Simplicated: The art of simplifying the complicated !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, flushed with success from our London trip, the next job we tackled was every bit as interesting due to the now typical lateral thinking that here at Milestone HQ we're good at !

4 features specifically spring to mind: (1) Hiding free standing appliances done properly (2) Our simple but effective answer to a mobile island unit (3) What we mean by an appliance garage and (4) The most effective way to take care of a window cill

I'll use the same idea as my last blog and explain using pictures, it easier this way. 

(1) To hide a free standing appliance, in my mind, there's only 1 way to do it properly, create a space wide enough and deep enough to completely enclose it.

(1) We sometimes do it once but 3 times in the same run is unusual !  Simply by use of a custom sized door and 2 base end panels an enclosure is created that will take a seperate furniture door

(1)  And when it's finished, nothing looks out of the ordinary but there are 3 appliances very successfully hidden, subtle but clever ! In each case the plinth is fastened to the door so it opens with it. Particularly useful when wanting to get at the filter at the bottom of tumble dryers and washing machines to clean them out !

(2) Want an island but can't decide where to put it, the answer, for us at least, is to make it mobile. Done simply by the use of 2 standard base units, 2 end panels, 1 back panel and a base with castors on it. The trick is in the sizing of the panels !

(2) Square across the kitchen to help when cooking.

(2) Or in line when unloading your shopping and putting it away. The thing is you can use it wherever it's needed and, of course, the castors lock to save you chasing it all over the kitchen. You could even wheel it into your dining room to serve meals off it. Sooooooooo much more versatile than fastening it to the floor in one place !!

(3) This is useful to feature as it shows what we mean by "an appliance garage" Literally somewhere to park a free standing fridge / freezer to make it look like it belongs and much easier to explain with a photograph. I suppose it could be described a "semi built in"

(4) The old chestnut of what to do with a window cill. If you're using granite or quartz or similar for your worktops with upstands. You can see here that we've used normal 100mm upstands around the room but under the window we've increased it's height to run up into using the same material for the cill itself. You've now got the ultimate window cill that requires no maintenance, painting or anything and looks just fab !!

(4) The taller upstand provides the perfect "wet area" protection so you can splash away to your hearts content without worry about stuff getting soaked !

To end with, the overall look is finished with showing you the great worklight that can be achieved with our, now standard, under unit GX53 LED powered lights.
Believe it or not, these lights are only drawing 3 watts of power each !! Who says low energy lighting is rubbish, clearly they've been misinformed or they haven't talked to us yet.


All the things I've featured here don't look out of the ordinary, don't cost a fortune and are subtly clever enough to not to draw attention to themselves. They tackle a lot of the commonly asked questions and problems to be solved but do it seamlessly.
All it takes is a bit of creative thinking and the will to make it work. It shows you care about your work and enjoy creative solutions to common problems.

I've used the word before in earlier blogs ...."Simplicated: The art of simplifying complicated problems
As ever, with your kitchen and budget at heart, Jules