The Loft Apartment Kitchen

I am finally working on the top floor of my house.  This will be a modern apartment for a post-grad student 'lodging' with Elizabeth.

The original three rooms were servants' rooms with a door in the back wall leading to a corridor.  I pretty much have to stick with this division of the roof space so that the dormer windows still work well in each space.  The bedroom retains the door at the back of the room as that now leads to an en suite bathroom.

The middle room also keeps the door as it is the entrance from the corridor to the apartment (stepping into the kitchen).  In the final space, the sitting room, the corridor door space has been blocked up.

Roof spaces with dormers are always a bit of a pain to convert (even in real life) as there is a large strip along the front that can't really be utilised  because no-one can stand up in the space.  In real life it does make for a great built in storage area for each room but if I do this it will (partially) block the view into the rooms and certainly 'stop the eye'.  I might add interesting stuff to the fourth wall for this space.(?)  A further complication is that this space is then broken up by each dormer window where is actually enough room to stand upright.

So, with 4.5 inches 'trimmed from the front the remaining workable space gives me three rooms each 10.5" deep by a little under 12" wide.

If you are interested in the space, click on this to enlarge the photo

I do have to have a door cut through one of the side walls between the original bedrooms. I got my 'handy-man' to cut a hole in the right hand wall for an interior door: this leads into the bedroom so that would need the privacy of a door.  

Using my fabulous (!) universal two-inch cardboard cupboards, I worked that I can get three kitchen units along the remaining wall: a six-inch run.

So, over here there will be four 1.5" floor cupboards with an under-counter s/s sink, with two wall cupboards.  The water pipes etc would be on that side of the room as the en-suite bathroom is nearby.

On the other side of the room I use my trusty friend.... still carrying her books, poor woman..... to test out how far out we can go before we bang our head.  I intend to just chop the wall out here, as if it had been knocked through, so the kitchen and sitting room is sort of semi-open plan.  I don't want actual open plan because the roof in real life would need support and I want to retain some of the wall so I can add wall cupboards in what will be a very tiny kitchen.  Looks like I can get an eight inch run on this side.

 The base cupboards have a small built-in oven and s/s fridge (with a small freezer box inside it).  The right-hand cupboard has now been changed to a set of drawers.  Above these will be two cupboards, an extractor hood and a built-in microwave.

Since sketching out these rough plans I have also decided to go with white gloss and no handles...all very sleek.  This is the 'feel' I am going for......  on a much smaller scale!

The wonderful, wonderful, Elizabeth from ELF has been her usual patient and super-helpful self and after a flurry of emails we have arrived at solutions for it all, including a 'real' pale grey granite worktop from the equally lovely Graham from Dollshouse Flooring.  You may remember his Decrastone which I used for the hearths in front of my fireplaces. 

(25/08/17)