Design Influences for Designers

As a client, you want to be confident that your kitchen designer is up to date with the latest trends and can translate those ideas into your own beautiful new kitchen. At Searle & Taylor we regularly visit trade shows and design exhibitions, we avidly read our sophisticated trade press publications (I actually write for one of them) and we also attend events by our supplier partners to find out about the latest new launches. In the UK, the biggest kitchens trade event is called KBB and this takes place every other year, while internationally, Eurocucina comprises the annual Salone del Mobile in Milan.
Because I did not have an opportunity to get to Milan this year, I decided to seek some Italian influences in London’s Brompton Cross instead. Together with a visit to B&B Italia, which is just worth visiting for its sheer size and beauty, let alone for the array of stunning furniture on offer, I also took a walk around the beautiful Boffi showroom, which was a revelation in many ways. I saw kitchen designs that make use of fantastic engineering, and I was blown away by the extraordinary architect-designed Cove Kitchen by the late Zaha Hadid, which makes incredible use of a single piece of Corian fitted over a stone island. This kitchen is exhibited around the world as a work of art, and it is a perfect combination of form and function.

The Cove Kitchen by Zaha Hadid at Boffi

Boffi’s Italian kitchens are state of the art, and very beautiful if you love ultra-contemporary design. One of the design influences in the Knightsbridge showroom was the use of decorative opaque glass that looks black when unlit, but is almost transparent when illuminated. This is a design that we feature at our luxury boutique Searle & Taylor showroom in Winchester. It is part of a geometric wall in the showcase Oxydo contemporary kitchen, which also has a stunning oxydised copper island and Silestone worksurface. The glass cabinetry is multifunctional and looks beautiful day or night, and stands out perfectly against a natural timber back wall with irregular shelves, especially alongside the bank of Gaggenau cooking appliances we have installed next to it.

The contemporary Oxydo kitchen display at our luxury boutique showroom in Winchester