An Interview With Charlotte Beauchamp

We love providing our customers with the best quality bespoke kitchens. We especially love it when we get to hear the story behind all of their amazing design choices and about their positive experience with us. 

We recently created a dazzling, Georgian-inspired shaker kitchen for a customer in Cambridge and were lucky to interview them to find out all about their gorgeous abode and the inspiration behind their brand-new kitchen!

Tell us about yourself and your beautiful home

I’m a stay-at-home mum to my two daughters, Annabelle (4) and Sophia (2). We are expecting our third daughter next week! I met my husband when I was 20 and we have been together nearly 10 years now. We have now been in Cambridge for 5 years after he moved his business from London to Cambridge.

We live in a Georgian house which was built around the 1820s. There is a collection of 6 houses with the same frontages which were originally known as the Doll’s Houses when built. We originally viewed the house about one year before we bought it, but initially disregarded it because there was so much work to be done. The back of the house was suffering from subsidence, the entire place hadn’t been updated in about 50 years, and there was even a tree growing through the original conservatory!

However, after we had no luck in finding anywhere else suitable, we decided to take on the renovation project. It took us about a year to obtain planning and then a further year to complete all of the work. The entire house had to be gutted and for a few months, our lower ground floor resembled muddy trenches! 

With regard to the style, we have tried to work with its original character and features. We have opted for a lot of traditional fittings but at the same time brought lots of light into the building and kept neutral tones throughout, so that it doesn’t feel dated or too old-fashioned. Being a very girl-dominated family there is also a lot of pink throughout too! 

Why did you decide to redesign your kitchen?

The kitchen was originally in the basement and it was really important to us to move this onto the ground floor so that it could be the hub of our home. We were keen to extend the house to allow for an open-plan living area, where the kitchen is now located.

The original kitchen in the basement was in dark tones with terracotta tiles; we have probably gone as opposite as possible with the re-design and re-location of it. This was probably one of the best decisions we made as it’s where we spend all of our time.

What was your inspiration behind your choices? 

We actually used The White Kitchen Company’s website for most of our choice inspiration! We were recommended TWKC by both our architect and builder early on in the renovation process when we mentioned we liked a shaker style of kitchen. We trusted their recommendations and never looked anywhere else.

For the colour of our kitchen, I used Instagram and Pinterest to gauge what we liked. TWKC were incredibly useful in guiding us towards companies for brassware, taps and worktops, so I guess we never really needed to seek too much outside inspiration.

What was the best buy in your kitchen and why? Is there a particular feature that guests comment on?

I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to make them work tastefully, but I actually have ended up mostly loving the open shelving we have. It’s been really fun to add colour to the kitchen this way; in fact, it’s already changed since TWKC last took photos as we have added lots of spring items. It’s been a good excuse to buy pretty glassware and mugs to have out on display!

Guests usually tend to comment on the quirky items we have out. I have spent a lot of my time wandering into Anthropologie to find new things to put on the shelves! 

What was your journey like with The White Kitchen Company?

Fantastic! This was the first kitchen I have ever needed to design and all of the choices seemed quite overwhelming before we were put in touch with TWKC. From the first point of contact, I made it quite clear to Christopher that due to having a newborn baby (and the rest of a house project to manage!) I had very little time to decide upon every single little detail for the kitchen.

I simply sent over a few photos from Pinterest alongside our floor plans and  TWKC produced a really helpful 3D rendering of the space, which was a very close match to what we ended up going for. We barely required any tweaks as they did such a great job to begin with!

It was also a great help to have them refer us to suppliers for the fittings and hardware. It saved so much time and we are really pleased with them all. I honestly couldn’t fault any aspect of the process! Even on the date of fitting the kitchen, their fitters and delivery drivers liaised directly with our builders so we didn’t even need to be around on the day.

Finally, what should no kitchen be without? 

A big fridge! This is the first house where we have been able to have an American-style fridge-freezer. It still seems like a luxury just being able to put away food in an organised way rather than cramming every item into whatever corner can be found.

Are you looking to design a new bespoke kitchen? We would love to help! Give us a call at 01604 435835 and we can chat through our processes with you. Alternatively, if you would like to get in contact with us via email, you can do so here. We look forward to hearing more about your project!