The sink became the starting point for Hayley, who wanted to conjure “a sense of history without necessarily being historically accurate.”
“I’m a sucker for sanitary ware,” Hayley says. “I’ve always been really nerdy about it.” She found this cream stoneware sink with legs on eBay: “I’m up against the antique dealers who buy them and then triple the price,” she says. “This was a rogue one that slipped through the net.”
The unit around the sink has been pieced together from secondhand finds: a Victorian draining board; a wooden cupboard bought from a local auction house, and some sanded and waxed wooden floorboards, all for a total cost of £150. “I just wanted it to feel like it had been there forever,” says Hayley.
In the centre of the room is a wide farmhouse table on wheels, another auction find. “We’re really lucky in Wales because antiques are less expensive here than they might be in other areas,” says Hayley. “Plus, pieces like this aren’t practical for many kitchens, but it really works here because it’s on wheels, so it can be moved around and it has two really massive drawers.”
To the left of the entrance are two pieces of wooden furniture: a wall-mounted shelf and a pine wash stand, both auction-house finds. “I tend to try and keep it local because otherwise shipping costs get a little bit out of control,” says Hayley, who paired these two pieces as a way to display glasses and crockery: “I’m not a big fan of kind of everything shut away in kitchen.”
