How Carbon Monoxide Kills You

 

by Mark

This is a sobering read that I found at the chemistry.about.com website.

How Carbon Monoxide Kills You:

When you breathe in carbon monoxide, it enters your lungs and binds to the hemoglobin in your red blood cells. The problem is that hemoglobin binds to carbon monoxide over oxygen, so as the level of carbon monoxide increases, the amount of oxygen your blood carries to your cells decreases. This leads to oxygen starvation or hypoxia.

At low concentrations, the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning resemble the flu: headache, nausea, fatigue. Continued exposure or higher concentrations can lead to confusion, dizziness, weakness, drowsiness, severe headache, and fainting. If the brain doesn’t get enough oxygen, carbon monoxide exposure can lead to unconsciousness, coma, permanent brain damage, and death. The effects can become deadly within minutes, but long-term low-level exposure is not uncommon and leads to organ damage, disease, and a slower death.

Infants, children, and pets are more susceptible to the effects of carbon monoxide than adults, so they are at greater risk for poisoning and death. Long term exposure can lead to neurological and circulatory system damage, even when the levels aren’t high enough to produce a significant effect in adults.

For the full document click here if you can bear to read more.

Now you may wonder why on earth I found myself on a chemistry website reading how this perfect killer can actually kill you. The reason was a troubling story from my parents that although having a silver lining was still a scary wake up type of call. They are blessed with the joy of living in a place where an open working fireplace is allowed. They enjoy and while their long dark cold winter nights away by snuggling up to a real fire and staring at the dance of the flames, mesmerising as they can be. However unbeknown to them some local birdlife had decided that the chimney pot on my parents’ roof looked like the ideal spot to build their dream nest. This set up the scenario for the potential murder of my parents. It was only by the sheer luck of my sister happening to choose that particular moment to visit my parents. She knocked politely as you do, no response, so ventured inside to find my parents asleep and unresponsive, hit the panic button! Doctors, hospitals and sometime later they are ok, thankfully, but that story was way, way to close for comfort.

Carbon Monoxide is scary stuff, so it is important for every home to have their own CO detector.

There are several warning signs in your home that could mean you have a carbon monoxide issue. Here are a few things to look out for:

• The flame on your cooker should be crisp and blue. Yellow or orange flames mean you need to get your cooker checked
• Dark staining around or on appliances
• Sooty marks on the walls around boilers, stoves or the cover of gas fires
• Pilot lights that frequently go out
• Increased condensation inside windows

If you want to know more about Carbon Monoxide and how to effectively protect your home please visit Corgi HomePlan.

Carbon Monoxide gas is a colourless and odourless silent killer.

Don’t wait.

Protect yourself and your family now.

Time for a change, time for entertainment

With New Year comes the obligatory New Year’s resolution.

I’ve made a few “promises” to myself and one of them is to entertain more (aka stop being a cave-dweller). I would like to have our friends over much more often, maybe throw a few more dinner parties and in general be more sociable. To achieve it, I need space. So the question becomes: What do I do?

Currently, we have a kitchen / dinner with a table set for four and a front room designed around our family entertainment – large sofa, space to play jumpy console games and to chillax in general. I think the front room will have to stay as it is simply because it is our family space and besides I don’t know how to tell Mark his front room is about to change. Now the dining room part of the downstairs area might just be the subject of a make-over.

In order to entertain I will need space. If we have more than two people visit us be are quickly reminded of a major drawback to us entertaining. Sitting for hours on little wooden stools is not very comfortable, no matter how good the food, the company or even how many drinks you have had 😉 and there is no room to add full size chairs as the table just isn’t long enough, oh and it has very fat legs that don’t help.

So, what to do now?

The easiest solution would be to just buy a new set of slim chairs, but as our furniture’s quite old I am not able to find anything to match it nicely.

I like dark wood; solid wood, heavy furniture is very me but they make the space seems smaller and darker than it actually is. The more I think about it the more I feel I might be ready for a change.

I had a look around for some inspirations and I have a few ideas for my new dining room. I think I would still like to stick with the wood and keep the same rectangular shape of the table, but maybe this time we should get something lighter, with a more modern look…

What do you think about my choices?

Would you attempt a make-over just to satisfy your need for fulfilling a New Year’s resolution?

Do you think I should just stick with my old furniture and maybe invest in some soft cushions to make long evenings by the table more comfortable?

I know this is a long list of questions but I am quite in the pickle and unsure what to do next.

