Emma’s Kitchen

WINNER, HOUSE & GARDEN BEST KITCHEN 2016

This kitchen was almost four years in the planning! We had undertaken a renovation and refurbishment of the rest of the house when the clients purchased it, but held off tackling the kitchen and adjacent dining and living areas until client had lived in the house for a while and had a better sense of how she would use the space.

There was a dogleg wall in the existing kitchen that sabotaged every plan we drew up, but, as removing it meant reworking the roof and expanding the slab it was not initially considered feasible to straighten it – especially as the area to be rectified was only 600 x 1600mm! However, after several years and many discussions, clients eventually made the generous decision to do the necessary building works and the rest quickly fell into place.

The brief was for two kitchens – one for the morning breakfast rush (with four children this was a major logistical exercise) and another for the client to be able to bake and cook uninterrupted in β€œher” part of the kitchen. The solution was to create almost two identical kitchens, with double sets of fridges and freezers placed back-to-back to create a dividing blade between the two. Four different colours of wood veneer and furniture and flooring, as well as mosaic marble tiles in the pantry/baking kitchen and double brass flues help keep the materiality and palette in line with the period nature of this lovely established property.

Newly aligned and enlarged windows also ensure maximum exposure to a mature garden with a dramatic liquid-amber tree as a focal point.