When did all kitchens in London/property mags start looking like this?

[AsparagusFern]

I'm a bit slow so bear with me but do all kitchens now suddenly seem to look like this?

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52431113.html

Huge knocked through kitchen, velux windows, bifold doors, kitchen island.

Nothing wrong with the look - I just suddenly realised that they seem to be everywhere.

I guess there does also seem to be a slight conformity to the look though, too. Just musing. Slow Sunday

[Amethyst24]

Actually the one thing I dislike about what they've done is the destruction of what must have been a lovely, mature garden in favour of a soulless "low maintenance" courtyard that will be no good for birds etc. One sees that so often and it's sad, I think. Especially as a family that needs that much living space would surely need decent outdoor space too.

[Milllii]

Its not a new look though, it was around in the 70s.

[BeaufortBelle]

The best are 100k and some

[DelGirl]

Marmite, can I ask where you bought your sofa's and dining furniture from please? Ta

[Marmitelover55]

Delgirl - the sofa and chair are G Plan Reto 1967 from John lewis and dining furniture is from a company based in Yorkshire called Living Homes - it's the Tuscany table and chairs.

[tellmemore1982]

Asparagus I don't think anyone does love there. It looks to me like a developer has done it up and hired furniture to help set the scene, so to speak

[Koala2]

Marmite, please could I ask where you bought your spas back behind the cooker?

[Koala2]

splash back

[AsparagusFern]

Yes Amethyst the other thing is that you lose so much of the garden, especially in London where they're often already small.

TellMeMore yes there's something about it that just says very (high end) staged!

[Marmitelover55]

Hi Koala2 - the splash back is a fused glass one from a shop called Opus Glass in Bristol.

[Indole]

Marmite, we have done something similar to yours. We have a small sitting room at the front of the house (television, sofas, carpet, fireplace) and a large kitchen/diner with an extension and space for a big sofa at the back. No kitchen island, I don't really like them as I prefer to have open space. I love our kitchen and spend most of my time in there.

It's very bright and sunny as we have velux windows in the roof and we haven't made it look especially modern - sash windows and french doors at the back and a more old-fashioned type of kitchen than the ones linked upthread. So I think it's in keeping with the age of the house and most importantly it makes a brilliant family space and is lovely when we have guests - really nice to be able to cook and also talk to everyone and lovely to have DD and her friends messing about in there without having to be tellied out. I wouldn't have done it if we couldn't have kept a separate sitting room, though. I really need to have a television-free space in my life.

Yours is lovely, Marmite, and we have gone for a v similar style. I think it's a bit friendlier than those slab-like modern kitchens.

[Indole]

I think also a bit of colour makes things less soulless. I see so many grey/brown houses now and yes, it's restful on the eye, but Marmite's lovely blue touches are just as restful and much more human.

[Rubgyshapedlegs]

Wow wee at the price! It's a bloody semi and a shitty garden and no garage!

For £100k less and still within an easy commute you get this fella:

Wellington Place, Wormleybury, Broxbourne, Hertfordshire

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33491643.html

[Devora]

Loads of houses like that round here (though sadly not mine, which is definitely dragging the neighbours down). I think some aspects work really well and will last - the light, the lack of separate dining room (who needs that?). But I think open plan can go too far and in many homes really has gone too far. Those huge bulky kitchen islands do not convince me. Breakfast bars and stools sitting alongside dining tables... why? Spotlights - please god going out of fashion now. Super minimalist kitchens - far too hard to keep looking nice. And bifold doors - I can't believe we won't be going back to french windows within brick walls.

[merrymouse]

Very standard London kitchen in that kind of house for at least last 15 years.

Unfortunately price doesn't surprise me at all.

[tomatodizzymum]

They all look like that in SW11, it's in most of the SW postcodes as well. We have a house not far from there and were advised to "knock through the kitchen and back reception room" (we didn't), most of the neighbours have a similar look. It's part of the move for the kitchen to be the focal point of the house and does make a nice, bright, home. I like a mix of some old looks as well, bit too show homey for my tastes.

[sleeponeday]

Tomato, I grew up in SW11 - lived off the Northcote, went to Honeywell - until I was 10 or so, and it is so weird, seeing them all that way now. Nobody had a side return built over when I was a kid, and everyone had those houses. It looks nicer as they are now, don't misunderstand me - loads more space, and the concrete side returns were just wasted space anyway - but still. Funny, seeing manky South London terraces in a formerly slightly dodgy area being redesigned so fundamentally.

[sugar21]

readthesmallprint. I know that development, and had a bf who lived in a house almost identical to the one you linked.His parents had a thing for ikea
Live a good long way from there now though

[tomatodizzymum]

I grew up there too!! Moved from Chelsea when I was 9, my mum still lives in SW4. We moved back there for a few years and now we're tidy on the rental market in the area (crazy freaking prices, nobody believes me when I tell them the prices). Mind you, my dad still lives in Chelsea and he's a bit lost there now, his flat smells of cabbage and everyone elses is like something out of another world

[WhattodowithMum]

I think this standard kitchen is more often the case of "filling in the side return," on a terrace house than knocking through the dining room. Once that is done, you have a big deep room without enough light, hence the skylight and bank of glass doors down the only available wall. Also, lots of white surfaces help to combat the darkness problem.

I get what you mean about them being a cliche. But they are a design cliche because they work.

We have a biggish kitchen extension. I love My kitchen island. We thought it might be too big at the time of design, but absolutely love it and would happily go even bigger. The storage and the work surface is a dream. We chose to go with natural oak cabinets and British, handmade tiles. It's very personal to our tastes. I think a white kitchen would be better for resale, though.

[Belleview]

My side return holds a ton of logs for the fire and some lovely plants and a zig zag washing line. Also, the back of the knocked through living room looks out onto the side return. The cats sit on the windowsills, both sides, peering in and out.

If you lose your side return, doesn't your living room become one window short?

[StaceyAndTracey]

You don't get much of a garden for £1.75M , do you ?

< faints>

< misses point of thread >

[Lollipopgirl8]

Also might depend on the type of kitchen if you go for say Neptune or a hand made style plus aga could be more authentic looking

Like this kind of

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/35338505?search_identifier=fc77b9558c28e71a9cbfe7889870130a#smfkx8ITOphmM5Gp.97

[Marylou2]

All the kitchens on our road, somewhere in the North, are pretty much like this too. Slightly more ornate though.A look my neighbour calls "Cheshire Life" after the magazine.We're about to have an extension built and I have to say It'll be pretty much like this.I think it works well for family life. Getting a huge grey corner sofa and a massive TV too .

[AsparagusFern]

Lollipop I like the quirkiness of that Stourbridge house! Lovely hallway. Though not sure about the wallpaper and some bits a bit twee. But a lot of character. I like the bathroom too.