Victorian kitchen renovation. Help please! PHOTOS

[Namechangedzzz]

Hi. We will shortly be renovating our kitchen completely. It is important to us that although it is a new kitchen it still has a bit of Victorian in it as the rest of of the house has a lot of original features. (The current kitchen doesn't.)

We have had pictures through which I am disappointed with but I think it is because they don't have any nod to the Victorian era in them which we will add through sash windows, Victorian style drawer handles, lights, tiled floor etc. The tiles I like are cream with a light grey and light blue in them but could easily change this. We are getting quotes from a joiner for the cupboards and also from the people our builder usually works with (magnet).

There will be a tall pantry where they have put the fridge and the fridge will move next to the back door (taking out some of the drawers/cupboard). There will probably be 3 windows at the end and not two.

So my question is... Bearing in mind it isn't a massive kitchen, what colour cabinets and what type and colour of worktops should I have please? Any help gratefully received!!! (Initially I had thought both natural wood by the joiner but DH is very worried it will be too dark and I think I can see his point.)

Yeah can see why you are disappointed.
The American fridge freezer is wrong. Could you not just get a full height built in fridge and freezer separately and hinge them opposite sides so it looks more like a pantry.
Was going to suggest a chimney breast but already a great pic for that.
Don't think the island works on feel or layout. How wide is that part of the room? Could you have a chunky table and half depth cupboards tall cupboards with open shelves in the middle or if you want the height make it more like a wooden butcher's block in style (without the hob)
A fancier pelmet trim with brass handles or a darker colour on bottom at least might also improve the period feel

For the in frame suggestion, DIY Kitchens do them decent prices www.diy-kitchens.com/kitchens/inframe/?gclid=CjwKCAjwvuGJBhB1EiwACU1AiTsTbv6kMt4klU32NWlXY__pecpTGpwNXd-Iw_MkKbWA12Bn5lAqCRoCrc0QAvD_BwE

The island with hob on it just doesn't work. It's too big for the room and too far from the sink. You'd be better off using one or both walls of that part of the room and having drawer units. Drawers can help achieve the Victorian look you're after. As will a range cooker.

My friend recently moved to a house built 1901. Has an aga. Used pine dressers and old pine presses. Scrubbed kitchen table and chairs. Looks sensational. No. Island looks like it was always there. Sourced on done deal. Cost about 5000 all in

That hob is just weird on the end of the island there….

Your tiles are all wrong, they’re hallway tiles. If I saw them in a kitchen I wouldn’t think Victorian, I’d be confused. Look at pictures of Victorian kitchens for inspiration, you should be thinking flagstones or big plain tiles.

Your enormous American style kitchen appliances don’t start Victorian, they say the opposite. Likewise the island (?) or solid table thing—.doesn’t work, lighting in that area (window and overhead) problematic. It looks like a corridor with awkward positioning in the middle, not user friendly and I don’t see anything that makes me think period home

Also your (modern) job looks like a death trap, situated in the middle of not one but two different pathways—from two doors. You’d have people crashing into hot pans from both entrances, plus people are the island tidying things. I also don’t think it works as an island because it’s too far away, at first I thought it was a weird lump table. I’d do a full kitchen with a small island, or else a proper wooden table here

Use more of your space, have a big aga that’s framed like the heart of the home. Hide all appliances. Blast out the kitchen window to make it a centrepiece. Big, rough tiles/storm floor that gives a homely feel. Make the kitchen itself less crammed looking by utilising more of your space.

Big hammered brass modern lights are great to give a Victorian nod. I’d also have a built in welsh drssser style plate rack

Some inspiration: www.artichoke-ltd.com/projects/victorian-countryhouse-kitchen/

What they have done well:
-light!!
-textures: rough wood, smooth tiles, rugged floors, the old fashioned dark metals, the hammered brass
-Welsh dresser to show off your finest, with careful hiding of modcons: the direct opposite of what your kitchen does!
-the cooking is out at the heart of the space, with Aga as the heart of the home, framed, emphasised.
-colours are gorgeous but honestly could be changed to a lot of other combinations—they’re not the issue with your design. I like how they use a range of colours and don’t feel the need to match too much—they have multiple storms, tiles and paints
-excessive pattern is the opposite of a Victorian kitchen, and often the sign of a bad pastiche, your floor needs to change

And Remodelista for a less literal, more modern take on victorian: www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.remodelista.com/posts/steal-look-makeshift-victorian-kitchen-london-mark-lewis/amp/
The key elements: plain, range is heart if the home, wood textures mixed with painted.