* Post written in collaboration with Rodgers Of York

How To Make A Fresh Green Christmas Wreath

This festive season most household will have (or already have) a lovely fresh Christmas wreath hanging on the door. We can go and simply buy one or we can make a craft project and create one ourselves.

The process isn’t as complicated as one might think. All you need is:

• Wreath frame
• Wire
• Cones
• Ribbons
• And of course green bits 😉
• And some tools for cutting

Get ready!

Step one: attach your wire into a frame – this will keep all the greens in place.

Pick a bunch of greeneries and start attaching them to the frame… with your wire.

Continue fitting until the frame is nicely covered.

Once this is done you have your base now all that is left to do is to decorate it.

Make a nice bow and place it to on the top or bottom to define a direction of your wreath.

Add cones to make it look more attractive.

If you fancy more colour, you can add berries or colourful ribbons.

Remember it is your creation so it can look however you want it to look!

To make my vague instructions more clear watch the video below to see how it is done from the beginning to the very end 🙂

Have you ever attempted to make your own Christmas wreath?

* All pictures in this post were taken by my friend Agnieszka

My sofa hates me

There was a time when my sofa would welcome me with warm hugs at the end of a long hard day and I would willingly flop down into that embrace. The time would happily drift by as I entertained myself with some distraction till bed time and the inevitable repeat of my day. Happy times…

Yet now, I am drawn to the conclusion that my sofa wants a divorce or it’s going to kill me, or at the very least debilitate me to such an extent that life becomes impossible. Now after even a brief stay I find that my back has seized up and my legs ache, venture to stay too long and the headache will arrive as sure as day follows night, what other conclusion can I draw except my sofa doesn’t like me anymore.

So I have decided the best form of defence is attack and the old sofa must go whilst I am still physically capable of removing it.

The sofa has served us well for many years and was by no means a lifelong investment; we bought it just after we bought the house as we needed one, and it wasn’t very expensive as money was tight at the time.

We considered fixing it by re-stuffing the cushions but we aren’t sure if this will fix the problem.

So now I am searching for a fresher younger model to replace our old friend.

Our front room is an L shape and as such an L shaped sofa would be ideal fitting into the corner of the room and allowing one of us too adopt the customary position of laying flat out during our evening’s distractions. If it comes with a futon then that would be even better so then we can both adopt the optimal position!

I have a few of my favourites…

And my personal front runner:

What do you think about them?

Would you like to see any of these sofas in your front room?

* Post written in collaboration with Newman & Bright

Let there be light – Sensio Furniture Lighting Solution

It’s 6am and I am up. Mark is still deep asleep and not snoring as he will claim later. I put my dressing gown on and slowly wandered to the bathroom for my morning routine. 15 minutes later I am done and it is time to get dressed… now I facing straight into that common dilemma… I will either be getting dressed in total darkness or I have to put the main light on, which will most likely wake up my non snoring other half… hmmm what to do, I need to rummage and find my outfit for the day!

Sensio has a solution – a rechargeable wardrobe light which can detect movement. You open your wardrobe door and taadaa – the light comes on!

I know as I was sent one for testing.

To be honest I’ve never even considered putting a light into my wardrobe, but having one, especially this time of the year makes a lot of sense. The light is bright enough, so I don’t have to play “cave woman” in the morning, yet it is angled into the wardrobe in such a way so it is not too overpowering for anyone else in the room, thus will not cause the waking up scenario I am so desperate to avoid.

The Sensio Solus has a rechargeable battery fitting. There is no wiring required so it is extremely simple to install, anyone can do it. If used for 2.5 minutes a day the Solus will only need to be recharged every 8 months or so, so it is really the definition of simple to maintain… I think I am taking at least triple this time to actually pick my clothes but still, the battery life is very impressive.

Key features of the Sensio Solus light (as stated on the website):

• Contains a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery. No electrical installation required.
• The product is cable free for ease of installation.
• Rechargeable via a pluggable USB charger.
• Angled surface light to reduce glare.
• Features an integrated PIR (person in room) sensor which automatically switches the light on when the wardrobe/cabinet door is opened.
• The detection range of the PIR is 2m, meaning the fitting can be positioned as required inside the furniture.
• If movement is not detected for 30 seconds or more the light will temporarily switch off to reduce wastage of the battery power.
• The run time of the product is 8 months based on 2.5 minutes of use per day. The charging time is 6.5 hours on average.
• The perfect fitting for use inside wardrobes with several storage compartments.
• The product has an additional on/off switch for optional use.

