Libs Nicholls, an antique dealer and owner of the Domestic Science homewares boutiques in England’s Cotswolds, has designed her kitchen around pre-loved materials and furniture. After waiting 23 years to renovate the former cookhouse of a village school, she aimed for an informal, eclectic space rather than a coordinated modern interior.
The kitchen’s centerpiece is a nine-foot Victorian pine dresser with a marble top, bought for £500 and stored for nine months before construction began. Adapted into an island, the piece established the room’s galley-style layout. Nicholls added new panels to house a dishwasher and double sink, replacing the original marble with grey Carrara stone. The old marble was reused as a pantry work surface.
For the main counter, she sourced reclaimed stone that had previously served as a fish counter in a delicatessen. Because it was too short, she extended it with a small section of stainless steel.
The backsplash also came from an earlier life. A scalloped galvanized-steel panel, originally bought at a film-props auction and stored in Nicholls’s garden for 16 years, was cut in half and installed along the wall. Behind the cooktop, American tin tiles left over from the previous kitchen retain layers of old paint.
Storage was planned around the family’s tendency toward clutter. An aged freestanding cupboard, known as the “ugly cupboard,” conceals the mixer and other appliances, while an old door and two drawers were turned into additional storage for cleaning equipment and lightbulbs.
The pantry doors were another unexpected find. Nicholls recovered a pair of Crittall-style steel doors from a neighbor’s dumpster, with permission, then stripped them back and fitted them with reeded glass. She also used old Dutch market tabletops across the ceiling, hiding the joins with battens to create the appearance of rafters.
The floor is made from wide planks that had been used in Holland for ripening cheese around a century ago. New elements are limited to the lighting and several cabinets designed to match the profile of the Victorian dresser. Nicholls color-matched them to a muddy-brown piece of paper and completed the room with reproductions of vintage cabinet pulls and wall brackets, which she later produced for sale in her boutiques.
Sources: Domino.