Establishing the right vibe: three bespoke kitchens

Each of the three kitchens featured in the following pages demonstrates bold moves that have transformed under-performing spaces. At House of the Elements, a 4.5m high green wall and new skylights have introduced a very different character more attuned to the client’s identity. Both the other two projects also include significant investments in showpiece elements – a stainless steel kitchen island at Elemental House and extensive oak joinery at Hideaway House, the latter cleverly concealing three service areas as part of an extensive reconfiguration. Durability is a common thread – whether gleaming steel or tactile oak, these kitchens are made to last while showing the patina of time. 

House of the Elements

‘The air quality from these plants is incredible,’ says Neil Dusheiko of the lush, 4.5m high green kitchen wall at House of the Elements in London’s Peckham. 
Planted with species from the client’s native Sri Lanka, the internal green wall is a key intervention in this whole-house remodelling project. As well as providing inspiring spaces for socialising and everyday life with a focus on wellbeing, the project aimed to better reflect the client’s identity. 

‘It was a traditional 19th century terrace house and didn’t capture who he is as a person,’ says Dusheiko, who treated the interior as a ‘found space’ keeping the parts that the client liked (whether recent or old), and weaving in new elements in homage to the client’s roots. 

The client had already made big changes to the 30m² kitchen, including sliding doors onto the garden and industrial-style kitchen units, but was unhappy with the result, which he felt was dark and lacked warmth. 

Dusheiko set out to bring in more light and make the space more inviting with what he describes as ‘an almost spa-like character’. The big intervention was the creation of a double-height side return with double-glazed rooflights with a solar film. This replaced the previously single-height space, which was less generously lit. As well as bringing in considerable extra light, this was an opportunity to improve the insulation of the bedroom on the first floor. 

The client had originally proposed Ficus trees in large tubs along the kitchen’s brick sidewall. Instead, Dusheiko introduced the full-height green wall, saving floor space and infusing the kitchen with a suitably lush, biophilic character aided by the additional light. The wall is kept irrigated using harvested rainwater.

There were other changes. Out went the disliked white plaster kitchen ceiling, which was replaced with a bespoke Western Red Cedar tongue and groove panelling which Dusheiko feels contrasts much better with the Xera stainless steel units (Lingotto model). The new ceiling also contains a sprinkler system, thus avoiding the need for more intrusive fire-protection measures such as fire doors or fire curtains. 

The painted grey walls were replaced with a waterproof resin coating by Sphere 8, a natural polymer made from castor beans. This was also used on the walls and ceiling.

As well as the timbered ceiling, extra warmth is added by a new threshold of terracotta pamments across the entrance to the kitchen and in the adjacent WC, which has the curious feature of a QR code for a Wikipedia page on the coconut set in white mosaic tiling – a reference to the work of the client’s father as a botanist for the Coconut Research Institute in Sri Lanka. 

The combination of the extra height and light, and the green wall in particular, has made a big difference to the once-dark kitchen.

‘We wanted the atmosphere to be completely different while playing to the strengths of the existing house and its history,’ says Dusheiko. ‘It’s a huge transformation that nonetheless is respectful of the past, and reflective of our client’s Sri Lankan heritage.’

Architect Neil Dusheiko Architects
Builder Bright Tiger
Structural engineer Detail SD
Landscape Sheila Jack
Mural installation Everything Now Design
Selected suppliers Biotecture (green wall); Domus Group (brick pamments); Sphere 8 (resin finishes); Soda Graffitti (mural); Xera (kitchen units)

Elemental House 

‘One of my favourite things about the house is the island,’ says Johan Hybschmann of the stainless steel unit that takes centre-stage in his newly-extended kitchen in east London. Such an industrial-looking item was highly appropriate to the character of the 1970s terraced house according to Hybschmann, a partner at architect Archmongers.

‘The house is quite Brutalist and you have to respect that kind of hard-core reality rather than trying to make it soft,’ he says. 

As a result, throughout the whole-house refurbishment, the palette stays true to the original key materials – brick, cast concrete, galvanised steel, and timber. 

Hybschmann is Danish, and took inspiration from northern European modernism including Vilhelm Wohlert’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and the work of Alvar Aalto and Arne Jacobsen. Throughout the property, Archmongers has been happy to leave the scars of change over time raw, and for the structure to be clearly legible.

