Traditional Georgian Kitchen

The Project

This beautiful kitchen was the final big push for Andrew and Xanthe who had been renovating their Grade II listed Georgian Vicarage over the past 7 years. They wanted a classical kitchen, in-keeping with the house, that was practical and beautiful.

Georgian Features

By taking inspiration from the original Georgian features, such as the door beading, elegant proportions and skirting boards, we were able to create furniture that completely belongs to this house. We used two different types of plinth on the kitchen; a normal recessed plinth and traditional skirting, based on the original skirting in the house. The traditional plinth was placed around the working areas where toe space is useful, and traditional skirting on the island and larder cupboard to create weight and solidity.

Storage Solutions

The larder stores a full height fridge, 900mm high freezer and space for worktop appliances as well as all the dry food and recycling. There is additional storage in the large top boxes for lesser used items such as picnic boxes and Xanthe’s marmalade making kit, inherited from her great grandmother.

We created lots more storage than their previous kitchen by making the most of the tall ceilings. This has also made the room seem larger as the eye is drawn up to the ceiling rather than stopping at the top of the standard height units as before. The wall units and tall cornice also hide a lot of the fuse board and the wall coloured boxing disguises the rest.

Island Size

Andrew & Xanthe both pushed for a larger island but I insisted on keeping a 1m walk space around as a minimum and they are delighted how spacious the room now seems even though there is more cabinetry in the room than before. There is seating for two people at the island, looking over the garden, and by moving the radiator under the window and renovating the window seat, there is additional seating for three more people, making it very sociable space.

Worktops

The clients chose oak tops instead of granite so that they could afford the flooring and other luxuries that they wanted to complete at the same time, that otherwise would have to be compromised. The tops will last 5-10 years and they may choose to replace them at this time with stone. To try to slow the inevitable water damage to the wood around the sink, we used a slice of Uba Tuba granite under the tap where the majority of the water damage will appear.

Keeping on Budget

We had spent a long time working through the designs and then it was just about finding the person who could make it for their dream budget. Cabinetmaker Gary seemed the perfect match, his enthusiasm and love for cabinetry was clear from the off and this has clearly shone through in this kitchen.

something similar would cost around £35K