Mmmmm - Corian

Regular readers will have endured our search for the perfect kitchen surface along with us, and the end result is shelling out a slightly embarrasing sum for this gorgeous Corian worktop in 'Bone'. It's looks a bit like that roll-out icing you can buy, and has the advantage of a seamless sunk-in sink and lovely details like this upstanding edge pictured - which we designed to join up with the cedar trim we're using throughout the house. It's very warm to touch and - Adam tells me - makes for a very nice wiping experience too.
(Actually I did wipe it - for the picture...)
PS The uncluttered but still cute hob kettle behind is called Nio, by designer Oliver Hemming

Back by popular demand

This is our builder Guy McCollough again - his back anyhow - installing the minute kitchen that has obsessed us for months.
The recipe is:
Ikea cabinets
Spenny solid surface worktop in the New Year
Groovy round Baumatic hob
No visible clutter AT ALL (bets taken now on how likely I can be to keep to that)

All roads (nearly) lead to Ikea

We've been through the wars planning the shack's tiny kitchen area.
As enthusiastic cooks we want it to be a hell of a lot more functional than most 'holiday home' type kitchens and as it's open-plan its needs to look fantastic too. We have done millions of sketches, so has the architect and in the end we have decided to combine off the peg units with bespoke doors made in our own cedar.

Last weekend we made not one but two attempts to reach Ikea in Warrington (why else would you go there) to see the holy grail - the acrylic 'Personlig' worksurface with moulded sink. Gosh. This is after going to the Glasgow branch where they could sell it to us but, no, they didn't have one for us to see. Adam survived by eating his own body weight in meatballs and by the promise of soft-shut drawer fittings.

So, this stuff is the Ikea version of luxury Corian and LG Hi-Macs, two gorgeous but superleague priced (even via MFI) surfaces. We did go down that path for a while, and even designed it with both MFI and a luxury kitchen shop-that-will-remain-nameless in Kendal. The former was helpful but still exorbitant (the surface was going to cost 10 times the price of the cupboards) and the latter couldnt even be arsed quoting. Ikea has a tiny range of colours in comparison and one sink size unlike other suppliers.

Anyhow, on both days last weekend we were fought back by floods on the M6 and instead went to staunch the flood threatening the shack itself, still windowless. This was done with no tools to speak of and a tiny washing up sponge.

So this afternoon we make what we hope will be our last trip to Ikea's kitchen department