Kitchen home offices
The kitchen table is where many businesses start. Can you stand the heat if you work in the kitchen?
Kitchen home offices
Saskia Fraser went from a poor diet and an emotional over-eating habit to feeling physically and mentally healthy after just two weeks on a raw food diet. She is now a raw food mentor and develops her recipes in her kitchen. She has just published her first book of raw food recipes, and leads hands-on workshops where participants make dishes to take home.
Her guest post Healthy eating for energy, clarity and motivation in your business describes how to change your eating and drinking habits and notice the results.
Saskia Fraser, Raw Freedom, author of the Raw Freedom recipe book.
Isabel Amorim makes chocolates to order for celebrations and events. Working to industry standards of hygiene in her home kitchen, she uses large amounts of fruit and nuts to recapture the colours and flavours of the chocolates of her native Brazil. Her chocolates are very different to the mass-produced boxes we’re used to buying, and she’s been given the accolade of The Finest Brazilian Chocolate in the UK by Time Out Magazine. Read more about Isabel in Unusual home working jobs – the chocolatier.
Isabel Amorim, chocolatier, Strawberry Dream
‘Each morning I have a hot date with my shiny green Rayburn to cook breakfast for my guests. I found the Rayburn lurking in the small ads of a free paper, at just about the price I could afford. So we stored it in a horse box for a year, before it was born aloft by a tractor and into my new kitchen.Slightly temperamental, it can blow out unexpectedly – it has a track record of not “doing winds” of any sort – which usually coincides with most major sporting events, bank holidays or hotel inspectors visits. But I love the rusty old piece of iron. Now I wonder what the weather will do tomorrow?’
Christine, B & B proprietor,www.ednoveanfarm.co.uk
‘In 2006 my family and I downshifted from a busy city life to the middle of nowhere in South West Scotland. I now work from home (a farmhouse on a hill) surrounded by peace and quiet.
As autumn approaches and the weather cools, I love to move my ‘home office’ nearer to the cosy Aga and work from my kitchen table. I love all the hustle and bustle that this time of year brings and being in the hub of the home means I don’t miss out on a single thing.’
Heather Bestel, therapist & business mentor, www.MumsGotaBusiness.com/blog
‘As a communications consultant, I naturally spend time working at my clients’ offices – getting to know them and their businesses. But the great thing about being freelance is that I’m free to work wherever I want to. I get energy and inspiration from working in different places and I love the buzz of a busy coffee shop.
At home, I like to move round the house for extra variety, depending whether I’m planning, writing or talking on the phone. Whenever I can, I escape to work in the garden. Failing that, the kitchen, with the garden door open, comes a close second.’
Lucy Eckley runs marketing and communications consultancy Blue Penguin Communications
‘I have 2 offices – one is my kitchen (where the photo was taken) and it includes my essential working kit – Kenwood, wooden spoon, small palette knife, pencil and blackberry (and carrot cake!!!). The other is my dining table in the lounge, where my laptop lives. (My study, which houses my desk, books and folders is only ever used for storage and I’m lucky to see the floor for the cake boxes in there!) I love experimenting with flavours and designs and the changing seasons bring new ideas and inspiration to me. When I’m not at my 9-5, I’m either found in my kitchen or at my laptop!’
Claire Melvin, Claire’s Handmade Cakes
‘For once the cobbler’s wife got some shoes….well, what I mean is the cabinet maker’s wife got a hideaway home office!! Following many doleful, pitiful looks on my behalf, my better half, Peter, managed to squeeze in making a home office for me. I was less than convinced about using an alcove. This wasn’t going to fulfil my idea of gaining inspiration from gazing out the window. I should have had more faith! It’s delightful, made at a perfect height for me, surrounding items I adore to inspire and focus me. And the best of it all? It can be easier hidden away from view with elegant bifold doors. Happy Days!!’
Norma Dunham (Mrs D), www.dunhamfittedfurniture.co.uk
