Planning a kitchen

Creating a new kitchen is a major project, perhaps the most significant and expensive improvement you can make to your house, so it really is worth giving it some very serious thought.

What’s it for? Is it just somewhere to cook, or do you want it be a combination of kitchen and living room, with space for family and friends. Do you have a young family or are you expecting one, in which case you want to be able to keep an eye on the kids while keeping them away from all the dangers cooking presents. Interconnected family rooms with wide sliding or folding doors can be great, especially when the children become teenagers and you want to escape from them!

Once you have figured out what the kitchen is for you need to think about what you want to cook on, as apart from being the most essential aspect of a kitchen this has a major impact on the design. I personally like fast, powerful gas hobs and gas ovens, as you would find in most restaurants. Other people swear by Aga’s, which also have their qualities but aren’t so hot when it comes to frying steaks for twenty guests. If you have the room, and the budget, go for both.

If you plump for a gas or electric set up you are now presented with the choice of a freestanding cooker or range, or separate hobs and ovens. This really is a subjective and maybe mainly aesthetic choice; there’s something nice about a traditional style cooker, and its easier to design a kitchen around them, but eye level ovens do reduce back strain. However if you choose a slot in range cooker any smoke from the forgotten joint in the oven will be captured by the extractor.

The other Big Thing in the kitchen is the fridge, mainly because it is Big Thing to incorporate into a design. The two principal types on the market are integrated, which are concealed behind furniture doors, and freestanding. Of the freestanding type probably the most popular these days is the American style side by side fridge freezer, which generally comes with filtered water and automatic icemaker. I personally prefer what is called a top or bottom mount, with the freezer above or below the fridge section, as you then get a wide fridge (but not chilled water).

There are now lots of other specialist appliances available, such as built in steamers, deep fat fryers, griddles, BBQ’s, icemakers and coffee machines, along with portable machines such as ice-cream makers, bread makers, food processors and blenders. You need to figure out what of these you might like to incorporate in your new kitchen. We often create an “appliance garage”, a cabinet that contains all the small portable appliances that you’d use more often if you didn’t have to get on your knees to drag out of a cupboard. In our appliance garage they are already plugged in and ready to use, and can be swiftly put away when not needed.

Once the appliances have been decided and the basic layout of the kitchen has been worked out, the style of the cabinets, and the materials and surfaces need to be considered.

Painted kitchens are either finished by hand on site, or pre-finished in the factory. The latter gives a more individual feel, though is inevitably more costly. Whereas painted finishes tend to deteriorate over time, kitchen furniture made from quality hardwoods such as oak or maple often improve with age.

Mass produced kitchens generally use laminate faced interiors, which are pretty durable and easy to clean, Bespoke kitchens, such as the ones we make, often have veneered hardwood interiors, which add a degree of quality, and are more durable over time. Kitchens at the budget end of the spectrum feature “lay on” foil wrapped doors, whereas bespoke kitchens would generally feature solid “in frame” doors with traditional hinges.

There are lots of different surfaces on the market, from the common and relatively inexpensive postformed laminates to solid granite and hardwood. Again natural materials tend to improve with age, although they may require more maintenance than man made materials. We like to mix and match different natural materials, for instance using teak for draining boards, granite near cooking areas, where hot pans may be used, and other hardwoods for seating areas.

Goodwood Rocks

Just up the road from us lies the Goodwood racecourse, possibly the most beautiful in Britain. Or the world. And tonight I witnessed something extraordinary. After the last race a carefully rehearsed team swiftly laid a dance floor on the sacred turf of the paddock, a huge sound and light system appeared, and Boy George turned the normally staid racegoers into a wild dance crowd. Women with improbable hats from the exclusive enclosures rythmed with tattooed members of the less salubrious. Old sticks, including the recently departed clerk of the course, looked on amazed. Ibiza on champagne and gin and tonics. Beyond us the Isle of Wight floated in the channel, above us the stars.

End of the French odyssey

Well, looks like I've sold the Abbaye at last. Its a bit sad because its a lovely place and we've had some great times there, but restoring a 1,000 year old monastery with maybe a hundred rooms (never quite counted or possibly even saw them all) was seriously daunting. Especially in the current chilly financial climate, which has particularly impacted the owners of dilapidated 1,000 year old Abbey's in Northern France. Or anywhere that matter.

