Help me 'style' my kitchen diner family room please.

[mumat39]

Hello

I have some pics on my profile of our kitchen, dining and family room.

The kitchen is dark as it has no windows. We recently had the bifold doors fitted replacing the awful thick plastic framed French doors which has improved the light somewhat. But the 'space' just feels a bit bland.

S what could we do, without anything major to improve upon it.

In the corner, to the left of the doors there is a cupboard that houses the boiler. To the right of the sofa is an under stairs cupboard whis is full of just stuff.

We have 2 dc, age 5 and 3, and I'd love to make the area warm and cosy and welcoming. DD is now at the stage where she is starting to ask for play dates so how can I feel proud of our house. It's all so practical at the moment that it feels just Meh to me.

The kitchen is now in what was the garage, and we were restricted o the layout by mains pipes coming into the house. I would have loved an island or breakfast bar bu this wasn't possible. If we have people over, always tend to be in the kitchen with my back to everyone, which I hate.

One idea I'm toying with is whether I could put a breakfast bar next o the fridge on the left, sticking out into the middle. The width between the units is about 160 cm. would this work?

What else would you do to improve it all? I don't think DP will go for reprinting the walls so it has to be changed with accessories.

Also, our table is broken and needs replacing. I think it is too big so am looking at a smaller extendable one. I quite like the idea of a round one, but would that work? I'm looking at the round Bjursta or the Liatorp from IKEA.

Many thanks in advance.

[QueenMaeve]

Its a great room I think, and you could definitely make it really homely with accessories. Some open shelving for knick knacks would be perfect over the top of the sofa (not too low down). Or a collage of frames of different sizes.
I recently added a red spotty table cloth and some small red chairs for the children to my kitchen, it really brightened the space.

[GrendelsMum]

Terrific!

Covering the chair seats sounds like a good idea - maybe you could choose a fabric to go with the duck egg tablecloth?

[mumat39]

Hello everyone.

Just thought I'd post and update to say thank you to you all for your help and also to wish you all a lovely Christmas.

I had an appointment with an in store home design person at john Lewis last week and she was brilliant. I explained that I found it difficult to accessorise the room and also to brighten it up. We looked at cushions and oil cloths and she explained how t try and add colour to 'tie the room together'. She also ordered some oil cloth samples for me. These arrived a couple of days ago. What she helped with was so obvious, now I know, but I couldn't get past the not being able to get things to work head, if that makes sense.

Anyway, I got a pale blue, sort of duck egg colour PVC table cloth and a duck egg throw from JL and the difference is amazing. The room just looks brighter. I also doped the shop your home thing again and found that some of the cushions I already have actually work well with the throw too. So for about £40 the room looks so much better and with the tablecloth we can now fix the table without worrying how it will affect how it looks, so that will save us the cost of another table. It still feels too big, but somehow doesn't look as big. I don't understand how that's possible by adding a bright tablecloth, but it does.

So thank you lovely ladies for your collective wisdom and ideas. It was such a simple fix and the colour is one of my favourites. It's not a perfect match with the tiles which are maybe slightly more aqua but it's definitely an improvement and it feels more cheerful. I feel a bit more with it now in terms of how to maybe accessorise the kitchen with some bright jars like the ones linked o up thread. I'm also thinking of maybe covering the chair seat bits with some brighter fabric as it's currently a brown suedette material.

I really hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and thank you all so so much for your advice, pointers and suggestions.

[mumat39]

Oh, never mind. Thanks for trying anyway. :)

I was interested as you said that your kitchen is similar to ours. When we moved our kitchen downstairs from the middle floor of our 3 floor house, we put the kitchen in the darker end as we thought I would be nicer to sit near the window end for longing and eating. I didn't appreciate just how dark it would be though, so I'm now wishing we'd done it the other way around. but then I'd probably be wringing about that

Hope you're having a good Sunday. Take care and thanks again.

[Karbea]

I've tried to upload some picts but they are taking ages to load :(

[mumat39]

Thanks Katz. That's a nice table. I think I have seen that one in dwell. It's a lot more than we were thinking of spending though. I'll search for some discount codes so thanks for the tip :)

Karbea, thanks for the link. That's really helpful. :)

[Karbea]

You might find this for contrasting colours, I think orange could look cool?

