Our kitchen flows so much better

After rushing things first time around, Margy Forshaw has planned her new monochrome kitchen to perfection

Margy’s first kitchen refurb didn’t work for her family so it was time for a change

About me

I’m Margy Forshaw @margyforshaw, an interior designer at IKEA. I live with my partner, Leigh Harrison, a motion graphics artist, and our children Bella, nine, and Robyn, six. Our home is a three-bedroom Victorian terrace in Leeds.

My room...

MY PROBLEM KITCHEN

When we first moved in, we knocked a wall down and swapped the kitchen and dining room around. However, having three doors off the space plus a low window really limited our layout options.

Our first attempt at redesigning the room was a bit rushed and having the island attached to the chimney breast just wasn’t functional as it divided the room in two.

HOW I MADE IT WORK

By moving the basement door, we could use one alcove for a fridge-freezer and high-level ovens. Flipping the island has also given us lots of worktop space and putting the hob in the chimney breast meant we could do away with the extractor.

MY FAVOURITE PART

I love how the hob is tucked away in the chimney breast and the open-plan shelving. I’m so glad we flipped the island around as you can move all the way around it now and there’s more space to pull the dining table out.

‘You spend more time on prep than cooking, so it’s important to have lots of worktop space where you can face outwards’

MY EXPERIENCE

We’ve redone our kitchen twice since moving here in 2013. The tiny galley kitchen was so small it needed a pocket door but luckily,

I never had to use it because we knocked through to the dining room straight away to create a kitchen-diner.

After removing the ugly stone fireplace, we opted for a large central island unit joined to the chimney breast, alcove shelves and a run of units on the side wall. Within a few months, I realised having the island attached to the chimney breast wasn’t ideal. There was lots of walking from one side to the other between the hob and the sink – not great with a boiling pan of pasta! The dining table also felt too close to the back wall.

Six years later, it was time for a new kitchen. Moving the basement door so the alcove could be used for an integral fridge-freezer and high-level ovens was a game changer. We also opened up the chimney breast, which meant raising the lintel to install a new hob 750mm away from the concealed extractor. This meant we could swap the bulky extractor above the island for a pendant light. All the appliances and sink are along the back wall as I didn’t want the hob or sink on the island. You spend more time on food preparation than cooking, so I wanted lots of worktop space where you can face outwards and be sociable.

As an interior designer for IKEA, I loved their new eco-friendly black doors made from recycled bottle tops. We picked black units for the back wall with white on the island. I did consider it the other way around, but I felt the microwave and oven would stand out too much against white. Having lived with the old kitchen for several years we were able to plan the space much better. We’ve definitely nailed it second time around.

‘The whole space looks much simpler, flows much better and everything is to hand’

Pick large drawers instead of a cupboard for easier access A simple, monochrome IKEA kitchen has given Margy the pared-down, streamlined look she was after. As she doesn’t like too much fussy detail, the fact that the doors were flat and matt was very appealing, and they’re easy to keep clean too Style idea

Style idea Blackboard paint makes a great feature wall – especially with a young family – and echoes the black kitchen units opposite

The new kitchen layout means the dining table can be pulled out a bit further. Although it involved repositioning the ceiling pendant lights, it gives the dining table more breathing space Moving the basement door away from the alcove made the layout fall into place and freed up space for the oven, microwave and fridge-freezer