Our client wanted a practical kitchen with modern, clean lines for their 1970s home in Suffolk.
Challenge
The kitchen was the final project for our client who had been slowly updating their house since they moved in. Inherited from previous owners, the kitchen was old fashioned in style and felt very dark – mainly due to the dark wooden units and central ceiling lighting. The client wanted a new, bright kitchen that was modern in appearance and would be easy to keep clean and maintain.
Solution
As ease of maintenance and a modern style was paramount, the client wanted handleless kitchen units. We suggested Stoneham units from the Flow range in ‘Dove Grey’ for the base units. The sleek, clean lines were complemented by a rounded corner edge to soften the area close to the door. The wall units are from Stoneham’s ‘Fahrenheit’ range in ‘Skraffino’, which is a concrete wood slat effect. The wood grain effect of the wall units nicely reflects the grain of the wood in the new flooring and the concrete effect injects some modernity into the design.
We took up the old tile floor and replaced it with Karndean wood effect flooring in ‘Distressed Oak’. Karndean is a highly practical solution providing all the aesthetic benefits of a beautiful wood grain, but is much easier to care for.
We looked into lots of different options for worktops. The client was hoping for a product that was a hardwearing natural stone with a hint of blue in its colouring. We came up with a recommendation that ticked all the boxes but was also a bit different – Lundhs Real Stone from Norway. Made from Larvikite, the national stone from Norway, ‘Lundhs Royal’ is one of only four stone products supplied by Lundhs Real Stone. The stone has a polished light grey appearance with a lovely soft blue feeding through the surface amongst its mixture of large crystals.
To add to the blue aspect of the colour scheme for the room, the client chose two different blue tones for the glass splashbacks behind the worktops. Selected from the Decoglaze range in ‘Pacific’ and ‘Cornish’ blues, the splashbacks, as well as being striking in their appearance, enhance the blue elements in the worktops and tie all the colours in the palette together perfectly.
We recommended a Siemens grey induction hob with a Neff canopy hood extractor above. The grey Silgranit sink from Blanco’s range complements the colours of the kitchen as well as offering durability. Silgranit consists of 80% natural granite, so it is extremely hard wearing, but the composite mix makes it scratch and stain resistant.
Practical considerations also drove the design of this project. The limited space meant that every unit had to be considered carefully and a balance between style and functionality had to be achieved. We installed a Neff single oven and microwave and a split fridge freezer as well as deep drawers in the base units to provide good storage space. The original wooden slatted pantry door next to the fridge freezer was replaced with a door that matches the rest of the kitchen. This also adds to a sleek modern design overall.
The lighting of the room was vastly improved with the addition of new ceiling spotlights and under cabinet LED dimmable strip lights. The room, also with lighter coloured units, is now considerably brighter and lighter in appearance than before.
“I am really glad that our client is so happy with their new kitchen. All the individual elements combine to create a clean and calm space that compliments the modern feel of the building. The worktop is my favourite element of this room – Lundhs Stone is a very special product.”
– Rebecca Brown
