Compact Kitchens

You may not be blessed with an abundance of space in your home, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on a luxurious and elegant kitchen. This month, we take a look at how you can still follow all the latest 2021 trends...just on a slightly smaller scale.

Small spaces can make a big impact and there are plenty of ways to create a jaw dropping kitchen, without feeling like you’re comprimising on style. Here are a few ways that you can still get your perfect kitchen, just in a smaller package.

Statement lighting Light makes the home feel more inviting, but there are tricks to follow if you’re low on sunlight flowing naturally through your home. Go big and dramatic with your kitchen lighting. Flooding the kitchen with light can help make the room look bigger. Pendant lighting in a metallic finish will help the natural light bounce off the furnishings to help create the illusion of space, and draw the eyeline upwards. Splashes of gold, chrome and silver can really make a difference in your kitchen/dining area.

Plants Take advantage of the light coming into your kitchen by adding small plants and shrubs to your window sill. A small herb planter is perfect for sitting in your window and can act as the ideal pest deterrent. Grow basil, citronella, lavender, sage and thyme to really fend off those pesky critters.

Scale down Ask yourself how many cutlery and crockery items you really need for your family home. A family of four doesnt necessarily need thirty mugs on display all of the time. Find a spot for the amount you need and store the rest away in case family and friends come over. Drinking out your favourite mug all of the time will surely lift your spirits, rather than reaching to the back of the cupboard for that chipped mug you had for your 13th birthday.

Mirrors Mirrors are the best multitasker in your home. Add a mirror opposite a window to have the light bounce off every surface. You could even have a mirror in the shape of a window to create the illusion of a brighter, more open room.

Organisation Arrange everything, so everything has it’s own space in the kitchen. A small space doesn’t work well if its cluttered, especially a kitchen. You need it to be clean and tidy in order for the space to function properly. Hanging pot racks, pull out draws....and my favourite; a pull

Harvey Jones, Shaker Kitchen, from £20,000 out pantry that slides into any 4-inch-wide space under your counters, so you can turn an unused gap into a mini pantry. Containers that you know will fit together, rather than a selection of mis-shaped cardboard cereal boxes, are perfect for pouring dried cupboard goods into. The space should be cohesive and structured, and you’ll never have to utter the words “Where did I put the corkscrew? again.

Go bright Give your kitchen a pop of colour to give an instant wow factor. Bright, warm colours that make a statement, interspersed with metallic features, will make a dark small space shine. If a strong colour isn’t your thing, have a clean white surface with a small selection of patterened tiles to add a fun element back into the room. Patterened tiles arranged in a geometric pattern draws the attention into a room, making the space look bigger. The image oppsite from Havey Jones, shows their shaker kitchen with a beautiful deep teal colour for the cabinet fronts, but also utilises the mirrors and spot lights into the kitchen design to help make the kitchen look taller than it actual is.The Snow Decor Mix Gloss Tiles from CTD tiles are geometric perfection, set at an angle from the work surfaces, the pattern draws the eye upwards and elongates the room, not to mention they come in beautiful pale green shades that add just the right amount of colour to the room.

Utilise every last spot In a small space, height is your friend. Shelving running across the width of your room, is perfect for additional storage that you just don’t have with cupboard space. The Harvey Jones Arbor image at the top of the previous page shows how a structured layout with what you need displayed on each shelf, can maximise efficiency, giving more room underneath the work surfaces for your bigger appliances. Below, an image from Wren Kitchens show how cut in shelves to the cabinets gives extra space for those extra little tranklements you can’t bear to go without. n By Daisy Bennett

Wren Kitchens

Reclaim your loft space

with Access4 Lofts

Are you fed up with clutter? Do you need more storage space? Well the answer could literally be under your own roof!

For many home owners, the loft is an underutilised area because it can be difficult and dangerous to reach. Warwick based loft ladder installer Access4Lofts (whose slogan is creating space the easy way’) can change all that, often in less than a day!

Access4Lofts provides a free survey and quote service so you can find out what is achievable with your loft area.

