19 April 2017

In Praise of the Serving Hatch

My Grandma's house has a serving hatch in it, and I have always loved it. I love the passing through of delicious food, calling our for extra helpings and the way that it opens up a slightly darker room. When we first looked around our soon to be first home, the space where a serving hatch once was was all boarded up and I knew it was something we would reinstall as soon as we could.

They are so often seen as a cheesy retro style choice, you hardly ever see them in new build houses, but I think that they are so very functional and practical as well as stylish. I'll get on to the functionality in a minute, but aside from that I love the lovely aesthetic they give, the little glimpse into the other room. It really opens up the space and mixes up your decor a bit which I really like. I think that while in most homes you tend to design each room separately, I think naturally you'll also have a similar thread running through the whole house and I like that having a little bit of space exposed in an adjacent room really reflects this.

In a family space a serving hatch is so valuable. I can cook dinner and leave the hatch open so I can still see the girls and whatever mischief they're getting up too! As well as passing through various snacks and drinks if needed. It's also a lovely focal point, I like how the hanging mugs frame the edge. I it gives me something to work around.

As I said ours was all boarded up when we moved in, so we took out the board, Ian made some doors and we scoured ebay for some midcentury handles. I'm so glad we have it, it's always a talking point and as you can see below it's fantastic for playing shops!

If we ever moved I'd love an even bigger one without doors in a more open plan style kitchen diner. But for now this one is perfect. I had a good search on pinterest and could barely find any good pins of them, so I definitely think the serving hatch is due revival. If anyone else has one and has posted about it please send me a link! xx