The Kitchen - a Star Attraction
A lot of pride is cooked up on the modern stove, and kitchen envy is rife. So what makes a good kitchen design? Jane Drew checks out what’s happening at the high end.
1. Insist on the best
Of all rooms, the kitchen is today’s prime exhibition space, a place to display our technical and aesthetic know-how and show off our familiarity with current trends. It’s the space we most regularly revamp, seeking out the latest systems, cabinetry and appliances with which to wow our family and friends.
2. Make style a priority
We have come to expect modern technology not only to streamline chores, but also to deliver a kitchen that looks sensational. What could be better than a Strato Cucine kitchen system focused on a slab of white Carrera marble? How exciting that we live in a world where La Cornue will sell us a kitchen to match our eye colour.
3. Invest in status symbols
If you are into status symbols, contemporary kitchen design has more than its fair share of high-profile brands. Fashionistas would go as far to get a Dada, Draide, Mobalpa or Pedini kitchen system as they would a Chanel suit. Many consider the Wolf double oven too beautiful to use and will also splash out on something serviceable yet chic by Gaggenau or Miele.
4. Think fashion-forward
To stay on top, you’ll want to change your kitchen cabinetry as often as you do your wardrobe. This winter, look no further than Snaidero’s groundbreaking Venus, by Pininfarino. The brilliant coral-red steel countertops are finished in micro fibre to achieve a touchy-feely "leather" effect - a revolutionary concept in kitchen design.
5. Take centre stage
Why keep a state-of-the-art kitchen behind closed doors when you can make it a key part of the living area? For real kitchen aficionados, who invite guests to try out the soft-touch control knobs on their 36-inch Gaggenau hobs, there’s only one way to go, and that’s to open things up.
6. Get the party started
In an open kitchen, the materials used - aluminium, lacquer or wood with glass - merge seamlessly with those featured in the rest of the living space. Additionally, the coolest kitchens don’t look like kitchens - everything is concealed from the cooker up and even unwieldy handles, for cabinet doors, are replaced by the latest sensor controls.
7. Bask in the limelight
In a kitchen designed for entertaining, variable lighting helps create a less functional more comfortable vibe. Recessed spotlights provide pleasing pools of general light and have excellent colour rendering properties. Track-mounted target lights can then be directed precisely where they are needed: on the host.
8. Choose designer labels
Certain key accessories are de rigour - we want professional-grade Schaerer espresso machines and Porsche kettles, Dualit’s Vario toasters and Krups waffle makers. An entire set of molybdenum and vanadium Global knives justifies the chopping board and no kitchen is complete without Todo, Richard Sapper’s sublime steel and wood cheese grater for Alessi.
9. Be desirably diva
Celebrity chefs are now producing their own lavish lines of kitchenware to satisfy our insatiable appetites. Using Jamie Oliver’s pots and pans may not turn you into a chef but they’ll ensure you look the part. Nigella Lawson’s Living Kitchen range, meanwhile, is elegant but earthy just like the Domestic Goddess herself.
10. Achieve Michelin standard
Be inspired by five-star kitchens in new restaurants if you fancy yourself as the next Keith Floyd or a budding Anthony Bourdain. You’ll need not just a marble work surface for pastry but also a finely engineered reconstitutedstone worktop, with an integrated teppanyaki griddle. And you’ll want to get one before your neighbours do.
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