I saw this kitchen by FincH at Grand Designs earlier in the year, and it was clear from those also looking at the room set that it divided opinions. I was impressed by it, and while I might not go for this colour, the idea of a single colour throughout appealed, whereas for MOH and others close by us, they were less wowed. For MOH it was one element of the design that he thought impractical, but strangely it was one that I liked, even if on the whole I agreed with his impractical assessment.
But we’ll come onto that.
The units and walls were all dusky pink, the worktops provided contrast with a soft white finish. The units are made from Jesmonite, a gypsum-based material in an acrylic resin, which makes it a versatile material. The cork flooring, was one of my least favourite elements, but I know that’s down to my inbuilt dislike of the material on floors and walls - yes, I’ve seen it on walls and that just makes me shiver.
I liked the unfussy lines and clean spaces, although in reality my kitchen is unlikely to ever look this clear - but a girl can dream, hey? As well as liking the clean spaces, I’m also a fan of stuff and I’m learning that these two things aren’t compatible. What tends to happen is it’ll start off relatively clear like this, and over time stuff accumulates and I get used to seeing it, and so it becomes part of the “furniture” - until I remember my plan was to keep the worktops clear, and so a tidy up follows. Only for the whole process to repeat, I do think that’s a good thing, or otherwise I’m not sure I’d have enough room to use the worktops to actually prepare food…
Ah yes, the living herb wall. I liked it, MOH thought it impractical. I agreed, but I still wanted one. Even though our kitchen has very little, if any, natural light. I knew it wouldn’t work in our space, but I liked the idea of walking to the end of the work bench to add herbs to my cooking. Often, gathering herbs is one of the tasks that I give MOH when he regrets asking if there’s anything he can do. And that’s usually followed by a description of the herb and its location, how much simpler would it be if the herbs were at the end of the kitchen?
I know, I’m living in a dream world…
The other thing I admired in this kitchen was the tidy concealed cupboards. Mine would never be this empty, but they’d also never likely to be shut, or if they were it’d be because I’d crammed stuff in and wanted to keep that illusion of a clean, clear kitchen.
How would you cope with cupboards like these, or a one colour kitchen?