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THE BRIEF
This kitchen renovation was part of an extensive restoration to a grade 2 listed Manor House, built-in 1629- the oldest building in the town. We needed to design a kitchen to reflect the character and style of the beautiful house, so we opted for the classic Shaker in a calming palette of Stone and Porcelain.
The customers really enjoy entertaining, so we designed a six-seater kitchen island which is perfect for socialising, a bespoke hand-crafted window seat made from reclaimed timber for extra seating, and a specific drinks area with a wine cooler and storage for their gin collection!
Although there are a lot of windows in the kitchen they are small and cannot be altered due to the listed status, this along with the number of wooden beams in the ceiling made the room feel dark, so they were keen to improve the lighting in the new kitchen. This was a challenge that had to be overcome- downlights were put in the ceiling, along with up-lighting above the wall units and under-cabinet lights to give the customer both task and decorative lighting. The smaller decorative beams were also taken down from the ceiling to leave only the large original structural beams on show, this along with lighter cabinetry make the room feel lighter and brighter.
DESIGNER'S TIPS
Creating a bespoke drinks area in a kitchen can add a real sense of fun into a design as well as being practical. In this case, we used an unusual space to the side of the chimney to house a wine chiller, wine rack and all the customer's glassware.
Budget: £12k - £16k
Duffield Kitchens, Serving Derby & Nottingham