The new owners, apart from being brave and presumably hugely rich (well slightly less rich now) will probably be slightly puzzled by the eclectic interior decor. As we've been using it for photo shoots over the past few years and have left some of the wallpaper and paint finishes in the rooms, Laura Ashley's sedate flower prints and gentle colours fight against Tricia Guilds altogether more startling designs in the Salon. Subdued French grey walls in the stairs hall uncomfortably contain sizzling metallic wallpapers in their 17th century moulded panels. Upstairs one of the creamy crucifix lined corridors has a great splash of deep red paint thrown against the wall for no apparent reason, as if there had been some pagan attack on the old monks.

In fact one of the early Abbots was assassinated nearby, while shaving. The old oak tree from which the assassin launched the fatal crossbolt still stands. And another Abbot, Grimaldi, went on to found a dynasty in Monaco. Oodles of history in a place like this. Saints, miracles, apparitions (one potential buyer had a great fear of ghosts; he had been convinced by the agent that there were none when a huge article appeared in one of the regional newspapers alleging that it was the most haunted Chateau in France. He pulled out of the sale and bought a much inferior chateau nearby, owned by the local government who had been desperate to sell it. I suspect foul play at the highest level).

Every time I walk past Designers Guild on the King's Road the Abbaye winks at me from the window displays. In the past its reminded me of the disintegrating plaster in the seldom visited, almost mythical upper floors, of the little red Fergie tractor sitting rusting in the carriage house, brought at great expense from the UK and sniffily dismissed by Marcel the caretaker who preferred to rent a new one with air conditioning and surround sound to cut the acres and acres of grass. A job we latterly turned over to sheep. Of the enormous task I had taken on. But now I can walk past that Kings Road store and frankly feel relief. I can however lots and lots of advice to anyone brave enough to take on a historic house in France!

Flower Power

Was privileged to meet Donovan, the face of the 60's flower scene, at a tea party in London last week.

I reminded him that I had actually been on his staff when I was 18, having managed to get a job as cabin boy on his fabulous yacht Vagrant in Mallorca. He didn't remember this, which isn't surprising as I don't think that he was actually aware that he actually owned it at the time (it had been bought on his behalf by his manager, Alan Klein of Apple; while I was on board apart from the Klein's George Harrison was also a guest. He rode one of those French Velocette bicycles clean into the sea one night).

Donovan is performing the whole of his iconic album, Sunshine Superman, at the Royal Albert Hall on the 3rd of June, with over 30 musicians. A unique event, and I plan to be there.

NIce Care Home Furniture

I created a range of largely solid oak furniture mainly for care homes last year. This has been quite a success, and so far we have fitted out two brand new care homes, and are making the furniture for a third. Considering residents can be in their room up to 24 hours a day, I thought that it was essential to provide them with well designed, contemporary furniture made as much as possible from natural sustainable materials free of toxins. And anyway I'm not getting any younger, and would appreciate a cool environment to retire to myself. Should I ever retire. We are also pretty proud that we are making real furniture from real materials in the UK, rather than importing something inferior fromm the far east. Get in touch if you want more details.

Aga total control launch

I was invited to the launch of Aga's Total Control cooker at the Saatchi Gallery in London last week, where I bumped into Charlie Smallbone (who is creating a range of kitchen furniture for Aga subsidiary Fired Earth), and hooked up with old friends. The new Aga is bound to be a success, offering all the features of a traditonal Aga, with the vital difference that it can be turned off and turned back on again in monents. Apparently you can also talk to it via a moble phone, which is slightly alarming (together with the Total Control concept it does have rather totalitarian resonances!) Seriously, it seems a great idea. More info on www.agaliving.com.

Heart of the house

The kitchen really is the heart of the house. Most people cooked and lived in the same space up to the end of the 17th century, later with cottages; in my small farmhouse the current sitting room has a huge inglenook, with hooks for smoking fish and meat, bread ovens and a salt cupboard, and would have had a spit roast All meals would have been prepared and eaten in this room, pipes would have been smoked by the fire, songs sung.

The preparation and cooking of food is one of the most joyful, important things we do, vital for our well being. It's something to celebrate, enjoy and share, which is why I create rooms for cooking and living. Living kitchens. I like to try and recreate the hearth, making a feature of the cooker or hob. I like gas too, not just because its a fast and flexible way to cook, but also because it brings a real flame into the process.