Clients: Mr & Mrs Compton – Devon

The main objective for this design was to create a space that would allow the clients more time together as a family; an area that a growing and busy family could all use and benefit from. I worked closely with the clients throughout this process to plan and create a room in which the kitchen was part of the space, but not dominating the space. I came up with this ‘broken-plan’ living concept that included kitchen, dining and living areas that all flowed together and worked as one.

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The design is split so that when you are in the living and dining area, you don’t necessarily feel like you’re in a kitchen, the clients wanted to hide the kitchen as much as possible. I used one side of the large, raised island, which can be seen from the living area, to incorporate open shelving for books and ornaments so that this view allows you to feel like you are in a living space. The other side is then used for wide drawer packs and the hob, so from that angle, it feels much more like you are in the kitchen. Strategically positioned drawers, reduced height units and floating units all help to soften the look and create the feel of being in a family living space, rather than just a kitchen. To add to this broken-plan idea, I also built the tall units and fridge/freezer into the wall so that they were virtually invisible from the dining and living space.

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A space for a dining table, along with a breakfast bar allows the family to eat, cook, work and socialise together, whatever the time of day.

Lighting played an important part in zoning the areas, with various lighting used separately for different tasks to create different moods depending on the time of day and occasion.

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This mood lighting allowed us to pull the whole design together.

One issue I came across with this huge space, was having to incorporate the pillar in the middle of the room. It meant that when designing the island there was a large space from the sink run to the island, but in the end, I feel that this helped make the design more interesting and the pillar helped to zone the separate areas in the room without having the physical barriers of walls or partitions.

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The overall look that the clients wanted to achieve for this room was to be fresh, light and bright, whilst keeping some warmth, which I feel I achieved by using natural materials, good lighting, and a mix of both white and walnut handleless units at different heights throughout the room. This was a very large area to work with but I have still been able to use the fundamental design principle of the working triangle which has meant that the client has ended up with a finished kitchen that is functional, fits in with modern family living and also looks stylish and contemporary.

Agreed budget value for this project was £19,827.00