The Bekkering family moved to a beautiful house in Leiden three years ago. The house is located on the Zijl, a river less than five kilometres long, between the Oude Rijn and the Kagerplassen. Simone Bekkering tells us about their new house, the garden, and their BORLEY outdoor kitchen.
Peter finds BORLEY on Google
"It's a lovely place, even in winter. The skies are beautiful and when you wake up the sun rises over the water. We enjoy this every day. We had our garden landscaped by a landscaper from Elspeet. On the side, against the fence, we didn’t do much with the space, so we wanted an outdoor kitchen there. The gardener did recommend a company to us, but with them you had to have the kitchen completely custom-made. Fortunately, my husband Peter is quite good with the internet. Via Google, he found a picture of exactly the kitchen we were looking for. A BORLEY outdoor kitchen. That's how we ended up on the BORLEY site.
''STILL, YOU CAN'T DO EVERYTHING ONLINE ALONE. A KITCHEN LIKE THIS IS QUITE AN INVESTMENT AFTER ALL, SO WE WANTED TO SEE IT IN REAL LIFE."
So, we contacted BORLEY and asked if we could drop by. They said we were welcome. Brand-Jan showed us what was possible in their show garden. In the consultation we changed a few things. Because we didn't have a canopy, Brand-Jan advised us to replace certain wooden parts with steel. Slightly different from what we had imagined, but still beautiful. We decided to go for it on the spot and immediately ordered the kitchen.
Peter cooks outside
At our house, the indoor kitchen is clearly my domain. But Peter is the outdoor cook. He enjoys doing it and looks for new recipes all the time. Sometimes he stands outside all day grilling. So, we really use the outdoor kitchen a lot. For me, of course, it's also nice if Peter occasionally takes care of dinner. Although I still do the shopping myself and I also prepare everything nicely for him. I do the 'setup', so to speak. Anyway, Peter is really the chef outside. We regularly enjoy our outdoor kitchen with the whole family; the process as well as the end result."