Bespoke kitchens
March 29, 2009
By Hilda Allen
While most of us will have toyed with the idea of a bespoke kitchen only a few will take the plunge. We spoke to Small bone of devizes about the materials, the process and they benefits of designing your own handmade kitchen.
What are the options when commissioning a bespoke design?
Our designers visit all of our clients homes to understand their lifestyles and exactly what they are looking for. Ground plans and elevations are put together alongside a detailed quote. Clients are then asked to visit the showroom to discuss the plans within a kitchen environment and to view specific examples and the design is honed over several weeks.
The best possible materials are used including a variety of timbers and timber products in different parts of a good quality kitchen.Designers visit and measure all sites before undertaking the design.Each client has a dedicated installation manager who oversees the project from design to completion.
Why were Smallbone drawn to creating bespoke kitchens?
The company originated from my passion of restoring antique dressers and from this, one of my client’s asked me to create an entire kitchen to suit his exact individual requirements...we’ve never looked back!
Sadly many kitchens which claim to be bespoke really just have a few adjustments built into their standard designs.
In contrast to this, every Smallbone kitchen starts with our designer working with the clients, discussing their lifestyle and requirements in minute detail. Only then does their design process start and the kitchen is literally ‘built around them’.
We organise our furniture into collections but these are simply starting points. Equally, if someone comes to us wanting something wholly unlike any of our existing ideas, we are happy to build that too. Because everything is made by hand in our own workshops, Smallbone have the capacity to produce whatever our customers’ heart’s desire. That is what bespoke is all about.
Which materials do you work with? The materials used by Smallbone have far more to do with furniture than with kitchens. They are practical, but they are also extraordinarily glamorous. Rare timbers such as Black Walnut or Burr Maple are often combined with glass, mirror, nickel, and faux ostrich leather.
Do you think that kitchens are still viewed as the hub of the home?
Absolutely! Kitchens are not just functional spaces any more, they really are the hub of the house where as well as cooking and eating, people entertain, relax and work. The increasing trend for multifunctional kitchens is all to do with lifestyle…due to busy schedules we now have far less time and have to multi-task. We cook for a dinner party with our friends in the kitchen so that we can chat to them at the same time. We sit our kids down to do their homework at the kitchen table whilst we are preparing supper. We answer our e-mails from a laptop on the counter-top. Everything in our homes has become so much less formal that this multi-tasking is now completely accepted.
Is ergonomics crucial in the design of the kitchen?
If you take ergonomics to mean the ‘fit’ between people and the design of their kitchen, then yes it is at the root of all we do. The kitchen should not only look fabulous but it should function superbly.
To view some of the designs click on launch gallery above and log on to http://www.smallbone.co.uk/ if you would like more information on bespoke kitchens.
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