[Karbea]

We nearly got a glass table and a round one! But ended up with a wooden one.

Yes I will, need to do some stuff first, but promise will do later.

[KatzGold]

we nearly went for this glass table oval glass but needed to be able to seat more than 8, although 10 is a real struggle at the table we did buy! Its a nice table.

If you live near a dwell it might be worth a trip, they have a lot of the stock in store and they're happy for you to move the displays around, the table we liked had different chairs so we just rearranged the store!

Plus worth checking for discount codes, as we bought in store but they discounted when we said we'd go home and order!!

[KatzGold]

the corners aren't sharp but rounded slightly, but friends smaller children's head do seem at risk from it!

The chairs are really comfy, because our kitchen/dining/living is open plan it means when we have lots of people round that the dining chairs can be used in the living space and match.

[mumat39]

I should say I was looking for a round glass table before, but I think based on the concensus on this thread, we'll probably go for a square/rectangular one that can be extended.

[mumat39]

Hi Katz

I was originally looking for a glass dining table too, but the corners put me off, ESP as I have clumsy dc who I'd worry would injure themselves.

Do you have to be extra careful with it?

Those chairs you linked to are really lovely too. Thanks.

[Bakingtins]

marking place - need some tips.

[KatzGold]

We were going to have a circular table but they just took up too much room, we went for a glass one which has actually faired really well, plus as its glass its reflective and makes the light bounce, plus when we view the gloss tables they were horribly scratched which put me off.

glass table

We went for comfy dining chairs so that people could stay sat in the dining room whilst cooking/clearing after.

chairs this complemented our leather sofas

[mumat39]

Sorry, karbea, not karbala. damn autocorrect keeps changing words without me noticing.

[mumat39]

Hi Deux, thanks again. I'll definitely be looking at the JL design option now I know it's free

Karbala, thanks for your reply. Wuld you be happy to post some pics of our kitchen? I think the fact that we went for the colour tiles in the kitchen, that's confused me about what other colours to add. Ther are some brilliant suggestions on this thread so if you'd be happy to share photos of your room that would be really helpful. I can pm you with my email address if that's easier?

Thanks again for your reply.

[Karbea]

Hello,

I have exactly the same shape kitchen as you, but our dark bit is the family room rather than the kitchen.

The thing that really sprang out at me was you've used no colours at all. We had to work with a black granite worktop which i would have changed if I could as it sucks out light from the room but I've worked with it, we have a pallet of green (light and dark), grey/black and silver. I agree with the comment about mirrors you should try and get as many in as possible as this will help bounce the light, as will any use of White.

I did make an island so funny to see that link here(although mines better :) ). I've painted it the same colour as my family room feature wall, so to many the ends of the L together. But you can get one on wheels free ikea cheaply, but bare in mind width, I think adding one might make it look like you've too much furniture if your kitchen isn't wide enough, couldn't tell.

But add colour, something bright, I think green like me would work for you too, and it's an easy colour to work with.

[Deux]

The John Lewis in store design is free if you do it in the shop. I'm sure they will hope you buy but can't imagine them being hard-sell.

Great that your DH likes the table. What about Philippe Stark Louis Ghost chairs www.costco.co.uk/view/category/uk_catalog/cos_2,cos_2.1?1brand=Kartell. These are a very good price from Costco.

[mumat39]

Thanks again everyone. Just showed DP the next table and he said 'cool' so a good start. Then shouted him those coloured chairs, and he asked if I was trying to creat an Ikea Cafe look?

Thanks for all the links. We have a couple of cushions in that turquoise-y co,our so that's a good start. I hadn't thought of the design service. I just assumed it would cost loads. Will definitely look into that.

And I'll definitely get some pots planted up with spring bulbs. They'd have to sit next to the little wall in the garden as the doors are bifold ones that open out wards. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Deux]

OP, just had another thought. What about taking advantage on an in-store design service? Talking it through with them might help you work out your own style?

