Celeb Best Blog

A gorgeous modern European kitchen tucked inside a small vintage cottage!

Cupboards on wheels, open shelving & a fabulous bank of cooking books in easy reach.

And look what's behind those cupboard doors! A clever, clever design eschewing built-in cabinetry. I think it works a treat, what do you think?

Images: Meditch Murphey

....just a little closer. Arms around each other, it's time for one big, squishy group hug!! The fabulous comments you left yesterday truly gave me the warm & fuzzies - what a great bunch of friends you all are - thank you.

Exciting news from the Bathroom-From-Hell. We now have half a frameless shower screen across the end of the room. After a lot of grunting & puffing from the Installers, lugging these very large pieces from their truck in the yesterday's rain & hail, it's transpired that someone stuffed up & the door measurements pulled up 2mms. too short. So back on the truck it went, with even more grunting & puffing to the factory. However the large piece is in & & oh my goodness, it was something akin to a religious experience. The room is coming together so well & is exactly the image I've been carrying around in my head for the past 2 years. Still lots to do, but for the first time I feel like we're on the home run - YAY!!
Image: San Carlos

Dear Signore Bertazzoni

I'm sorry to interupt your Summer holiday, I'm sure your villa on Lake Como is positively gorgeous this time of the year, but as a smeg customer, I am not happy. I've been a microwave fan for years, having previously owned your competitors products, a Sony & a Panasonic. The Sony was a gem, 14 years old & still going strong, as was the Panasonic at 8 years, it was as good as new. Both went to good homes, the Sony to a son who was setting up his own place & the Panasonic to the Rowing Club, who were in desperate need of a microwave after their kitchen refurbishment.

4 years ago, to replace the Panasonic, I purchased one of yours, a SA31-1MX, paying the princely amount of AU$695.00. MOTH wasn't happy, & I had to do a lot of convincing that we would get our money's worth - how wrong I was.

During the first 6 months the globe blew & the metal door trim peeled away from the cabinet frame. Small things you might say, but not what I was expecting so soon into our 'relationship'. Then after about 12 months I noticed small areas of bubbly corrosion on the black enamel interior, similar to rust spots. Now before you jump down my throat & accuse me of misuse, I will tell you that I followed the care instructions to the letter. Wiping out the interior with a sponge using warm water & mild detergent only, drying it afterwards, cooking in the appropriate containers etc. etc.

I checked the Warranty & noted that we still had a further 12 months running on it, so phoned the number on the paperwork. I quickly discovered that you don't go direct into Australia, you sell through a Distributor Omega Appliances. I spoke to their Customer Service person, who quite frankly, would have won the annual Company Award for providing the most disinterested & unhelpful advice to a customer. Her 'advice' was to carry the offending appliance out to my car, spend 2 hours driving to the other side of the city, lug it into their Service Dept., & leave it there for 2 weeks. When they had a spare moment, they would have a look at it to see if my complaint was genuine. If it wasn't, then they'd happily confirm that I was the raving loony she secretly thought I was. Oh, & even if the issue was my fault, I'd have to pay a fee of $95 for the privilege of being told that. You've got to be joking.

We purchased the product originally from David Jones, a reputable Department Store who has provided us with excellent service over the years. I phoned their Small Appliances Manager, who listened carefully to my complaint, & confirmed what we reckoned, that during manufacture, the enamel baking process had somehow failed. She promised she would speak to her contacts at smeg to see what could be done & phone me back the next day. 2.5 years on, I'm still waiting for the return call.

As time has passed, the interior of the microwave has rapidly deteriorated, with large areas of erosion spreading, like ulcerous cankers. The inside rim of the door buckled & warped & the rubber seal fell off. Each time I wiped it out, large flakes of rusty metal would adhere to the sponge - it was atrocious. Sunday night was the final straw. As I was wiping over the interior after cooking a small container of rice, my hand suddenly plunged through the floor of the microwave onto the kitchen bench underneath, just about ripping my hand to pieces on the jagged metallic edges in the process. A large gaping hole, aptly around the size of a lemon now renders SA31-1MX totally useless....... she is as dead as a dodo.

So here we are Signore, 4 years on, with no microwave & $695.00 worse off. I'm just wondering if you or any other member of the family conglomerate, have any ideas as to what we do next. Oh & the icing on the cake was when yesterday morning, as MOTH was yelling for me to check the fine print on the smeg Warranty again, I noticed on the back page this little gem ' Thank you for buying this Daewoo product'. I feel like a right sucker. I was never under the illusion that the manufacture of products like this wouldn't be outsourced to other parts of the globe but Oh mio Dio - please explain!!!