At the rear of the house, Archmongers extended the kitchen by 2.5m – as little as was necessary to create sufficient dining space without encroaching too much on the small garden. The in-situ concrete of the 14m² extension is exposed, along with the structural steel, and painted red for added legibility. A skylight brings in additional light to supplement the glazed rear elevation and the ceiling is split into two volumes, with a softer white over the dining area.

The key investment was the all-steel kitchen island. Hybschmann wanted ‘something completely indestructible’. The answer was a bespoke-sized unit made by Alpes Inox, a small family owned company in Italy. After the ‘painful’ initial few scratches, the island’s reflective surface finish is now equally scratched across the whole top and has, says Hybschmann, ‘settled’.

Like the other materials in the house, it will continue to wear in, rather than wear out.

‘It’s a kitchen for many, many years to come,’ he says.

The other luxury element is the bespoke joinery created in Douglas Fir by Jacob Alexander for the units at the rear of the kitchen. These had to accommodate an unusually high plinth – a legacy of an adjacent garage that has now been converted into a bedroom. The lacquered, veneer units have solid handles and edge details to maximise durability. These are teamed with a plinth of quarry tiles to cover the concrete slab behind, which are also used throughout the kitchen floor and continued out to form the exterior patio. 

‘It feels very domestic, but with the quality of an industrial kitchen,’ says Hybschmann, who describes the kitchen as being like a good piece of furniture.
‘There’s a slight timelessness to it, and a quality that we know will stand the test of time.'

Architect  Archmongers
Structural engineer Foster Structures
Selected suppliers Alpes Inox (kitchen unit); Forbo (linoleum); Jacob Alexander (kitchen carpentry); Ketley Brick (quarry tiles)

Hideaway House

Functionality meets fun in the finely-crafted oak-panelled kitchen at Hideaway House, designed by Studio McW in west London as part of a wider renovation of a Victorian semi-detached house.

The clients had returned to London after many years in America, and were enthused in particular by the wood panelling at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York, designed by Philip Johnson. This was a key influence on their new kitchen, which also uses extensive joinery to great effect, creating a wall of concealed appliances and cupboards interspersed with hidden doors, to the surprise of unsuspecting visitors. These secret doors lead to three back-of-house areas – the larder, laundry and WC. 

It’s quite some transformation of the 2.1m high kitchen and leaky conservatory that it replaced. The architect completely re-imagined and extended the rear of the house by removing the conservatory from one side, and creating a 9m² new side return for the secret spaces on the other. The reconfigured rear was excavated by 750mm to improve previously cramped floor-to-ceiling heights. Brick reclaimed from the demolished kitchen was re-used on the new rear.

Joinery was created by Mike Smith, who studied architecture with Studio McW director Greg Walton and worked for several architectural practices before setting up Idle Furniture, a furniture workshop in Yorkshire.

Doors to the utility areas are interspersed with two joinery columns, one containing the fridge freezer, the other storage, each with concealed handles. The inward-opening doors are concealed using hidden hinges, with knuckle joint details to stop attempts to pull rather than push. Solid oak frames are combined with oak veneer marine grade plywood with 5mm solid lips for durability. 

Oak joinery is continued in the larder and in the kitchen island, which is topped with Carrara marble in contrast to the warmth of the timber.

Opposite the hideaway wall, further joinery continues the oak theme, this time creating a niche for a long bench and 400mm deep flanking storage units. Idle Furniture also made the 2.4m by 1m dining table, designed by the architect and clients. Above, overhead light is diffused by white timber fins, which help conceal the 45° angle of the extension.

All the joinery has been given a medium oak stain with two coats of OSMO oil to finish, and is expected to wear gracefully and pick up a patina over time.  A polished concrete floor is used throughout, with underfloor heating everywhere except the larder.

‘The consistency and colours tie everything together,’ says Walton of the joinery, adding that the clients wanted the kitchen to look like it had been crafted by hand. 

By containing many functional aspects in the new hidden spaces, the rest of the extended space is liberated. The result, says Walton, is ‘a home for living, an extension to serve’.

Architect & Interior design Studio McW
Structural engineer Ingealtoir
Selected suppliers Craftsman (marble worktops); Idle Furniture (joinery); Steyson Granolithic (concrete floor); Velfac (glazing)