Eco kitchen

We finally seem to be getting somewhere with sourcing a sustainable kitchen.

The UK high street has proven very willing to sell us plastic wrapped flat-pack units but finding something more sustainable has proven difficult. We've been looking for solid wood kitchens as a result, but unfortunately these tend to be at the top of the price bracket from companies like Crabtree. Don't get me wrong, they're fantastic kitchens made by true craftsmen. It's just that our budget can't cope with the price tag.

But we think we've found an acceptable compromise. We've ordered 1/3 of the kitchen from Harvey Jones, not quite in Crabtree's league but very nice wooden kitchen units nevertheless. All the timber is FSC and they're made in the UK. They even deliver the units pre-assembled and wrapped in blankets to cut down on packaging.

The island will be recycled. We've found an old piece of furniture at the Ministry of Pine http://www.ministryofpine.com/images/kitchens/kitchen_islands/c153front.JPG that, with a little heigh adjustment, will make a gread island unit. We may renovate the existing pine worktop and reuse that in the short-term, depends what it's like once we sand it back. Otherwise we'll be installing a new timber worktop onto it.

The only other units that remain to be sourced are the sink run - we have considered making do with free-standing IKEA units but we'll probably do the ultimate in recycling and re-use the old Hillside kitchen units. Once sanded down, with the ironmongery replaced, and the cupboards possibly repainted, they'll hopefully look great.

So we may not end up with the sleekest kitchen ever,but it should come in within budget and will be inline with our sustainable ethos.