The price starts from £41.88. I know what you are thinking now… yes, I agree it isn’t cheap, but none of the new LED lighting products are.

Did you know that LED lightening is the most efficient lighting solution invented to date? For example an incandescent bulb releases 90 percent of their energy as heat, LEDs use energy far more efficiently with very little wasted heat. LED lights also have a significantly longer life span as well so no more days of no light whilst you try and remember to pick a new bulb up whilst you’re out shopping.

I think that for what it offers, the price isn’t as scary as it might at first look. And to be honest use of a light like this doesn’t have to be limited to a wardrobe. We have a pantry in the kitchen… with no light… it would actually be a perfect spot for this little Sensio Solus light… or a staircase… as the light is detecting movement it will turn itself on as someone is approaching… the uses are unlimited… all those very dark corners of your house, garage or even garden shed can now be bathed in useful bright light.

No more darkness – let there be light!

Review – Iron & Velvet – Luxury Cleaning Products

Have you ever heard about Iron & Velvet – Luxury Cleaning Products? No? Hmm, me neither, until a few months ago that is. I spotted Iron & Velvet on Twitter and as a junky for all things cleaning related and a lover of luxury I just had to try them out.

So who are Iron & Velvet and what is so special about their product?

As per their website description: Iron & Velvet was born from a desire to improve. With over 30 years’ experience in the manufacture and development of specialist cleaning solutions to be used in the metal finishing industry we noticed that we had a different expectation of what “clean” is. For us, “clean” is a surface which has no impurities on whatsoever, even down to a microscopic level.

Currently Iron & Velvet have 14 cleaning solutions for use in and around the home. They are all manufactured in the UK at their site in the West Midlands. They use only the best materials and are proud of the products they make.

Iron & Velvet split their products into two separate collections – there is an interior collection and an exterior collection.

I was lucky to be sent a few products from each collection, so we can “test ride” them. So what did I get and how did they perform?

This is the selection of Iron & Velvet products I received.

Let me start with the delivery itself.

You know how it seems some companies really don’t care about deliveries… once they got your money that’s it… Iron & Velvet cares! They actually care a lot. Every single bottle came in its own separate plastic bag. Every bag was separately sealed.

This was great. I am a sucker for details and small things like this make a huge difference to me. I have received on many occasion cleaning / liquid products by post and I must admit they do not always reach me in a perfect condition. And believe me there is nothing worse than opening the parcel full of excitement just to discover your order is actually damaged or worse, ruined.
I am confident in saying that in the case of Iron & Velvet the chances of this happening are really zero.

Now let’s talk about the packaging.

Iron & Velvet products come in see-through bottles of different shapes and sizes. I like it. Why? Simple because I can see how much product is left, without playing the guess when will I run out game. Some bottles have just a simple screw on top, some have a top and a spray and some have a spray only. The one with the spray only has however a very clever security mechanism, so you can lock it when not in use and thus avoid any accidental spraying.

One other thing about the packaging – every bottle has clear directions for use, suitability and storage, safety warnings and content information, which includes % and some chemical names as well as clear details about the company, so basically everything you might want to find on the bottle is present.

Now it is time for the products themselves.

I must admit, I didn’t use the Barbeque Cleaner (simply because by the time I received the products our BBQs were already prepared for the season and didn’t need any cleaning) or the Decking Cleaner (no excuse here, I am just too lazy). I did however try all the rest.

Car shampoo is the one product making me laugh every time I look at it. It is red / violet in colour yet its fragrant is called Blue Lagoon 🙂 Ok, I know that one has nothing to do with the other but for some bizarre reason I would expect blue lagoon to be… guess what… blue! Car shampoo comes in a 750ml screw top bottle. Despite the lack of blue colour it does smell like the sea or a sea breeze or a sea front, I guess it depends where you go to the sea side. The smell is pleasant and not overpowering. The surprising bit for me however was how effective it is. Ok, I am not a car shampoo expert as you know from my earlier posts; our car is always a bit neglected, but if I didn’t read the label I would most likely put about half of the bottle into my bucket, when in fact you only need a 50ml of shampoo to 5l of water. And this amount is sufficient to clean your car, which means that one bottle will last you for 15 car washes or in my case a lifetime 😉 The shampoo works great and I can’t fault it in any way.

