Project Name: Barnes House

Location: United Kingdom

Date Completed: 2019

Architect: Richmond Bell Architects

Kitchen Design: Lanserring

The brief for this project was to create a family kitchen, which would be the heart of the home, in a newly renovated Edwardian semidetached in Barnes. Lanserring wanted to design a sleek, clean and understated kitchen with an injection of soul and a strong sense of craftsmanship.

The aim was to create dark, tonal symmetry with the cabinetry, backsplash and counters on the far back wall, to enhance with the almond gold touches. As avid cooks with a passion for entertaining, the clients intended to spend a lot of their time in this room.

The kitchen needed to be family friendly – a design that would mature well but also be functional and provide ample storage, creating a clean look given this is the most used and important room in the house. The clients wanted cascading stone down the sides and chose a stone that would work with the hanging shelf, perforated to facilitate extraction, another design impact and signature of Lanserring.

Hand-painted cabinetry in warm charcoal, recessed brushed brass finger pulls, an expansive central island and patinated metal splashback all add texture to the kitchen. The darker cabinetry contrasts with the light material of the island and the herringbone flooring, and the steel framed double glass doors ensure that a lot of light reaches the full kitchen space.

Set against the calmness of grey cabinetry, the 3.5m-wide quartz-clad island unit is a sculptural piece that carries impressive visual weight. In a room with few walls, it also forms a vital physical barrier to the preparation space, creating an undisturbed domain for cooking, without excluding anyone from the conversation.

Lanserring wanted to allow the kitchen to appear as spacious as possible, interfacing seamlessly along the back wall. In order to keep a consistent aesthetic and colour palette, the team created a concealed door to the pantry on the right-hand side of the kitchen, using the same hand painted technique, although on a much thicker piece of wood and using specialised hinges.