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Bespoke kitchen

My  customers had toured all the usual kitchen firms and formed the opinion that they could only achieve what they wanted through having the kitchen custom made.

Ordinarily a customer will make his/her/their  decisions in a showroom,  and in due course the kitchen is fitted. In this instance there was considerable debate as to the basic form of the kitchen then, as the work progressed there were a number of  additions and alterations. It was a pleasing piece of work to undertake and my customers now have exactly the kitchen that they wanted.

Photo above:  The fridge and dishwasher are below the counter to the right of the "oven tower".

At the risk of stating the obvious, this is a truly hand made kitchen. Ordinarily,  kitchens are made on a modular system using sophisticated  computer  driven machines. Everything is exact and true but necessarily, there will be a limited number of cupboard sizes with a finite variety of door types and finishes. To the customer with specific ideas or requirements (awkward shaped kitchen for example)  it quickly becomes apparent that the modular system is unable  accommodate any kind of deviation from what is in the warehouse. Nevertheless the product is invariably presented and sold as  a  customer friendly custom built kitchen.

The existing kitchen had units around the walls and a fairly large floor space that was unused. There are two doors on two walls  and access to the  conservatory  on the third of the four walls.

I redesigned the kitchen to be a more user friendly working environment that uses the space much more efficiently. In short, the "work triangle" has been employed so that fridge, hob/oven and sink are all placed relatively close to one another. 

Photos 1 & 2 below:

Below you see stacks of the two principle materials used in the construction of the kitchen. Kiln dried English oak delivered as rough sawn boards.  The melamine faced boards all cut and labelled ready for making into cabinets.

The cabinets are made from 18mm melamine faced MDF. All edging, doors, drawers etc are made from English oak finished with two coats of Danish Oil. .

Photos 3 & 4 below:

The peninsular unit (see below) in the early stages. In the right hand photo you can see a thin strip of oak affixed to the MDF. This known as "lipping".  Lipping is applied whenever the edge of the MDF is likely to be seen.  As you look at the following photographs you will see no exposed melamine/MDF. You will see only  oak or spray painted panels. There  are no plastic veneers or edging strips here! 

Photos 5 & 6 below:

After much discussion about the the  end of the "peninsular unit", it was agreed that curved doors on this unit would, likely as not, get broken off by folks passing by.  It was therefore decided that tambour doors would be the answer.   Here you see the doors under construction .

Photo 6 above left: The double wall cabinet under construction. You can see the oak "lipping"  and a door frame under construction.

Photo 7 above right : All hinges are stainless steel butt hinges with stainless screws.  Such hinges are at first glance   rather unsophisticated; they do not self close, they do not hold a door open and they are not modern in appearance. However, as stainless hinges, they will never ever corrode or mark, they do allow a door to open back upon itself, they do  not sag and they are very strong.  As a design statement they are timeless,  classical  modern if you will.

Incidentally such hinges  take  ages to fit, one tiny mistake is fatal in that it will be very obvious. These two factors are the principle  reason why  you will  never find such hinges in  the stores or catalogues of the cheapest or,  frequently even,  the most expensive of proprietary kitchen unit  manufacturers.

Photos 8,9 and 10  below: The units had to be made strong enough  to support the weight of 30mm granite worktops. You can see the tambour doors at the end of the "peninsular return" and the stainless steel "kick boards".

Notice also the corner sink.  Ordinarily such a sink would be set into a corner. Here the sink is on an  "outside" corner. With one person  within the "principle work area ", any one assisting can gain access to the sink from the "outside". The sink is  also close to The Bar. More of which below.

Photos 11,12, below: Looking to the centre picture above it can be seen that the peninsular projects from the wall. The brief was that the cupboards between the sink and the food mixer (and below the worktop) should be accessible from either side. Below left  is that cupboard , and on the right  with one  door open on each side,  a view straight through the unit.

Photo 13 below:  The "return" of the peninsular (meaning the last part of the peninsular that turns through 90 deg)  also has cupboards  that can be accessed from either side. A sense of which  may  be seen in Photo 4 above. Two large doors  on the outside of the return and a small one on the inside.

Photos 14 and  15 below: The hob is set into its own unit. Below the hob are six drawers, the largest of which was designed to hold a food mixer with all the accessories. The "Oven Tower" to the right of the hob accommodates a conventional fan assisted oven. Above that is a combination oven. At the bottom is a warming drawer. At this stage you may be wondering how anybody can reach the top shelves  of the cupboards? To solve the problem there is a small set of fold away steel steps available. They are kept  in  the small cupboard below the warming drawer. This cupboard can just be seen in the r/h picture below.

Photos 16, 17 and 18 below: The Bar is in the same style as  the rest of the kitchen. Above the oak counter there are two large cupboards with a smaller one in the middle. The centre cupboard has a "secret" panel that hides the wiring and transformer for the LCD TV/Radio.

The wine tower is a particular feature! A friend of the customer reckoned that a  single 10" square would hold 9 bottles of Bordeaux, so was my brief presented. When full  this wine tower can  comfortably hold 92 such bottles . The tower is made from solid 25mm (1" if you will) Oak. Further photographs of the tower are below.

At the  left hand end of the bar and below it is a wine chiller. To the immediate right of the chiller is storage for trays. The storage unit makes the transition from the chiller that projects quite a lot to the necessarily fairly  shallow bar. The curves of the storage unit and bar counter complement each other.

There is a four drawer unit between the tray storage and the wine tower. All the drawers have a "double extension" (i.e. they open fully rather like filing cabinet drawers). The two lower  drawers can each hold half a dozen  spirit bottles with optics fitted.

Photos 19, 20 and 21 below: A detail of the TV , cupboard and wine tower, the oak counter top, a long shot of the bar cupboards and wine chiller.  

Photo 22 below: The right hand bar cupboard full of cookery books. Would your kitchen cupboards be able to take such a weight?

Photos 23, 24and 25  below: The construction of the wine tower. If you look carefully in the lower l/h picture you will see (1)  the manure covered farmyard that is the entrance to my workshop and (2) a variety of wine bottles in the background   - necessary to test the thesis that 9 bottles will in fact  fit into a 10" square!  Of course they had to be emptied first....

Footnote: It should be noted that there was a lot of wiring  for lights and sockets that had to be done. Nowadays such work can only be undertaken by an electrician who is fully  qualified to undertake such work. I am indebted to the good will and humour of the  electrician, young Colin,   who assisted me .

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