The Brief

The client wanted a very classic kitchen with moulding details that would co-ordinate with cornicing and panelling on the walls at the garden end of their new extension, which they planned to furnish as a dining and relaxed seating area, decorated with pictures and a wall-mounted television screen. They liked the idea of dark-green-painted cabinetry with brass handles and wanted a showstopper of a cooker hood to hide the Everhot range cooker's wall-mounted extraction system. They also wanted the double-fronted Gaggenau fridge-freezer and glass-fronted wine cooler to be in stainless steel, to co-ordinate with the metal details on the range cooker, and for them to be on full display, not hidden behind cabinet doors.

The designer's solution features Sola Kitchen's Shaker-style cabinetry with cornicing along the tops of the wall cabinets and brass rounded-bar handles for an elegant, timeless look. Bianco Cararra slabs are used to turn the extraction hood into a mighty decorative feature above the long run of base cabinets and the island that are carefully placed so the skylight floods the worktops with natural light and their length draws the eye through the room and out to the garden beyond. Both runs of base cabinetry are hand-painted in a smart petrol-blue but the tall cabinets on the opposite wall are painted a pale duck egg-blue paint, to keep the room bright, tall and wide.

Special Features

On the shelf: an open-fronted column of display shelving twins with the wine cooler. Filled with cookery books and ornaments, it is a relaxed, homely touch that breaks up the run of kitchen wall cabinetry still further.

Domestic service: upstairs, floor-to-ceiling wardrobes with a built-in dressing table and mirror, and a utility cabinet furnished with a washing machine, drier and drying shelves on the landing, all take their cue from the kitchen cabinetry, with cornices and a brass handles to continue the modern classic style throughout the house.

Finishing touches: brass towel rails precisely aligned with the bottom of the butler's sink are a practical but decorative addition at both ends of the island.