As unfashionable as it may be, we are a team that believes in good old fashioned personal service. We also believe that for back of house spaces to perform to their fullest, they are best designed by designers with experience of life. We have 20 years experience in making domestic spaces work for ourselves and our clients.
Creating beautiful, practical, and great value environments for families to thrive in requires a highly collaborative approach between us, and like most things in life, the more you put into them, the more you get out. This rule certainly applies when preparing to brief a company like ours to design a bespoke kitchen.
There is lot to think about with kitchen design, and a hard and fast rule is to try not to think about all of it simultaneously. There is a process, and it makes sense to break it down into manageable chunks. We like to start with function before moving onto form.
When speaking with a client for the first time, our first objective is to truly understand the space and the architecture of their home. To do that, we must visit your house. There is no way to shortcut this. There will be some companies, usually national brands, who will try to persuade you that designing a kitchen remotely is possible. They are correct to some degree. It is possible to design a kitchen remotely. But to design a kitchen remotely, and to do it well, is not.
Without a personal visit, it is impossible to take advantages of the unseen opportunities presented by the architecture of the house. These opportunities include walls which might be stud (and thus easily manipulated to the advantage of the design). A personal visit also allows us to gain a thorough understanding of the period detail and mouldings used throughout the rest of your house. Gathering such information early allows us to create spaces which function well and look comfortable within the architectural surroundings of your home.
A personal visit also helps us understand how your kitchen is being supported by other ancillary spaces such as pantries, sculleries and larders. Understanding which rooms can take which load is vital. We’re not interested in filling your kitchen with boxes (we’ll actually keep your kitchen as light on joinery as possible and let supporting spaces take the strain). This approach allows us to design kitchens which are elegant, not overbearing.
Most important of all, a site visit helps us understand you and your family better. Without understanding you, how you cook, what you cook, what you want to cook it on and how your family plan to live in the space we are designing, there is absolutely no way we can ‘nail the brief’. Yes, we can design it, but we would simply be guessing at most of it, and you will be wasting your money. You’d get the same results as an off the peg suit. Yes, it’s a suit, but it’s not really going to fit you perfectly.
So, in the world of instant delivery, video conferencing and screen sharing, in our world, as uncool as it maybe, personal service still remains king. To create highly personal design, delivered with great personal service, and managed long after the project completion, we must be there. In person.