The majority of properties have an access hatch to the space in the loft. Access4Lofts create space the easy and affordable way. They can supply and install a new loft hatch and a safe, sturdy aluminium loft ladder in your home in just one day!

That means that your dark and dismal roof space suddenly becomes a useful storage area for all that family clutter. “My experience enables fitting the ladder and converting the access hatch, in double-quick time the space is accessible and I leave no mess behind” explains Wayne Reid, Access4Lofts, Warwick.

For extra peace of mind, Access4Lofts is an approved Which? Trusted Trader which means they have been assessed by Which? and passed their stringent checks.

For added confidence, they also have full public liability insurance, are DBS checked, and all work carried out comes with a Lifetime Guarantee.

To find out how Access4Lofts can create more space for you and your family or to book a free survey and quote visit www.access4lofts. co.uk/warwick or call 01926 679591. You can also find them on Facebook @Access4LoftsWarwick. n

ANSWERS

You’ve found the answers! The puzzles are on page 30

The Sherbourne Valley Project is committed to restoring the source of our city

Made possible by National Lottery players, the project is using funding of £253,600 which has been awarded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to help develop plans to apply for a full National Lottery grant at a later date.

In order to make this ambitious scheme work Warwickshire Wildlife Trust are working in partnership with Coventry City Council, Historic Coventry Trust, Coventry City of Culture, Severn Trent, Environment Agency, Citizen Housing, Diocese of Coventry and Coventry University. They also need the support of individuals and local communities to re-write the future of Coventry’s River Sherbourne by establishing an urban living landscape in which people, nature and culture can thrive.

Flowing downstream from Corley Moor, right under and through the heart of Coventry city centre and out to its confluence with the River Sowe in Baginton, this 10-mile waterway is rich in built, natural and cultural heritage; from scheduled monuments to precious natural habitats and unique histories. It is a river with many a story to tell across the centuries.

Having been long-overlooked and partly hidden for decades, together we are working to reconnect people to this special river and the surrounding valley, by making it more accessible along its length and offering immersive interpretation experiences to ignite imaginations. We will lovingly restore the architectural gems and fascinating feats of engineering that sit along its banks, take action to improve the river for wildlife – ensuring a greater biodiversity, and educate local people and schools, empowering them to protect this heritage for all to enjoy.

There are three main strands to the Project:

1 To reverse the decline of natural heritage so that the river can support wildlife to thrive in the city, providing additional benefits to people’s health. time these assets still have a value to people and their story is not lost.

3) To bring the river back to life for people through innovative engagement, helping them get a sense of the past, appreciate the value of the natural heritage they have today, and feel empowered to pass that heritage on to the next generation in a better condition.

Commenting on the project, Caz Bailey, the Scheme Development Manager at Warwickshire Wildlife Trust said: “we have plenty of opportunities for people to get involved and in the development phase a really important part of this is finding out what people already know about the river and how they would like shape the project going forward. We’ve got some simple online consultation surveys for people to have their say as well as a series of face to face events.”

The online surveys can be found here: www.warwickshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/RiverSherbourneSurveys

Caz went on to say: “Now that Covid restrictions are easing we are also starting a series of events and activities including volunteer taster sessions. The practical volunteering will initially be focused around Lakeview Park, but will span various sites throughout the valley so people in Coventry will never be too far away from an opportunity to get involved. In addition to this we are working with one of our other partners, Historic Coventry at Charterhouse Heritage Park helping them develop their “Nature Team” volunteering sessions. Please get in touch if you are keen to get out and about after lockdown and want to make a difference by joining our work parties to carry habitat maintenance and improvements.”

For more information, including the latest events and surveys, visit: www.warwickshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/RiverSherbourneValley

You can also follow us on Facebook: @RiverSherbourneValleyLL, email: sherbourne@wkwt.org.uk n

Warwickshire Now

To book into the August issue of Warwickshire Now, contact:

Kate Gilmartin kate@pw-media.co.uk 01905 727904 Lis Gardner lis@pw-media.co.uk 01905 727901