This open plan handleless kitchen was designed for an architect, who drew the original plans for the layout as part of a contemporary new-build home project for him and his family. The new house has a very modern design with extensive use of glass throughout. The kitchen itself faces out to the garden with full-height panel doors with black surrounds that slide open entirely to bring the outside in during the summer months. To reflect the natural light, the Intuo kitchen furniture features polished glass door and drawer fronts in Lava and Fango colourways to complement the marble floor tiles that are also light-reflective. 

We designed the kitchen to specification, with the main feature being a large T-shaped island in the 5.8m x 9m space. The concept behind the island’s shape was to have a full preparation and surface cooking space with the sink run behind it, while the length of the island would be used for dining and socialising, with bar stool seating in recesses on either side. Further soft-close drawers are on either side at the end. The raised Eternal Marfil worktop by Silestone is 80mm thick with square edging. 

The preparation area is 3.2m wide and features a contrasting 20mm thick Eternal Marfil worktop with Shark’s nose edging to provide easy access to the stainless-steel recessed handle rails to the deep drawers at the front and sides of the island. At the centre is a Novy Panorama PRO 90, with an integrated ventilation tower that rises when extraction is required and then retracts back into the hob’s surface when cooking has ended. For this reason, no overhead extraction was required for this kitchen. Directly beneath the hob are pull-out storage units and there are further deep drawers on either side for pans and plates. 

To the left of the island are tall handleless glass-fronted cabinets within a 600mm recess, featuring a broom cupboard at one end and a Neff integrated fridge freezer at the other. A bank of Neff side-by-side cooking appliances make the central focus and include two single pyrolytic ovens, a combination microwave and an integrated coffee machine together with accessory drawers. Further storage cupboards are above and below each appliance. 

The sink run is situated beneath a long rectangular picture window with a black metal surround. Directly above it is a run of glazed cabinets, all by Intuo, with black glass surrounds, with one double-height to the left of the window. The cabinets all store glassware and crockery and they are backlit to make a feature of them at night. Functional pull-out storage cupboards sit beneath the worktop, including pull-out bins, together with a 60cm integrated dishwasher on either side of the sink unit. An undermount single bowl and separate half bowl sink by Axixuno are all cladded in stone to match the pale walls and the tap is by Quooker. 

The feature wall is painted in Caramel Crunch by Dulux. The bar stools by Danetti were chosen by our client to complement this striking colour, and crockery was chosen to match. The pendant lights are Taper by Franklite.

Designers: Gavin Alexander and Darren Taylor

Photographer: Paul Craig

As seen in: designer Magazine, These Three Rooms, homebuildingandrenovating.com, KBN, The Kitchen Think

“We are delighted with our stunning new kitchen, the quality of the units is outstanding, so easy to clean and maintain.

“Thank you, Darren, for your excellent customer service which has been continuous and helpful all the way through the project. I have been recommending you to our neighbours, particularly the customer service after installation, which was very much appreciated and is so important to all clients.”