This petite kitchen comes into its own during the festive season

When designing a new kitchen – no matter the time of year – spare a thought about how your space will work during this busiest season. Will the oven be large enough to fit a turkey? Do you have room to wash those big pans and serving dishes? When entertaining, will the kitchen be part of the action or serve as a peaceful retreat where you can lose yourself in the culinary task at hand?

For homeowner Belle Daughtry, her small kitchen is the perfect example of country charm – exuding a warm and welcoming ambience in the depths of winter – while still being able to withstand the onslaught of entertaining.

‘The kitchen was the one room in the cottage we wanted to make our own,’ she explains. ‘It is located at the back of the cottage, an extension of the catslide roof. It has brick floors, beautiful sloping beams and windows looking out to the fields behind. We inherited the previous owner’s cosy black Rayburn stove that heated the cottage, too,’ explains Belle (@just_belle).

Updating the existing kitchen

Building upon the existing L-shaped kitchen layout, photographer Belle turned to British Standard by Plain English to update the cabinetry, which Belle chose to paint in All White by Farrow & Ball, available at B&Q. The lighter hue sang against the wooden worktops, brick flooring, and black range cooker.

One of the main challenges of this kitchen was its compact size. In addition to the limited floor plan, the sloped ceiling made the space feel smaller, which made it all the more important that the kitchen felt as bright and light as possible.

Kitchen lighting also required careful consideration. Spotlights above the workspace provide ample ambient and task lighting without infringing on the already limited head height. For similar, try these recessed downlights from Amazon. Belle accents this during the festive period with flickering candles on the open shelves and window sills.

Achieving a minimalist look

A saving grace in this compact kitchen is the pantry, which often offers a lifeline when organising a small kitchen. It provides a home for the fridge, appliances and additional ingredients. Removing these elements from the main space has resulted in uncluttered work surfaces that help to create a peaceful and serene room, always ready for cooking dinner or baking sweet treats.

Drawing on the traditional feel of the picture-perfect 17th-century cottage, Belle opted for Shaker-style cabinetry inspired by the shutters at Stowupland Hall, which perfectly complements the ceiling panelling.

Dressing with reclaimed materials

‘We love lightness and simplicity, so it was essential for us to soften the hard textures of the brick and beams in the traditional Suffolk cottage,’ explains Belle. She traded the previous dark worktops for lighter, reclaimed scaffolding boards.

‘The boards were so connected to their roots that they still had the metal plates on the wood,’ says Belle. Opting for reclaimed materials gave the new cabinetry a more rustic edge, too, and perfectly complements the rich patina of the cracked and chipped brick floor.

Decorating the kitchen for Christmas

Now complete, the kitchen is an oasis of calm during the busy festive season. ‘We keep kitchen decorations to a minimum so that the worktops are free to prepare food, but we love to decorate our windows, shelves and doors with fresh-cut foliage and blooms,’ says Belle.

‘Our favourites are mistletoe, ivy and holly. Not only do they look beautiful in vases, pots or hung as boughs, but their earthy, seasonal scents really add to the kitchen ambience. We tend to decorate a little later in December so that the foliage will smell and look its best for Christmas Day. A final addition is always candlelight, creating a cosy, soft glow against the whites and greens.’

To channel the same cosy ambience and fill your kitchen with the fresh and festive fragrance of Christmas foliage, try this Skog candle from Amazon.

This feature first appeared in Period Living Magazine. Click here to subscribe.