They were initially driven to change their kitchen because their freestanding units were no longer providing the best functionality or best use of space for a fully-functioning kitchen, with limited worktop space and lack of storage. Visually, however, they wanted to avoid having too much of a ‘fitted kitchen’ feel.

There were also a number of elements they wanted to keep, such as the flooring, range cooker and fridge/freezer, which had to be incorporated within the design.

The Design (How we fulfilled the brief)

Rather than opting for standard kitchen units we chose traditionally-handmade, in-frame Shaker kitchen cabinetry with a hand-painted finish, to create more of a furniture-feel.

Taking care not to fill the space with wall-to-wall cabinets, we instead opted for a combination of closed and open units to break up the run and created pockets of interesting space. This is further broken down visually with a combination of hand-painted doors against an exposed birch ply interior of the open units.

To avoid the Shaker style looking too traditional, we opted for a dark paint finish with no cornice detail on the wall & tall cabinets.

We avoided adding too many wall cabinets, instead filling the space with interesting and unique features such as the copper pipe lighting & shelving details which were all designed in-house and created by a local lamp maker. These were created completely bespoke for Toby & Jenny to add a unique, industrial touch to their kitchen.

Interesting and unique details were included, right down to the handle choice. The handles, made from orange acrylic, were fabricated by bespoke, acrylic design fabricators.

We made a feature of the existing appliances, by housing the fridge/freezer to make it feel more a part of the scheme. The range cooker originally stood by itself, but it is now framed with open shelving units, maximising the worktop run. A discreet extractor was built in to the chimney detail. We then framed the range with a matt glass splashback to highlight the chimney area as a feature of the room. We carefully hid the boiler within a dresser-style cabinet and incorporated a microwave within the wall unit run to avoid a bulky freestanding microwave taking up useful worktop space.

Layering various textures really helped add interest to this kitchen. Choosing textures that complemented an urban, industrial scheme, we combined quartz and walnut for the worktop, brick tiles to create a feature brick wall effect and a combination of warm, grey browns were used for the wall and woodwork finishes. Toby & Jenny found their blackboard very useful to write down everyday reminders, so we incorporated a blackboard wall as a fun, additional feature.

Key Features

• Traditionally handmade, in-frame Shaker kitchen
• Furniture externally painted with Farrow & Ball, Off Black, painted by local cabinet painter. Exposed birch ply interior detail
• Walnut worktop by Woodentops
• ‘Colorado’ quartz by CRL
• Kohler cast iron sink
• Franke tap with rinse function in brushed stainless steel
• Siemens microwave and fully integrated dishwasher
• Hidden canopy extractor by Westin
• Under-cabinet lighting by Sycamore
• Matt glass splashback in Mink by Opticolour
• Copper pipework lighting/shelving designed in house and made by House of Solas
• Handles made bespoke by Novacrylics
• Brick wall tile by Feature Wall & Floor Company
• Wall finish – Elephant’s Breath, Farrow & Ball
• Woodwork finish – Charleston Grey, Farrow & Ball
• Ceiling – All White, Farrow & Ball
• 1 feature wall in chalkboard paint
• Radiator – Vega in Anthracite finish by Phoenix