Location: UK

Interior Designer: Pippa Paton Design

Photography: Paul Craig

The brief for Pippa Paton Design was to create a modern family home for the clients and their family. The clients who happen to be professional chefs required a space to enjoy time together and entertain at scale, with both functional and luxurious spaces which connect seamlessly internally and connect externally to terraces and gardens beyond. The overall design approach was to reconfigure spaces, moving walls where necessary, to improve circulation and create seamless transitions between spaces, whilst introducing an abundance of bespoke joinery and display areas.

The expansive 1100 sq. ft. kitchen space was almost loft-like in scale, but the existing small island was visually lost, the cabinetry offered inadequate storage and two steel pillars intruded into the space. A seven-metre island (bronze-clad on one side, timber-clad on the other) with oversized industrial hinges and lay-on bronze-wrapped drawers and doors is now the centrepiece of the space. The design allows multiple prep and cooking stations, capacious storage and breakfast bar seating for six. Overall, the expansive kitchen with its industrial, loft-like feel has successfully provided a professional-standard kitchen but without the look and feel.

Moving the entrance to the adjacent dining area allowed the crockery cupboard and pantry walls to be aligned. The flooring changes to the same textured pale oak floor as the entrance hall and this flooring continues into the drawing room beyond, where crittall sliding doors have been introduced creating a visual link but allowing the drawing room to be separated when required. The elegant drawing room, with luxurious seating and furnishings, features a display of sunburst wall lights and a bespoke bar whose doors open to 180 degrees when entertaining.

Overall, the spatial layout, design approach and technical specifications ensure the house has exceeded the family’s hopes and aspirations. By reconfiguring spaces to improve circulation, introducing capacious bespoke joinery and display areas and selection of luxurious materials, Pippa Paton Design has reinvented this village house as a highly functional yet luxurious modern family home where spaces transition seamlessly internally and connect externally to terraces and gardens beyond.