2 very angry & miserable ex-?smeg/?daewoo customers - Millie & MOTH.

If this image had a head & a face, I swear they would be mine! This past weekend we had plumbing 'issues' involving the grotty old taps over the grotty old kitchen sink. Plumber MOTH came to the rescue - 'Don't worry Mills this will only take me a couple of minutes' was the expert opinion. 9 hours later, numerous trips out in the wind & driving rain to turn the mains supply off, then on, then off, then on - the problem had ballooned from a small, annoying drip requiring a new washer to a full blown plumbing catastrophe. We are talking splashback tiles ripped off in a fit of pique, existing hardware discarded, masses of cussing & cursing from Plumber MOTH & finally, a trip to see his old mate Greg at Stirling Mitre 10.

The problem is not resolved however - the disgusting cheap new tap sets from Greg's chuck out bin that were purchased by a certain stingy Serial Renovator are still sitting in their boxes on the kitchen window sill. When queried this morning when he'd be back to finish the job, Plumber MOTH yelled 'Geez Millie, I'm still traumatized by yesterday's events, just leave it will ya!' The hot tap still requires 30 rotations to get a trickle of water from it, there are only bare bricks now behind the sink & it's taken me nearly an hour to do a small amount of dishes by hand this morning. And he reckons he's traumatized!!

Image: Bernard Touillon

The divine Ms. Ness from Marley & Lockyer has challenged me to show you my kitchen and what I love about it - hah, what a joke! I feel like that commercial for toothpaste that goes along the lines of 'This man's a Dentist, so we can't show you his face.'....well, Millie's a cool chick, & she doesn't want to show you her revolting kitchen! However, in the spirit of the wonderful world of blogging I will, but please keep in mind that this edition is just about to feel the might of MOTH's sledge hammer & soon I will have the kitchen of my dreams & I promise you, there will be endless pics posted then!

When we moved in 2 1/2 yrs. ago, the kitchen was the original 1972 disaster, although the oven & laminate benchtops had been replaced about 10 yrs. ago. It was made from varnished marine ply wood (oh, joy!!) with the ubiquitious Mission Brown floor tiles. Behind the kitchen is an even grottier laundry & a corridor leading to the back door. We knew that re-doing this whole area was going to be our biggest project, so dear MOTH quickly slapped a coat of paint onto the kitchen cupboards to stop me from crying & whingeing in the interim!

So here's a few pics of the wreck I'm currently having to live with, a few of my favourites that make my day a little easier & precious pieces I couldn't live without.

Looking into the culprit from the meals area - corridor leading to back door in far right of shot.

MOTH quickly used this sheet of plasterboard to cover up the most horrible wall of brown wooden cladding I'd ever seen - totally yuk!

I picked up the wallposter for $4.00 from a bargain bin at Pottery Barn on a trip to the U.S.

My most precious object in the kitchen is a book of my Mum's hand-written recipes. She started it on her honeymoon & it's a journal of the towns we lived in as I grew up. Most South Aussies will immediately know that we we were living in Clare at the time Mum wrote down our neighbour Mrs. Knappstein's Little Buns (Rock Cake) recipe.

This recipe for Ginger Fluff Sponge was my darling Dad's all-time favourite. I love to open each page & see Mum's very distinctive school teacher hand-writing. It brings her back to me in so many ways - my boys love it too, so it will always be in good hands.

I positively can't do without Bill in the kitchen!

Recycling at it's best - drink the contents & use it's packaging!

....and I also can't do without Helen & Annette - this book is my all time favourite & in constant use.

A must-have for creating the recipes from the gorgeous Spirit House.

Couldn't be without my Nature Nurture Hand Wash & Lotion from Mr. Kenneth Turner.

Son # 4 happened to call in as I was taking these pics. He gladly picked up MOTH's sledge hammer to illustrate what's just about to happen. Just love that Breakfast Bar.

Need some light relief, it's all too depressing, so here's my favourite fridge magnet, with apologies to our American mates, but I did buy this in Washington!

This is a plan of our current kitchen.

Our new plans - with the Laundry moved into cupboards near the newly relocated back door & the space converted into a Butler's Pantry - yah!!!

Ignore the kitchen in this pic, but this is our inspiration for opening up the whole back corner of the house where the new kitchen will be. Floor to ceiling windows (or a 'Tree-Walk' as our lovely Draftsperson has strangely named it!) Our garden outlook is almost identical to the pic, so it will be fantastic to welcome this magical outlook into the house through all the glass.

1.What colour is the kitchen? Solver Parchment x 4 strength.