Small but mighty - Galley-style Kitchen Makeover
You, the client, is the fulcrum to the project and a key member of the design team as the initiator of the project. Your input is invaluable and is what can produce great schemes like the one for the Victorian Terrace Renovation project in Cambridge. The project isn’t due to start until the summer of 2024 but we have completed the designs that we would like to share with you. In this article we focus on the kitchen design only.
This small kitchen has it all- we’ve hidden a water softener, a food grinder and because we proposed a Fusion Round kitchen tap from Quooker, we also had to accommodate the built-in Cube for that. The kitchen houses an integrated double dishwasher from Fisher Paykel- you simply can’t fit a normal size dishwasher, because you wouldn’t be able to open and load it.
If you followed us for a while you know we love specifying Bora cooktop with integrated extractor for contemporary kitchens- Bora’s recirculating model is wonderful if the extractor cannot be linked to an exhaust duct system with wall sleeves. The BORA recirculation system is the alternative solution to exhaust-air variants. The fan directs the cooking vapours into the specially developed recirculation filters, which effectively eliminate odours from the kitchen exhaust air. That way, the BORA recirculation systems keep the air in kitchens fresh and we love it for that very reason; that’s why we also specified it for this project. Another advantage of using Bora is that you don’t waste valuable space for an extractor- this is particularly important when the space is so small.
Since the worktop area is also limited, for visual consistency we decided to use the same material as the worktop- it’s a recently launched Parisien Bleu Silestone from Le Chic Collection by Cosentino. This particular colour was inspired by the shades seen in famous Imperial Roman stones, combined with fine veins in ochre tones. We love using Cosentino products because of their durability and ease of caring. Thanks to Silestone’s exclusive and innovative HybriQ + technology, maintenance is minimal and high resistance to stains and scratches is guaranteed.
Because we decided to go fully bespoke, we could choose any colour for the units. Since there’s a strong green colour scheme throughout the entire property, we wanted to break it a bit with a warmer, grayish taupe, that’s why we picked Eagle Rock hue from our favourite paint manufacturer, Benjamin Moore, for the base units. We paired it with the colour of wet, verdant earth, Rolling Hills. This hue features a mix of green, brown and gray tones and mixes very well with the other hues.
In all my posts where I share the design tips, I emphasise the use of vertical space, always extend your cabinets to the ceiling no matter the size of your kitchen.
When you renovate your kitchen, you must think of lighting. It’s such a waste to put in lovely cabinetry, worktop and splashback and then completely forget about the importance of lighting. I devoted the whole chapter to lighting in the kitchen in my guide, you can download it for free. In this kitchen we included recessed LED lights in the back of the wall units- this will add depth and beautifully highlight Parisien Bleu Silestone splashback. Another important and often overlooked in terms of lighting area is the sink. Although it’s by the window and there’s plenty of natural light, at night, this area will benefit from artificial lumens; instead of two recessed downlights we proposed two pendants (in lovely pewter and copper finishes) from Industville that specialises in industrial style lights- a design style that our client wanted to incorporate in the design scheme throughout. You can see it on the visuals but we also incorporated two trimless double round adjustable downlights. This particular downlight is designed to be plastered into ceilings to give a seamless appearance. One of the advantages is that the downlight can be installed then plastered and painted.
Below is a full plan showing lighting and the circuit- thinking about how your lights will be operated, i.e. in what order, where from, whether they will dim or not, and if yes, ‘how’ are all important factors to consider when planning the lighting layout.
After seeing the first round of visuals, the clients decided he only wanted to have two glazed units sitting above the Bora Cooktop. Which option would you go for?
For this project we were appointed for our turn key service, which is our most popular service where apart from the design package we fully implement details and we take care of everything on our clients’ behalf. If you choose this service, you’ll only need to liaise with us throughout the entire project. Sounds like a dream? Learn more here or book a call to discuss your project.
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