The Sowerby-Cross’s

This family of four employed us to design a bespoke kitchen in Manchester for an expansive extension to their 1930’s home. The area, accessible from the main house from both the hallway and through the existing living room, was awash with light coming through the full exterior wall of glass doors and additional Velux windows in its extended roof. Beyond the extension, the expanse of doors led onto a children’s play area which then looked on towards the landscaped garden and granny flat beyond.

Our task was to provide the family with a place where they could gather round, cook, and enjoy their love of wine, so first and foremost a wine fridge was essential to our plan. Taking a galley layout, leading from just beyond what would have been the original external wall back into the depth of the main house, the scheme begins with a breakfast bar peninsula with seating for four. Making the most of this feature’s depth, storage was provided at the back of the section, while at the front, the wine cooler was immediately placed for easy access to drinks while relaxing ‘barside’. From here, a three-drawer unit leads onto the integrated recycling centre and under-mounted 1.5 stainless steel sink from Franke, complete with matching tap. It then moves onto the fully-integrated Siemens dishwasher storage, and finally the washing machine.

Opposite to all this, the back door allows for easy access from the washer to the line. Next, a pull-out larder flanks to the side and above the client’s stand-alone steel fridge-freezer. At this point, the existing house’s retaining structure breaks the scheme momentarily before a floor-to-ceiling larder unit stands enclosing a combi-oven and standard oven combo, both from Siemens. From here, two double-door cupboards sit either side of a three-drawer unit that houses the extraction for the flush-fitted Bora Pure hob above. It’s quite unusual for a kitchen scheme to be without wall cupboards, and certainly without a wall-mounted extractor. Even so, with the increasing popularity of ‘down draught’ extraction hobs like BORA, conventional wall units become less important, allowing for greater flexibility in kitchen design. The end result? An airy, minimal scheme without the oppression of eye-level units. For colour, our clients selected two minted greens and a yellow to sit alongside white Corian worktops with coved upstands. White walls and ceiling were then chosen to meet the large herringbone-style flooring.

Kitchen Cabinets   -  Birch Plywood    |    Worktop  -  White Corian | Kitchen Doors and Drawers  -  Green and Yellow Laminate    |    Appliances  -  Siemens