Moving on…

The interior collection has quite a few different products. They are split into three categories which are easily recognized by different colours. Kitchen collection is kind of green-ish, bathroom pink-ish and household specific products have a kind of yellow-brown colour of the liquid. I like colour coordination so for me it works perfectly. I would be much happier to display them outside of the cupboards, as they are products of a similar design and colour rather than a colourful mish-mash of products we all usually have, this would just drive me crazy all the time.

Most of the interior collection has a really nice and interesting smell – there is mango, coconut and lime, sandalwood, orange and ginger, ylang ylang and my personal favourite apple and mint.

The apple and mint fragrance belongs to the Glass and Mirror Cleaner. This product comes in 500ml spray with the top bottle. Sharing the house with a gloopy Newfoundland can only mean one thing – there is always something to clean and we like mirrors. We have a mirror in every room in the house (except for the front room at the moment) and they get dirty on a daily basis. There are some things which you can ignore when your house isn’t sparkly clean but a mirror for me isn’t one of them. I simply can’t stand looking into a mirror and sharing the view of myself with loads of dog slobber (and if you are wondering how come dog slobber gets onto a mirror… well, it gets everywhere including the ceiling, so hey ho…)
When it comes to cleaning mirrors and windows for years I used just one product and one brand only. Everything else that I have tried just wasn’t good enough, but Iron & Velvet actually is. Iron & Velvet Glass and Mirror Cleaner not only smells amazing but what’s most important is it cleans the mirror and glass with ease. For a normal family living in a normal living condition without a “slobber machine” which works 24/7 dirty mirrors might not be such a problem but for us it is… believe me. You, my lovely readers, might struggle with water stains or dry speckles after toothpaste… I have to deal with slobber. If Iron & Velvet Glass and Mirror Cleaner works for me, it will for sure work for you as well. And it is not just the fact that it cleans the mirror and leaves them sparkly… to some degree most products will do this… what gets me is the ease of the cleaning process. It is almost like spray and wipe, no scrubbing necessary… it is brilliant! Same with the glass; our conservatory doors have never looked better.

Hmmm I am not even half way there and my post is well over 1200 words long. Ok, I think I will stop now and if you want to discover more about Iron & Velvet you should place an order.

But before I go I just want to give a special recognition to Iron & Velvet Floor Cleaner. It is so efficient and works like magic. All pet owners know how hard it is to clean dried muddy paw prints… well for Iron & Velvet this isn’t a challenge at all! I hate mopping in general because I find it hideous and very tiring but with Iron & Velvet I hate this chore just a little bit less.

So from me Iron & Velvet gets big thumbs up.

Special note to Iron & Velvet: I really like your products guys and I think you are creating something special!

As for you my lovely readers:

What are your favourite cleaning products or brands?

Did you try Iron & Velvet yet?

* Products were provided free of charge for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this review are honest and my own.

Kitchen Storage Solutions – Cupboard Organizer – Raised Shelves

I don’t know about you lot, but we always seem to run out of space in our kitchen. Everything seems to be nicely in order and then we buy something new and bah no space to store it 😦

Our kitchen furniture is the standard ones; the ones off the “shelf” and not made to measure or to any special order, which means that we didn’t choose the size of our cupboards. They are not so deep but they are tall. In an ideal world I would prefer them to be totally different – or at least not as tall as they are at this moment or maybe just having more shelves inside them, but we do not live in an ideal world so we have to deal with what we have.

But where there is a problem there is also usually a solution to it… we resolved our “problem” of wasting storage space with a range of raised shelves. They simply go inside your cupboard and double your space.

I find this solution brilliant. It is so much easier to reach for things when they aren’t stacking directly one on top of each other. So they offer more storage and ease of use and I love them!

We only use the straight inserts – the ones with just one extra surface but if you look around you will be able to find special stacking shelf racks which look like a step ladder (they might be especially useful for small cupboards filled with things like jars of preserves or spices). There is also a range specially designed for corner cupboards.

But this is not the end of the uses for this lovely little insert. We also use them outside of the cupboards. Mark likes to have his essential cooking things always handy, so they were taking valuable worktop space, but no more… we bought a range of narrow inserts and placed them along the side of the wall. This space wasn’t really used anyway as it is below the upper cupboards so access to this space isn’t all that great. This way we have doubled the storage space we would have without them and I think they look nicer too. On baking days he also tends to dismantle one to use it as a tent frame with a T-towel to cover breads and doughnuts as they are rising!

We even have one for our toaster, so we can hide a sandwich maker below 🙂

There are an infinite number of useful applications when you start to think about it.

