Inspiration
Designing a luxury kitchen
Few rooms work as hard as the kitchen. You cook there, but it is also where the family talks through the day and where guests end up during a party. It has to feel comfortable and it has to give you proper workspace. When you set out to design a luxury kitchen, three choices do most of the work: the materials, the colours and the layout. We are glad to share what we have learned.
Inspiration
What makes a kitchen luxurious?
It starts with the materials and colours that make a kitchen read as a design kitchen. You would choose from:
- Marble
- Wood
- Steel
- Leather
- Concrete
- Ceramic
Look for balance between glossy and matt finishes, and between dark and light tones. Ton sur ton works well too: earthy tints such as beige, brown, terracotta, cream, sand and taupe sit comfortably together, and grey combines with all of them. The appliances deserve the same attention as the surfaces. A refrigerator that makes ice, a coffee machine built into the cabinetry rather than standing on the worktop: choose the equipment that makes your daily routine easier.
Inspiration
Kitchen brands worth knowing
Some 95 per cent of our kitchens are bespoke joinery, designed by the studio and built with specialist furniture makers. There are still kitchen brands we gladly reach for, though. Among them:
- SieMatic
- Eggersmann
- Salvani
- Snaidero
- BORA
- NEFF
- Quooker
- WAVE
For tableware and glassware, SERAX is a good place to start.
Inspiration
What does a luxury kitchen cost?
Prices vary widely. The purchase alone tends to sit between 30,000 and 50,000 euro, and that covers only the materials and the appliances. Unusual materials push the figure up, and on top of the purchase come the removal of the old kitchen, the installation of the new one, rerouting water and electricity where needed, extending the meter cupboard, plastering and painting. A design kitchen with out-of-the-ordinary appliances soon rises to 60,000 euro or more, installation included.
Inspiration
The layout
How do you lay out a kitchen? At this price you do it once, so the layout deserves real thought. The room itself decides much of it. A straight run keeps floor space free to move in, while an L-shaped kitchen gives you more worktop. A cooking island asks for genuine space, because you need to walk around it; with a little less room, a peninsula does much of the same work.
Fitting out the kitchen
Once the arrangement is settled, the fitting out begins. You choose between tall cupboards and low ones, decide which appliances belong in the kitchen, and work out how much room your tableware and cutlery really need. Then there is the question of wall units, and the choice between drawers and shelves behind the doors.
Inspiration
Organising the cupboards
A luxury kitchen stands or falls by its storage. The more that sits out on the worktop, the messier the room reads. It helps to divide the kitchen into zones for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the breakfast and lunch zone you keep the plates, the mugs and the bread things, so everything is within one reach, and only the items you use every morning belong there.
Keep only what you use often in the kitchen itself; spare packets of rice and the spices you rarely touch belong in a pantry cupboard. If there is room to spare, a spice drawer is worth doing properly: a fitted insert with matching jars, the spices decanted from their original packaging. It looks calm and ordered. Also worth considering is a herb garden in the kitchen, which brings living green indoors and adds scent to the room.
Inspiration
Two kitchens from our own projects
For a family with children we designed the kitchen in their detached house. Their main request was storage, which we answered with a full-height unit along the wall. The light got the same care: spots positioned in the ceiling so there is always proper working light, and wall lighting that washes the light from top to bottom. We placed the kitchen at the window, so whoever cooks looks outside, and a peninsula draws a natural line between the kitchen and the rest of the room.
For another client we made a bespoke kitchen design in our Soothing Luxury signature. Subdued lines meet natural materials with some tension in them: concrete, steel, wood, marble and leather. We kept the design itself quiet, which lets the materials do the talking. And because a kitchen is used hard every day, practicality weighed as heavily as looks; the result is high-end and genuinely useful.
There is more than kitchens among our designs. The bathroom, the bedroom and the living room each have their own page.
Inspiration
If you would rather hand it over
If you want a high-end kitchen but do not quite know where to begin, this is work you can hand over. Years of kitchen projects have taught us what holds up in daily use and which materials can take life around a worktop. We start by discussing how you live and cook, so the kitchen we design fits your daily routine: quiet rather than showy, and built to be used.
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Curious what we could do for your home? We are glad to meet, with no obligation.
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