Project - Chichester
A KITCHEN ISLAND FULL OF LIVING NATURE
COLOUR, WILDWOOD AND BESPOKE HAND CRAFTED FURNITURE IN A HYBRID KITCHEN
A cavernous space with a low ceiling and bold columns, the close proximity of Roman city walls and a cathedral spire…
Add clients who are old friends, who have loved handcrafted country furniture and the characteristics of real timber all their lives, who have an eye for rich colours and for collecting unusual things.
Here the form and configuration of the kitchen’s central island direct the way occupants of the space behave. It is the right shape and scale to work with the room’s length, knocking back the too-long distance to the wall where the sink cabinet and fridge sit.
The soft geometry or curved shapes of the kitchen island’s circular ends and softly contoured centre section allow an easy flow for walking around, food prep, cooking and for conversations with guests and family members sitting at the table and in the casual armchairs next to the French windows. Facing the garden, these chairs are placed within the arc of the sun that hits the room from midday to mid-afternoon.
Personality matters. If the kitchen island is the big boss, the appliance garage is its movable sidekick and the Belfast sink run its workhorse.
A story for the furniture is always in Johnny’s mind when he is designing.
Together they chose Pippi oak for countertops, a material usually rejected for work surfaces as it is full of knots and inconsistencies. It shows the wild nature of wood, where branches for example emerge from the trunk, and it needed a bit of filling with resin. This approach to materials guided the design process, resulting in a kitchen full of living nature.
The kitchen shown at night. The shelf above the island offers an opportunity for the storage of favourite objects that you want to see in the round, as well as plants that can hang down to create the sense of a garden inside the kitchen. Objects can be hung on butchers hooks: tools, dried herbs and strings of garlic can be suspended for easy access whist cooking.
