COUNTRY KITCHEN
This project started as a requirement to turn the previous sitting room into a kitchen with freestanding style kitchen units against the wall with an oak worktop spanning the full width – this soon expanded to a kitchen island, balustrasde infill panels and coat rack!
floor
The previous room had carpet all the way through, so we removed this and laid real slate tiles in the kitchen area, transitioning into an engineered oak floor in the new sitting area with a bespoke oak threshold between the two. We used oak skirting all around both rooms to tie the two together – (somewhat unusually) we floored and skirted the entire space, even when this would be hidden by kitchen units or utilities; we like to do this because we believe it is ‘right’ – you don’t need to hide anything with trimming which gives a little more freedom in styling, freestanding units won’t look unfinished if you happen to be looking under them from floor level, and it allows units to be moved, added, or replaced in the future without getting into issues with where the trim ended for a previous fitting.
It involves a small amount more materials and time, but if we are in there anyway we believe it makes sense to take that little extra step; and you’ll know it’s been done right!
Kitchen units
We made these with a frame of solid pine, supporting three drawers on the right of the sink, a 600mm belfast sink with storage space below, and 3 cupboards on the left.
We cut the worktop seamlessly into the window and set the tap into the worktop close to the sink, sealing all the oak with walnut oil – this requires re-application at 3 month intervals but gives an amazing matte finish that really just brings out the natural beauty of the wood.
The pine frame, cupboard doors and drawer fronts were all treated to several coats of high build primer, flatted back where necessary and then given coats of inky prose paint to bring a dark contrast against the kitchen island.
oak handles
It was impossible to get oak handles off the shelf in a size chunky enough to suit the design, but with a low enough height to not be intrusive (finding large ones in oak was hard enough!).
So, we took to the wood lathe and after 3D printing an initial sample, we turned up 10 handles to finish the entire kitchen real nicely.
It’s in these little details that we can really provide the perfect finish as we have the capability to make exactly what is needed.
kitchen island
The brief for the kitchen island was ‘large!’ – so we got hold of a huge piece of 900mm x 3000mm worktop and made a frame to suit. The construction was requested to be very open, but with some space for baking equipment on the oven side of the island.
We designed the frame to have a slatted base with no cupboards, and with space left at the back to be used with stools as a breakfast bar. We also added a single deep and wide drawer centrally located, using half of the width of the island for its length.
A deep magenta colour was chosen to use this substantial island as a real focal point of the kitchen, and it works really well to catch the eye, and the small amount of blue in the magenta allows it to work well with the deep blue of the kitchen units.
balustrade infill
The stairs in the corner of the kitchen really had to be integrated into the theme of the kitchen since they take up a large part of it, so they were painted in the same blue as the units, and were given a metal infill to bring a different finish into the room to break it up a little.
After some prototyping where the client was happy but we could see some improvements to really make this a great piece, we set to work on a really chunky 50mm frame with flattened mesh infills. This was a real labour of love since we know little fingers love to find their way into these mesh holes, so we smoothed every single one of the apertures before welding together, DAS finishing and matte lacquering these panels.
coat rack
Another little addition to this kitchen was a request for a coat rack which integrated with the look – we chose to use a 25x50mm mild steel frame with a (very) used and sanded scaffold board interior, with black forged coat hooks. All welds were buffed flat with the exception of those on the top outside face which were just cleaned and lightly sanded to a matte finish. These were left to continue the rustic look from the rough wooden finish of the interior.