From the designer:

Brief:
The owners wanted a modern country-style kitchen with a light, spacious feel incorporating vintage pieces and reflecting the colours of nature.

Specific elements included:

Connected spaces for cooking, dining and relaxing
Enlarged kitchen
Two islands: food prep and seating areas
Various areas/types of seating
Pantry
Improved circulation from/to outside and wings of house
Connection to views
Display areas
Our objective was to create three connected yet discrete areas – an enlarged kitchen with ‘café’ seating, a larger dining area and relaxed sitting areas – and a separate pantry.

The approach
Our design approach was to sink concrete piles to support extending the space by two metres – at the same time, creating the ultimate picture window with floor-to-ceiling glass providing uninterrupted views of the valley beyond.

Increasing the footprint facilitated extending the kitchen, forming an L-shaped area with ‘café-style’ bench-seating and table.

A half-height wall incorporating display niches screens the kitchen from the back hall and delineates it from the main living/dining area.

A new opening provides a direct route from the kitchen to the back door.

Two end-to-end islands, with green/grey shaker-style cabinetry and copper hardware break in line with the door to the main hallway, improving circulation to the rest of house.

One island, with butcher’s chopping block, houses drawers with bespoke inserts for crockery, pans, cutlery, utensils, spice jars, serving trays and a charging drawer for phones and tablets.

The second incorporates a vintage baker’s table, raised on bespoke steel legs, and breakfast seating opposite.

A run of floor-to-ceiling units, panelled in sawn-edge oak with matching long handles, incorporates appliance cupboards with foldaway doors, a walk-in pantry accessed through a secret door, glassware storage, pull-out drawers and a fridge/freezer.

The washdown features a ceramic Butler’s sink and 3-in-1 tap.

The dual-fuel range has a wall-mounted pot filler.

Tile-lined niches provide storage for frequently used utensils, condiments, and also display.

Creation of the niches required installing a steel lintel.

The original kitchen’s lower ceiling was continued over the extended kitchen to the end of the island and kitchen dining area and at the same point the flooring changes from original flagstones (calibrated and re-laid for UFH) to extra-wide natural-oak floorboards creating a clear delineation of the kitchen.

The aesthetic throughout uses natural oak with a soft, neutral palette with touches of green to reflect the outside, accented with copper ironmongery, island pendants and kitchen accessories.

Verdigris features in the lights over the oak dining table and decorative ceramics.

The Caesarstone Cloudburst worktop reflects the external ambiance.

Vintage pieces include a pale green Swedish dresser, a console separating the sitting and dining areas and antique enfilade for additional crockery storage.

Lighting, key for the creation of ambiance in this multifunctional space, includes downlights for task-lighting, LED strips in cupboards with foldaway doors, island and table pendants and table and floor-standing lamps in sitting areas, all on a scene-control system.

A dual-fuel Mercury range and Miele appliances were specified.

The spatial layout, design approach and technical specifications ensure this kitchen exceeds this family’s desire for cooking, entertaining and relaxing spaces connected to nature through the picture window.