Design Philosophy
A personal message from our head of design:
Kitchens have changed and evolved to become one of the central if not the central room in the modern home.
100 years ago a kitchen was simply for cooking, today most kitchens need to be kitchen, dining room and sitting room, all in one. Getting this balance right is critical. That is why it is so important for you to tell us what you want to use your kitchen for.
Also, time and time again I come across customers who have bought other kitchens and been disappointed not with the standard of manufacture nor even the aesthetics but rather the sheer impracticality of their kitchens. How you design a kitchen has a huge influence on how enjoyable it is to cook in.
Here is a list of some common errors most kitchen designers make:
- Not separating the kitchen into different zones e.g. preparation, clean up and serving.
- Not prioritising appliance locations – the dishwasher is the most used appliance, the oven much less so, and so should have the best location.
- Putting drawers over doors on base cabinet throughout the kitchen results in too many small drawers and cupboards.
In short it is easy for a kitchen designer to fill a room with units. Thinking about how you, the cook, will actually use those kitchen elements to prepare food takes a different level of skill most designers fail to appreciate.
Usability is a key issue for me. The last thing you want to do is spend a lot of money on a new kitchen only to experience years of frustration. When I design a kitchen for you I think in great depth about it, I imagine myself in the room in order to create the best design for your space, and for you.
Quotation from Nigel Slater from "The Kitchen Diaries" about his own kitchen:
“My kitchen is not large, but a trio of skylights and the fact that the doors open up to the garden make it a hugely pleasurable place in which to cook. It has no fancy cookers, no battery of expensive equipment, yet it has been thoughtfully and intelligently designed. The space works perfectly. Good kitchens are not about size, they are about ergonomics and light.”