I'm linking to the John Lewis one here www.johnlewis.com/Magazine/Feature.aspx?Id=110

I think other stores like M and S do them too. You could take lots of photos in and you wouldn't have to commit to buy anything from them.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Agree with the others about personalising with things you like, thy can make a big difference to the feel of a room. But also maybe have a think about the garden as you've such a lovely view of it.

A couple of pots/troughs on the patio with a hardy herb like rosemary or sage in it, some spring bulbs planted to come up next year then a winter flowering plant like a cyclamen (you can get some that come back each year). Then once the bulbs have finished in the spring you can put in something that will see you through the summer.

[BreakOutTheTinselSantasAComing]

I think I would go for a throw maybe like this, with, say this, and maybe this to tie it all together.

[BreakOutTheTinselSantasAComing]

I had lots of fun writing it- I love decorating things in my head!

I've always found Next furniture good, I've had my bed from there for 8 years and it still looks like new! I would definitely go for square/regtangular rather than circular, as your kitchen is quite square looking- lots of edges and a stark colour. I always think of circles as soft, squares as hard if you get what I mean! (Yes, I am weird!). I'm afraid I have no idea whether chairs like that are wide or comfy, as I've never used them, I just think they look cool . I suppose lots of people buy them, or similar, would they be popular if they were rubbish? My tables an extendable one, it seems to work more that people sit on corners rather than straddling, IYSWIM?

The throw, I wouldn't worry about it falling, etc, as I wouldn't use it to cover the sofa as such, more as a blanket for the couch, thrown over the arm or back, that helpfully adds a splash of colour. And of course it's not vain to have pictures of your lovely DC! I plan to do this on my staircase, and I've raided my mums old pictures for it too. So as well as having pictures of me and DD, I have nieces and nephews, parents and grandparents, informal wedding snaps, mum and dad as teenagers, some black and white, some sepia, some colour. I'm going for all different sizes in non-matching oak frames, but the coloured ones are really tempting me for my kitchen now! I've seen the coloured frames in my local poundstretcher, by the way.

[Deux]

Sounds like you're getting your mojo back.

I was just browsing the OKA sale and there are some cushions on this page that might work with your sofa, lime green and burnt orange? The rectangular cushions might be nice running along the sofa by the arms, then patterned ones at the back. Just a thought on colour. www.okadirect.com/en-GB/products/sale/browse-sale/view-all-accessories?_view=all&_max=40

About a throw slipping off, you could just put it over the back and tuck it down behind the cushions?

[mumat39]

Breakoutthetinsel. Thanks so much for your reply. The detail sounds brilliant. I like that table from next too. Do they do good furniture? I haven't had much luck with their clothes. I really like the idea of the coloured chairs that were suggested up thread. I can't go back without losing this so can't remember the lovely mn'ers name who suggested them. cool!

I am quite broad of bum so would those chairs that narrow like that work for my shape?

I've always wanted a photo wall but was worried it might be a bit vain esp if it's just pics of my dc. I love the idea of the different coloured frames. I can imagine that would look better as it would be more fun. The pic that is up is of my dd and DS walking down a country lane holding hands. They'd gone slightly ahead of us and I managed to take the picture and I just love it as it captures them and how they are with each other perfectly.

My dc run around all the time, so that's the reason the table's pushed back. I did try today to move it to the other side of the room at a right angle to the wall but it's so big that there wasn't much room left and it'd in't feel right if that makes sense.

Ikea do a white extendable table in the Bjursta range that is square to start with and rectangular when extended. On the next one, when extended, do the legs get in the way so people sitingon either side have to straddle them? It looks like they might. The round ikea one, extended with the legs so they stay on the corners (if you can have corners on a round or oval??)

The pimp my kitchen link looks good, so thanks for that. It funny I sat down to surf and was wondering about googling 'pimp my kitchen' bu came to MN instead, and noticed your reply with a link to the site, as I posted my previous one. Isn't it weird when you get coincidences like that?

Thanks so much for your reply. I think there's a next home not too far from here so I may venture there next week to see if they have the table on display.

Thanks so much for our reply. I can really visualise what you mean.