Kitchens Stoke Bardolph
Stoke Bardolph is a hamlet of a couple of hundred people on the Trent, and we cover it along with the villages either side — Burton Joyce, Gunthorpe, Shelford and the Gedling side of the river.
The housing along here is mostly period cottages and older brick with a small amount of later infill, and the kitchens in it have more in common with each other than with anything in the towns.
Cottage kitchens
Thick walls, lower ceilings than modern standard, and floors that have moved over a couple of centuries. Rooms that are nowhere near square.
None of that prevents a good kitchen. It does mean everything is scribed to the wall rather than pushed against it, and that a standard wall-unit run at standard height can foul a low ceiling. Both are survey questions rather than showroom ones, and both are much better found before anything is ordered.
A low ceiling is also an opportunity. Wall units taken right up to it give a full extra shelf and remove the dust gap on top, which in a smaller kitchen is worth more than a cornice.
Traditional Kitchens Stoke Bardolph
Services, which decide more than the layout
In older properties along the river the constraint is usually where the services already are. Soil and waste runs are frequently fixed and awkwardly placed, the gas run may be surface-mounted, and consumer units turn up in cupboards you wanted for something else.
Moving a sink any real distance means achieving a fall to the existing waste, and in a cottage with a solid floor that is a bigger job than it appears. It is entirely doable. It just needs to be in the plan and the price from the start rather than discovered in week two.
Stoke Bardolph is the smallest settlement we cover — a couple of hundred people, a handful of period cottages and some later properties beside the river.
In buildings of this age and size, nothing is standard. Room dimensions are irregular, ceilings are low, and door openings restrict what can physically be carried in. A kitchen here is made to fit the building, because the building will not accommodate anything else.
Where floor area is limited the useful moves go upward and inward: a full-height larder instead of two wall cupboards, deep drawers instead of base cupboards, and one wall left deliberately clear.
Cabinetry on every wall makes a small room feel smaller. Using one wall properly nearly always beats using all four badly.
Brecon Marine Blue and Chiltern Hunter Green suit these buildings and hold their depth where daylight is limited for much of the day.
Modern Kitchens Stoke Bardolph
Extensions
Several of the projects out here involve a single-storey extension to create the kitchen-diner the original cottage never had. That means building regulations and often planning through Gedling Borough Council, and where a property is listed or in a sensitive riverside setting there may be more to it.
The sequence matters: the extension and the kitchen have to be designed together, because the glazing, the doors and the service runs all decide where units can go. A kitchen planned after the shell is up is how people end up with a socket in the wrong place.
The more recent houses in the hamlet are regular and level, and they take a contemporary kitchen without difficulty.
With a river outlook, the same principle applies as anywhere on the Trent: keep the window wall low, put the tall storage on an internal wall, and let the view do the work.
Low-lying riverside ground argues for engineered board or LVT over solid timber. Both handle the humidity swings through the year.
Floor after cabinets, always, so an appliance can come out later without lifting a floor that runs underneath it.
Narrow lanes and old door openings limit what arrives in one piece. We check the route in at survey, because a tall unit that will not make the turn is a problem best discovered early.
In Frame Kitchens Stoke Bardolph
Doors and colour
Painted shaker suits this housing, and the older properties carry deeper colour well — Colbeck Heritage Green and Georgian Thicket both hold their depth in rooms with small original windows where a pale finish goes flat.
Warwick is the in-frame range, with the door set inside the cabinet frame rather than on the face of it. It is the more traditional construction and the right look in a cottage.
Choosing Our Kitchen
Showroom near Stoke Bardolph
Denton Porcelain Cashmere is the pale option for the brighter rooms. Zagen and Cameo cover the handleless end for the later properties.
We fit Neff appliances, including the venting hobs.
Across to Derby Road in Stapleford, with parking on site.
Sixteen ranges on display. From a hamlet with no local showroom, one trip that shows you everything is worth more than several that show you samples.
We measure the room and the route in. In buildings this old both matter.
Stoke Bardolph falls under Gedling. Structural work needs building control, and any listed status should be confirmed before design.
Kitchens Gallery
Half an hour out
Derby Road, Stapleford, NG9 7AD. About twenty-six minutes.
Painted doors photograph badly — greens read blue on a screen and matt loses its texture. Worth seeing under real light. Call 0115 877 7595 or come and look.
