If you followed Dick and Angel Strawbridge's hit channel 4 show Escape to the Chateau, I imagine you've dreamed of recreating some of Angel's magical interiors in your own home. Well, what if I told you that the stunning family kitchen includes an IKEA hack you can try at home?
The couple first landed on our screens in 2016, and treated us to eight seasons where they transformed a dilapidated French chateau into a stunning events venue and family home. Despite the show ending last year, Angel and Dick are still inspiring households with their new show Secret France and Dick and Angel: Forever Home UK tour.
The family kitchen was one of the first rooms that the couple transformed in the series, and when Ideal Home spoke to Angel about the new tour she revealed that the cabinets are all IKEA.
'We have got IKEA carcasses and cupboards in all of our kitchens,' Angel explains.
'When we first moved in, I was looking at lots of old French kitchens and there was a brand called La Cornue,' she says. 'They have got this signature brass trimming around all of their hobs and they're just wonderful. And we initially wanted to buy a whole bunch, but it was so beyond our budget.'
'I wanted to have a vibe of La Cornue, so I ordered in these beautiful just simple brass strips, and I lined the outsides and across the middle in certain circumstances with this brass, so we had a shiny silver IKEA door with the brass trimming, and I have to say it was not La Cornue but it did turn out quite nice.'
'We had a lot of cupboards in our family kitchen and to buy all of those brass strips cut to size already that cost a couple of 100 euros at the time.'
A couple of years on Angel and Dick haven't left the IKEA kitchen hacks behind.
'Recently, we've got a little kitchen area and we just painted all of the cupboard doors and changed our handles to non-IKEA beautiful wooden scandi-style door handles and painted these white cupboards in this lovely kind of grey colour. It was a really quick job that made a big difference. And it made me start to like it again,' says Angel.
Dick explains that the reason they rely on IKEA kitchen carcasses is that he knows 'They always come together properly.' All he needs to do is cut down the backs to ensure they fit perfectly to the unusually shaped walls of the chateau.
There are so many ways you can make an IKEA kitchen look more expensive like Angel did. Here are three of our favourite buys to upgrade them instantly.
Well if IKEA kitchen cabinets are good enough for a chateau, they're good enough for us.
