Hania Southwell

My clients were a young professional couple with 4 small children and a very busy lifestyle. They wanted a family space where they could spend time together as a family, with plenty of space for all of their activities. The kitchen has a utility room adjacent, where the couple wished to hide all of their appliances. The space needed to be useable and open and should seamlessly flow into the kitchen as the door would often be left open.

They loved colour and had 3 items that they wanted to use in their new kitchen. The first was a Spanish floor tile with a multi-coloured Moroccan pattern. Second, a mustard yellow sofa and third a navy blue Rayburn cooker. The colour scheme needed to go with all of these elements. In order to make a high impact in the kitchen, I suggested that they use black units with yellow on the kitchen wall where the Rayburn was situated. I also suggested they use a laminate yellow and graphite door in the utility to tie the spaces together.

We discussed white doors but black made the colours really stand out in the kitchen, whereas we felt white would be too plain and blend into the background. Their large sliding doors into the garden were also black so this would complement the colours of the space once again. The worktops were also black as it was agreed that another colour on the worktops would add too many elements to the space.

The finished space was cohesive and exciting, bringing together all the striking colours as they were used in each ‘area’ of the space from family living through to the utility room.

Agreed budget value for this project was £26,205.00. This included a kitchen and utility room for the price stated.