Do you use raised shelves in your kitchen?

Do you have any space saving tips you would like to share?

Review – EcoArt from ThePackagingSite

When I was asked to review a piece of EcoArt from ThePackagingSite I thought to myself… oh cool, I can get another canvas… but I was wrong. An EcoArt might look like a canvas when you first see it from a distance but it is not… it is so much more.

So what is an EcoArt?

EcoArt products use environmentally friendly solutions; from the materials they used, the manufacturing processes down to the delivery of the final product.

The entire range of corrugated products is made using papers from either a recycled or sustainable source. Furthermore, all the products are manufactured in the UK, reducing the environmental impact of importing goods from around the world.

This is why throughout the entire EcoArt collection you will see the following symbols:

My EcoArt arrived securely packed in a large cardboard box. Inside, it was neatly wrapped in bubble wrap. The product reached me in perfect condition and I don’t see how it could get “broken” when using a substantial packaging method like this.

First thing which struck me after opening the box was a lack of smell. The canvas I had the pleasure to review before had an overwhelming paint smell once you finally got to it; EcoArt is fragrant free, which is a big plus as not everyone likes or even can stand a strong smell of paint.

Secondly it was unbelievable light. I could literally lift it with my one finger. At first I didn’t understand how this is possible… then I noticed the lack of a wooden frame. How cool is that? The whole product is made of paper! Again the fact that it is so lightweight is a huge plus. Imagine yourself getting a lovely family portrait for your Granny and she is not able to move it; with EcoArt this situation will not be a problem at all. I would say it is children and elderly friendly… at least when we talk about its weight.

And finally the quality… it is perfect:

Nice sharp colours, just like the original picture.

Lovely crisp white and perfectly finished back.

And perfect corners.

The cardboard frame has 4 openings in the back… this is where your picture hooks will go. With some pictures this might not be needed but I am sure we have all seen pictures which can or could be hung in different ways… EcoArt thought about this so you can just remove it from the wall, flip it or turn it and pop it back up… it really couldn’t be easier.

When ordering your EcoArt you have two options. You can pick one of the lovely pictures which they feature on their site; there is a selection of abstracts, animals, cityscapes, flowers, landscape and seascapes… or you can design your own EcoArt by creating it from one of your own pictures. Personalised EcoArt can be created as a square, rectangle or a panel frame, where you would split your photo into a few frames, which together will create the whole picture.

The prices start from £14.16 for a rectangle EcoArt with measurements of 30cmx20cm. Having in mind how environmental friendly this product is, I think that this is a great price.

So, what do you think?

Would you buy this environmental friendly EcoArt to decorate your walls?

If you are planning on getting one, you can use discount code: ECOTWENTY. This will take 20% off the price but it only applies to personalised canvases.

* Product was provided free of charge for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this review are honest and my own .

#Kitchentales – A tale of a forgotten island

Getting your own house is hard but getting it furnished is even harder, especially when we talk about the kitchen.

When we bought our house we wanted something different; we wanted something which will have the “wow” factor, something which would make us smile every time we enter the kitchen… mainly because for us the kitchen is the heart of the house but also because it is our home and we wanted it to be perfect and reflect a bit of “us”.

This task proved to be very hard.

You need a lot of skills if you ever want to create what we wanted to achieve, but we have negligible skills when it comes to building our own furniture; therefore you need a lot of money, if you want to buy something original that is standing out from the crowd, but alas we didn’t have the money and still don’t have the money so what is left, luck, you need a bit of luck… yes, we got that one right…

A few years after we had bought our house we decided to take down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. This seemed to us like a no-brainer decision – our kitchen was small (in our opinion, most of our guests however tended to disagree with us) and the dining room being also on the small side was never really used. We had a second smaller table in the kitchen and this is where we tended to eat all meals. So making one huge room from the two smaller ones was the perfect idea. The building work progressed pretty fast and we no longer had a kitchen and a dining room, now we had kitchen-diner. We had this huge room filled with nothing… none of our old furniture looked any good in this new space, mainly because they were just too small.

There was only one thing for it… We had to go shopping!

After hours on the internet and endless trips to all the furniture shops near us we still had nothing. We knew that our budget would not allow us to get what we really wanted so the time was coming to make some sacrifices; we knew we would have to compromise on our dreams… but then something magical happened… fortune did decide to smile down on us and we were able to buy the furniture of our dreams (more or less) from friends of ours who were downsizing. We purchased an awesome solid wood table. It is huge and could easily seat 6 people though it only came with 4 chairs unfortunately. We also snapped up a triple fronted sideboard and few other bits like coffee tables and lamps… all of them for the fraction of the cost, mates rates are the best rates.

