When we bought our house it had the original kitchen from the mid 70’s except that it had been abused as a rental for the previous 10 years. It was small, poorly lit, was not very efficient and lacked storage.

We knew that if we were going to renovate we would have to begin before we moved in so we started with removing the walls around the kitchen. Then we removed the flooring and when we were ready we removed the cabinets. We knew that we wanted to create a space that would open the kitchen to the livingroom and diningroom.

We started with new plywood on the floors, scrapped the stipled ceiling and put up new drywall. After a lot of searching to find someone who would give us the kitchen we wanted we found Call of the Wilde. They came in and, with the design that my husband and I had, they created cabinets to our specifications, something that the normal cabinet suppliers could not do as they only dealt with boxes.

Our cabinets are solid birch as we wanted the warmth that it would create. The shelves are birch that is finished on both side so that you never have to paint or stain them. Once they were installed, my work began with the sanding and staining. My husband made all the trin around the cabinets and the baseboards. He also made the frame around the window from 300+ year old cedar.

We used Silestone countertop because of its versatility in the fact that it is non-porous, scratch resistant and never has to be resealed.   We came home with samples to see how they would look against the birch. When we first saw the sample that we chose we did not think it would look good but once we put it against the birch it was obviously the right choise as it not only complimented the cabinets but colours in the counter suddeny stood out. .

Labour of love – yes this was as we did a lot of it ourselves. I know that we are the farthest point away from you but Ucluelet is a beautiful place to visit. Thank you for the opportunity to show off our kitchen.

Nancy Holliday and Craig Oliver