Dan Stronge
Jones Britain Ltd
The client had expensive taste but didn’t want to spend the earth. He visited 7-8 high end retailers and all of them came up with kitchen layouts that didn’t inspire, and they all came in over budget.
My approach was to use fairly standard furniture to keep the costs down but to add bespoke elements to give the feeling of high end.
The kitchen footprint was quite large and therefore I wanted to break the space up into to more manageable sections. By creating an L shaped island it brought the hob closer to the sink and ovens and contained the cooking area leaving a passageway behind the hob that lead to the utility room. The right hand wall then became free for storage.
It wasn’t possible to run the units on all 3 sides of the room as the doorway to the utility room cut into that wall, so I decided to link everything together with Acupanel wall cladding (which helped with the acoustics in the space) and hide the door to the utility by cladding in the Acupanel to make it a secret door. We installed invisible hung wooden shelves with integrated lighting to the left of the door to both match the breakfast bar on the island but also add interest to the space.
By stepping the Acupanel out and boxing in the tall larders it gives the impression that they are not as monstrous as they actually are and adds a further dimension to the plain rectangular room.
The Breakfast bar draws people to the kitchen but cuts them off from the engine room as such. The walnut bar adds a touch of colour and frames the accent Acupanel beneath tying in with the other side where the Acupanel frames the larders.
The space become geometric blocks of cohesive interest. Each block serving a purpose. The cooking block, larder block, eating block etc etc.
The result is a minimalistic modern functional kitchen with plenty of storage and the wow factor the client wanted.
- Masterclass handleless Kitchen Furniture Caesarstone worktops
- Solid walnut wood
- Black Acupanel wall cladding
- Siemens cooking appliances Liebherr Regridgeration Quooker boiling tap
- Sensio lighting
Project cost: £42,500.00 (design, supply, dry fit)
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