It was great to see our empty space finally taking form.

That said all the furniture was placed in the dining room part of the kitchen-diner. Thus we still needed something to fill the kitchen part. We had always planned on having an island. We wanted the extra work surface space for food prep and ideally some more storage, but all island are always very expensive. To add to our dilemma we had now surrounded ourselves with dark solid wood furniture, so the island would have to match, which we knew would be very hard to source with our budget, so the search continued…

Then by chance one day we visited a furniture store in a town close by. A few people had mentioned it to us in conversation – it is full of handmade solid wood furniture from the Far East we were told. We had a strong suspicion that the contents of the shop would be out of our price range but curiosity overcame us and so we drove to have a look anyway. The store was and still is amazing; the furniture in it are like pieces of art, most of them are unique and just one off mainly due to the materials they were made from (mainly old fishing boats). We were over the moon with this shop, yet we couldn’t buy anything as the prices were as we suspected, a bit too high. Still, we loved it so much; we kept driving there over and over again just to have a look once again in the hope of some great bargain or the sale of the century. After few trips we knew most of the pieces in the store by heart, but still it was a pleasure to be there even if they were not ours.

One time during our trip around the store (the shop has 3 floors and a lot of small corridors, so it is like a rabbit warren) we spotted something we had never noticed before… in the corner behind some huge doors was an island… dark wood, hand carved and looking extremely dusty was an island. It had no price tag and 100s of other items stuck on top of it and a huge tarpaulin. We instantly fell in love with this dusty, dirty piece of abandoned, neglected wood. We contained our excitement as we didn’t even know if it was for sale, and if it was would we even be able to pronounce the price. As it ended up it was indeed for sale, one concern laid to rest. The shop keeper, a wonderfully enthusiastic man admitted even he had forgotten about it. As he recalled the piece he told us the story; apparently someone had ordered a whole kitchen matching the style of the island but alas for them the island was made in the wrong size, it didn’t fit in their kitchen so they refused to buy it. Their loss, was about to become our luck! The island was perfect for us. We just had to have it! We negotiated hard and a bargain was struck with the owner in order to help us afford it; we figured out that he would be happy just to let it go especially as he had forgotten about it.

A few days later our beautiful island arrived. It took six grown burly man to carry it in – the wood part is one solid piece and it doesn’t disassemble into smaller parts; the only thing that they could remove in order to make it lighter were two granite work tops, thankfully.

Once the island was delivered, and placed in its new setting that was the moment that our kitchen finally took its final form. We had a wonderful kitchen! We were so happy!

So you see, sometimes all you need is a little hope and a lot of luck!

* This post is an entry for the “My Kitchen Story” Linky Challenge, sponsored by Fairy Platinum.

Out With The Old… In With The New! – Let there be light!

Furniture Choice is currently running a pretty cool blogger competition. They will award £500 to one lucky winner to spend on any item / items they want from their website. All you have to do is to blog what and why you need it.

As our house is still a “work in progress” I couldn’t just walk away from the chance of getting something new replaced in our home.

Having had a very long browsing session through their website I settled on giving some love to our kitchen. Our kitchen needs replacing as a whole but we made a partial make-over a few years back by restoring all the units. We removed the wall between the kitchen and the dinner room creating a lovely open plan space. It looks good and we are pleased with it except for one small corner…

We do not use this door into the conservatory simply because on the other side of it is a huge dog bed. This set up although not ideal, works for us… all we have to do is to walk a few steps further and enter the conservatory via the old dining room double doors. Using the space the way we are also gives us much needed storage space… but as you can see from the attached picture not a pretty one 😦 We have a long standing plan to replace those cheap units, which originally (years back) were in the office, with something much more stylish and that match the rest of the room. Our final goal is ideally to replace all the kitchen cabinets with oak ones so my pick from Furniture Choice seems to be the perfect dream match, which will stand up to our future, long term plans.

Behold Michigan Oak 2 Door Sideboard

Pretty isn’t it?

I really think this is the perfect piece of furniture for us, being much lower (only 80cm) than our current furnishing in this corner will allow all the light usually blocked by the units to flow into the kitchen. I can visualise this set up in my head and I am sure it would be lovely.

What do you think? Will it work as well as I am imagining it?