We moved into our South Croydon flat about 5 years ago now – time has flown by and whilst we have almost finished all the decorating and styling we still have never really worked on the kitchen. When British Ceramic Tile got in touch to see if I wanted to use some of their tiles to make my dream kitchen design come to life I jumped at the opportunity. Having used their tiles on a couple of design projects before I was impressed with the quality and range available so found it easy to choose some potential tiles to work with.

I’ve always loved the idea of a dark kitchen – sleek black units and worktops. The existing flooring is black and white. But my signature look is full of colour so I needed to bring that in with tiling and some clever wall decoration!

I requested samples of the Laura Ashley Artisan wall tiles in amethyst, eau de nil and charcoal. The simplicity of the black units and my already existing black and white diagonal flooring meant that any of these three tiles could work and it would be a case of putting it all together on a moodboard and seeing which excited me the most!

When putting together a look I always need to see it laid out in moodboard form to get an idea of the design. So often I think it’s definitely going to go a certain way and I end up surprising myself with something that I considered the ‘wild card’. In this case I was convinced that the charcoal tiles would be my favourite – keep it all dark and sleek. Surprisingly when It all went onto the board I found the amethyst tiles really made the scheme come to life. Millennial pink has been such a great trend in the past few years and the shift is definitely moving into the lilacs and lavenders so the amethyst tiles are a perfect nod to the future. They add a fun pop of colour without being overwhelming. Tiled in a grid fashion this gives a contemporary look.

I also decided on doing some hand painted wall decor which would give the effect of a graphic wallpaper without the hassle of putting it up.

With some brass accents the kitchen design is finalised. The rest of our home is very ‘in your face’ so I think it’s nice to do something more subtle (for me at least!) in the kitchen which will obviously stay in place longer than a more casual room.

I can’t wait to finally get the new kitchen installed.