at the last minute I really went off the pale translucent green that it throws when it's painted white - even though six months ago I absolutely loved it.

When the back wall comes out and the sliders go in out to the new deck, the splashback is going to reflect the trees outside, creating a corridor of trees either side of the galley. So I'm very glad that I convinced the finance director by name and nature to stump up the cash for the glass, and not insist on the much much much cheaper tiles.

Another bonus is the 'runway' of super efficient flourescent downlights that we had installed in the ceiling. Not only do they provide a wonderful amount of light on the very high splashback, but now I have a permanent lightbox in the kitchen for blog photos.

parfait

We probably went overboard on the glass fronted powerpoints, at almost $60 each (and I think I got a wholesale price), plus $30 for each cut out in the glass, the three points came in to round about $300. I could have bought the tiles the whole thing for the same amount of money! And they're plastic.

So next up is getting the Development Application through. Realising I was way out of my depth trying to do it myself we engaged the services of a local architect. Worth every cent, they're going to oversee the process from start to finish. It's only a smallish project, but the paperwork! The inscrutable legislation! The ambiguous rules! Local Governments should be ashamed of themselves.

And do you remember the before?

kitchen old

Oh and as for knitting - with all the exercise, cooking and more exercise I've been doing on the 12WBT, I hardly have time to make a cup of tea, let alone knit. I did crochet a tea cosy in a great funky coloured yarn but I gave it away without photographing it for the blog first! I haven't given it away completely, but it's taken such a backseat lately. I hope it makes a comeback for winter!

10 comments:

Rose Red said...

Looks great! New kitchens are the best!

DrK said...

i hope the knitting comes back too, considering you are quite good at it. but wow, the kitchen! what a difference. just gorgeous, and so worth the wait.

Ingrid said...

The kitchen looks amazing, as does the bread.

It is kind of sad, but I think that i have a limit on my creative energy, and while I am renovating, that occupies most of it. Hence not much craft while it goes on.

Good news on the architect!

Janette said...

Love.Your.Kitchen!

Absolutely gorgeous.

Good luck with the renovations and look forward to all the photos of the finished rooms.

You'll get back to knitting. Making a home is much more important ... been doing it for a few years now and can say it is so worth the effort.

Donna said...

Gorgeous!

LynS said...

It's definitely not indecisive!

Ness said...

What an absolutely beautiful kitchen!

Ann said...

I love your kitchen - looks fantastic.

Jan said...

Looks fantastic, Ailsa.

Ruby Girl said...

It looks great! You always take good photos of your work, and the backdrop now makes them look even better. Love the look of the rasberry bread and the lavender.