Savvy Style and Easy Flow in a Contemporary Kitchen
When Paul Brivati was asked to design the kitchen for this London terraced house, he soon became involved in rethinking the entire ground floor. “There are four bedrooms upstairs, but downstairs was not that great,” he says. “It was cramped and didn’t flow well. We wanted to give the owners and their two children more of an open family home by extending out to create a kitchen and dining room that lead into the garden.”
Brivati cast his design eye over the garden and into the hallway too, where he and his team recommended moving a wall and installing sleek storage to help the entrance flow into the house. This attention to the overall space made the finished kitchen not simply a beautiful room sitting at the back of the house, but one that is fully integrated into a connected, flowing and family-friendly ground floor.
Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: A family of 4
Location: East Sheen, London
Size: About 18 by 11 feet (5½ by 3½ meters), including the dining area
A contemporary addition at the back of the house is home to the kitchen. “It’s a small space but not tiny,” says Brivati, of Kitchen Architecture. “From the end of the island to the doors measures 1,100 millimeters. We could have made the island bigger and had less than a 900-millimeter gap between the two, but there was no need. The room is big enough for a really generous island, with ample floor space too.”
The kitchen has a softly Scandinavian feel. “We specified the whitewashed oak flooring and then fitted an island in a clay color and wall units in a pale, chalky shade,” Brivati says.
A walnut table and bench give the dining area a neat structure. “Using a bench allows you to push the table in closer to the wall, to create more flowing space,” Brivati says. “You can comfortably sit six people at the table and still walk past it.”
See more of this Contemporary Kitchen
Brivati cast his design eye over the garden and into the hallway too, where he and his team recommended moving a wall and installing sleek storage to help the entrance flow into the house. This attention to the overall space made the finished kitchen not simply a beautiful room sitting at the back of the house, but one that is fully integrated into a connected, flowing and family-friendly ground floor.
Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: A family of 4
Location: East Sheen, London
Size: About 18 by 11 feet (5½ by 3½ meters), including the dining area
A contemporary addition at the back of the house is home to the kitchen. “It’s a small space but not tiny,” says Brivati, of Kitchen Architecture. “From the end of the island to the doors measures 1,100 millimeters. We could have made the island bigger and had less than a 900-millimeter gap between the two, but there was no need. The room is big enough for a really generous island, with ample floor space too.”
The kitchen has a softly Scandinavian feel. “We specified the whitewashed oak flooring and then fitted an island in a clay color and wall units in a pale, chalky shade,” Brivati says.
A walnut table and bench give the dining area a neat structure. “Using a bench allows you to push the table in closer to the wall, to create more flowing space,” Brivati says. “You can comfortably sit six people at the table and still walk past it.”
See more of this Contemporary Kitchen