Some more modern inspiration: www.thespruce.com/victorian-kitchens-4801203
-mix paint, different paint and wood
-smooth, enamely tiles on walls
-stove heart of the home
-display your finery
-no pattern—visual interest is through textures and gently mismatched colours

Agree that induction job on island in that location is dangerous and modern hob and fridge ( which is very prominent) don’t look right. You need a small fridge with a hidden cupboard door

I tend to agree with the comments about the hob. Ours is close enough but it is across from the sink. We tend to prep vegetables etc. at the sink and on the worktop next to it. Carrying the washed stuff too far drips water. Water also drips and you drop stuff when transferring chopped onions etc. to the hob.

It drives me mad. I have got some scoop things now to help.

But I have a actually slipped and fallen a couple of times on water drips on the floor that I missed wiping up.

Thank you everyone for so many constructive comments! It looks like we have more thinking and planning to do before committing to anything...

Light light light

I would focus all my efforts in the immediate term in getting more natural light in. Bigger larger windows. French doors. Something, anything!!

And I’d get rid of the tv and put a lovely painting there or collage of photos

Floors I’d go with my beloved Amtico

Draw handles

You can’t beat Anthropologie
Utterly exquisite

Don't be too disheartened OP. I think most people start where you are and by the end feel they could sell kitchens for a living!
There are loads of online planning tools. Put your room dimensions into them and have a play yourself to start understanding your space better

I have an original Victorian kitchen units are 134 years old tiles similar I know it's too dark for you but it shows style of units above and cupboards and drawers below

The inspo for my kitchen was sort of Victorian mortuary as seen on (very stylised I'm sure )TV costume dramas. I went for a very pale grey paint on the cupboards and white quartz worktops (which look like marble-no sparkly bits) which we also had had a splash back between wall and base units.
I was lucky as our cupboards were already in and solid wood and had a bit of beading around the panelling in the doors so it looks a bit more period. Also lucky I that I have beams which we painted dark for contrast.
Very pale stone flagged floor. Fridge and other white goods behind cupboard doors.
My kitchen doesn't have much light so we also needed to keep all fittings quite light and it works well.
Brass handles and taps and a vintage brass light fitting. Butlers sink.

I think the OP just wants a nod to Victorian style rather than a full blown museum style recreation. A Victorian kitchen would have been a purely functional space where the hard domestic labour of cooking and laundry took place, far away from the sociable modern kitchens we want today.

I’d look at the details. Install cornicing. Use brass hardware. Ceramic sink. Glass doored wall cupboards would be nice if you can get them. Grey isn’t a Victorian colour but I don’t think that matters. They would have probably painted it dark brown. Dark green kitchens are fashionable and that is a colour from the right era.

The hob in the middle of the room is very impractical. Carrying everything across the room back & forth, washed veg, hot pans.

@Cactu

I think the OP just wants a nod to Victorian style rather than a full blown museum style recreation. A Victorian kitchen would have been a purely functional space where the hard domestic labour of cooking and laundry took place, far away from the sociable modern kitchens we want today.

I’d look at the details. Install cornicing. Use brass hardware. Ceramic sink. Glass doored wall cupboards would be nice if you can get them. Grey isn’t a Victorian colour but I don’t think that matters. They would have probably painted it dark brown. Dark green kitchens are fashionable and that is a colour from the right era.

Definitely—the key to this is to get the FEEL rather than copy.

If this was my kitchen, I would:
Lay it out as kitchen at far end, other end as like a casual dining area crossed with pantry. Big sink at far end with window, fridge to right, storage to left, then stove somewhere between across from door and towards sink—huge and framed, warming whole room. Framing in stone white, stove black if you want to go trad, if you want to be a bit more fun cherry red. I’d do all cupboard that end a sort of stone white.
Then have dark inky blue cupboards running around the other end of the room, deep on the left. I’d have a huge built in Welsh dresser at end, and have the window here blasted open. Maybe keep this whole wall clear and limewash or do some stone white panelling, or just keep plain. A big old fashioned wood table here, slightly off centre—pushed to right. You want solid wood and THICK for a kind of butcher block look. Hang three huge modern hammered brass lights over it, or modern plain metallic ones.

That way you have a clear path through the doors, a great causal dining area and whoever is cooking at the stove can easily speak with them (sideways on, so able to chat). You can keep sharp knives down in kitchen end, but easily get kids involved at the table.

Textures: rough floor. Stone white paint. Inky blue cabinets (I’m thinking the colour of the one I linked, if you like that). Contrasting metals. Trad black stove if you like that, or glossy cherry red to go more modern. Nice tiles behind the stove, you can have a bit of fun here if you want. Thick rough wood table for trad look, or if you want to go more modern here you could—a super modern interesting table would look killer. You need to blast open your natural lighting—that’s the biggest weakness here. Lighting in kitchen should be integrated, in pantry-dining either got metals or big glass rounds hanging (you can get great bubbly, hand blown modern ones).

Think of route between doors and keep clear—anybody cooking should not have to cross that, it’s a safety risk. That’s why stove to sink needs to be a line that does not intersect your door route.