Aubergine, petrol blue and grey patterned tiles at the Ideal Home Show

After sharing the bedroom and bathroom room sets last week, this time it's the turn of the kitchen and dining room. Both of which have similarities, with deep colours, grey patterns and wood. Let's start in the dining room, where the wools have an aubergine feel to them. The unusual addition for me was the green chairs, initially I thought no, but they grew on me.

It was the floor though that was the real winner for me - just look at those tiles. And actually it's the green chairs that make it all hang together, so it just goes to show that sometimes doing something out of the ordinary - and out of what you think your colour scheme is, or should be - makes it work.

I liked the clever wood storage, close to the wood burner. I can see it would avoid arguments about whose turn it was to venture outside and get the next batch of wood for the fire!  Although if we had a wood burner, it would clearly be MOH's job, I mean... man, fire, enough said.

You'll remember we contemplated many wooden tables and eventually ended up with a white glass table (yes, it makes no sense, but we fell in love with it), and we were also contemplating a mix of chairs and benches, so it was good to see them still around.  I liked the glass fronted storage too, and MOH renewed his campaign for new dining room lights.  I'll admit they would go in our space, with our table but I think it restricts how we could use the space, even more than our existing light.  

So he's still unsuccessful, but the room was a hit for us. And I knew if I tried for long enough I'd find a kind of aubergine he liked!

And a winner of a kitchen too

Our kitchens in this house have both been high gloss and they suit our space. This wooden unit and splash back is the closest we've seen to a kitchen that would work. I liked the nod to the grey tiled flooring behind the cooker, but MOH was bemused by the knobs that the chopping boards were hanging from, and the crockery spacers in the open draw.

The big central island was a dream, and full of storage too. One day (I hope) I'll have a kitchen that can accommodate something like this. And a huge larder storage too.  I'm sure though my kitchen would never quite look so well put together, or as tidy, but I'm ok with that as it's a room set and not a real room...

And everyone knows the best cooks are messy cooks, and those that use every utensil you own, right?  Well that's what MOH says anyway!

What do you think - could you live with either of these rooms, or elements from them?

Would you sell your kitchen?

Or indeed, would you buy a second-hand or ex-display kitchen?  We sold our kitchen back in 2013 on eBay, and well, it felt odd. I mean, how do you put a price on something that's been in place for years, has had plenty of use and usually you'd expect to throw into a skip?

We didn't realise selling kitchens was even a thing, for all of the reasons I've just given.  But when our kitchen planner suggested it the idea appealed, not only to offset some some of the cost of our new kitchen, but also because there wasn't too much wrong with most of the units., and so if someone else could make use of them, then that was a good result for us.

If the units weren't that bad you might be wondering why we were replacing our kitchen at all.  A couple were starting to show wear and tear, and the inbuilt dishwasher needed replacing and we knew that as the years went on it'd only get worse.  We didn't want to be in the position of having to put in a new kitchen when the time came to move, that felt a waste, and well, we'd rather enjoy the new kitchen ourselves. 

That said we didn't have a clue about how to price this. As you can see there were a few units, as well as two tall larder cupboards that aren't shown. We quickly learnt that we'd priced it too low, when it was snapped up almost immediately on eBay. But it was a price we were happy with and we had time constraints on when it could be collected. Our kitchen fitters removed the old kitchen and our buyer collected it the same day. 

Looking back at these photos I'm struck by a couple of things. Firstly how tidy our kitchen was, but I think this is an illusion and we'd cleared the worktops to make it look super smart in the pictures, like you do and secondly how dated it looks compared to our new kitchen. We loved this kitchen though. I loved how it didn't match, and that's something we've replicated, but with lighter colours. 

From this kitchen we also knew that we didn't want tiled splashbacks and you'll know instead of the laminate board used here we've gone for a glass splashback instead. And one of my absolute musts was to have the boiler enclosed. It used to be, but then the boiler was replaced for a new model and the existing cupboard didn't work, that left us with a sparkling white appliance amongst a row of bottle green base units, and really jarred with me, e-v-e-r-y-t-i-m-e I saw it. 

I do wonder what became of our kitchen though. I know the person who bought it was hoping to use as much of it as he could, but that it was going into a smaller space. It's unlikely that it would end up in the same horseshoe formation, but I imagine there's so many combinations that would have worked, that it would be like a life-sized jigsaw puzzle. 

I've recently become aware of a company that could not only help people sell their kitchens, but also help people buy used and ex-display kitchens, which if you want to get value for money sounds ideal.  The Used Kitchen Exchange are a family business who specialise in just that and was founded after they purchased a pre-owned kitchen themselves. So they have first-hand experience of buying a kitchen online and also managed to bag themselves a bargain at the same time, and the realisation that enabling people to source quality kitchens at a cheap price from a sustainable source was possible.

The Used Kitchen Exchange also offers a free kitchen valuation for kitchens that meet their criteria, and as part of their service they offer free professional photography, free advertising, the selling part (obviously) and ensuring kitchens are professionally removed, packed and delivered to their new owners.  There's more information about the full process on their website.

And they've saved thousands of tons of carcinogenic MDF from going to landfill. You can't say fairer than that, can you? 

Oh, and if you see ever see a kitchen with bottle green gloss base units and cherry wood wall units, let me know as it could be my old kitchen, and I'd love to see it settled into its new home!

* This is a collaborative post, but all views are my own.