Pouring over pictures of beautiful kitchens, while planning your own, is a wonderful part of getting a bespoke kitchen.
Your imagination is allowed to run riot as you picture your first family meal or dinner party in your new kitchen.
You’ll notice many things, but perhaps the greatest impact will be made by the choice of material.
For owners and designers alike, the choice of modern materials for kitchens means that the only real limitation to the design is imagination and budget.
While sitting with your designer you’ll cover materials both natural and man-made. Stones, metals, woods, glasses, acrylics, leathers, cloths and plastics can all find a place in the modern kitchen, in any style you care to mention.
Unique looks can be achieved by treating each material to its own strengths. A great example of this is heat treating copper to produce a rainbow patina.
Bringing together this range of limitless options is no easy task. Each material has a set of pros and cons that must be balanced to produce not just form, but function too.
A kitchen needs to be a joy to use as well as a beautiful place to spend time. The wrong material in the wrong place can lead to deformations, frustrations, or impracticalities that can lessen the positive impact of your new kitchen.
Kitchen Materials in Bespoke Kitchens
As we’ve seen, there is a wide choice when it comes to the way you want the kitchen to express itself in the use of materials. Let’s take a look at some of the materials at your disposal.
- Solid Wood and Veneers
A long-time kitchen material and the traditional choice. Most kitchen cabinetry is made of wood, or rather an engineered amalgam of wood like ply (Papilio’s preferred choice for carcass material), MDF or chipboard in the budget kitchens. Wood is a material that needs very careful thought in a kitchen especially when using solid timbers like Oak or Walnut.
As a natural material it is prone to react to heat and moisture, both found in abundance in a kitchen! You will need extremely skilled designers like Papilio if you are looking to create a kitchen in solid timber similar the one seen here.
Where wood is used in a kitchen, care needs to be taken with the construction. If it is the natural wood look that you are looking for in general it is far safer to opt for a veneer which is a thin slice of natural timber applied to a stable substructure like ply.
- Laminates
Because of the way wood reacts to the kitchen environment, it can be very advantageous to use wood effect laminates on the cabinet internals.
By using the highest quality laminates, Papilio can bring all the visual impact of natural wood with hardly any of the drawbacks. Alternatively, a man-made analogue can be used with a vast array of colours, textures, and patterns to mimic natural wood grain.
- Stone
Another old-time favourite, stone has come along way from the rough-hewn slabs of old. While it’s weight has a bearing on how and where it can be used, modern manufacturing means that subtle and delicate designs in stone are perfectly possible. Stone veneers are a very popular use of this material.
Across the gamut of granite, limestone, marble, slate, and travertine, stone offers as many different visual options as wood. With an astounding range of colours, nearly any design ethic can make use of some form of stone.
Again, a natural material, so oils may stain and rough treatment may cause chips or cracks.
- Manufactured Stone
As with wood, man-made manufactured stone can often temper some of the foibles of the natural equivalent. With many brands (think Neolith, Corian, Silastone, etc) now available, there is a simply amazing range of looks and colours is every pattern and hue.
Because they are manufactured, bespoke designs of very specific shapes become much easier to achieve.
Coatings on the surface reduce the liability of stains, and chips can be repaired fairly easily in most cases.
- Metal
Another material that has come on leaps and bounds in terms of how it can be used. Stainless steel remains a steadfast choice in kitchens, for the reasons of cleanliness and hygiene (and aesthetically it can be very striking).
Brass, nickel and copper can be used where a warmer hue is called for while ‘colder’ metals like chrome and silver can enhance greys and blues.
By picking the right metal, it can be worked into a wide set of design considerations and is long-living and, generally, hardwearing.
- Plastic
A material that is so customisable in colour and shape, it can produce visual effects that can be difficult to achieve any other way.
Lighting can have a big say in where and how plastic is used in a kitchen, sympathetic placement can go a long way to making this material work well from a design perspective.
- Leather and cloth
Again the wide range of textures and colours make this class of materials an option for almost every kitchen design. Care must be taken with placement since there can be a fire risk for untreated cloth, but this is fairly easily mitigated.
With such a wide set of options, it can be tough to make a cohesive design with all of these used. Often one material is chosen as the ‘feature’ material with others lending their qualities to enhance the main material. Let’s not forget that wood can be painted and metal can be treated. Most materials can have their properties enhanced to find a balance between design and practical considerations.
Placement is Everything
The placement of materials in kitchens is paramount to achieving the design brief and ensuring the owners love the space. Clever and intelligent placement of materials can turn a design into something that gets to the heart of what the owners wanted from their kitchen.
- Worktop material
So often seen as the heart of the kitchen design, the material options here are wood, metal, and man-made manufactured materials. Considerations here call for a strong nod towards practicality, it’s called a worktop for a reason!
From a design perspective the shape, orientation, size, other appliances, lighting, lifestyle, and usage will all play a really big part in guiding the designer towards particular materials.
- Flooring
Because it’s such a big surface area, the floor must be really complimentary to the overall design. Wooden boards, stone, and tiles remain the strong contenders in most design scenarios, but metal and man-made can be considered where called for.
Practically, drops and spills are common in a kitchen, which needs to be given some thought.
- Walls
Here, the sky is the limit! Of course, much of the wall space in kitchens is given over to cupboards or hidden behind appliances or furniture. What’s left is often painted. However, creative use of glass and plastics can have a place if the design calls for it.
- Splashback
A much bigger design consideration now that in yesteryear, the splashback can make a big design splash of its own.
It’s an ideal place to make a statement and glass, metal and plastics are all potential choices. Even a mirrored surface can work in the right kitchen.
Feeling a little overwhelmed?
Yes, that all adds up to a lot of choices. Initially, that might seem a little like overload but, actually, it’s the real joy to having your bespoke kitchen designed for you. Do bear in mind that a great deal will come from the overarching design style (country, Scandinavian, or farmhouse kitchens for example) and in the type of property and kitchen space.
The real takeaway here is that the joy is in the choosing. Sitting with a designer who really understands what you want, both practically and aesthetically, from your kitchen lets you explore to your heart’s content.
All those choice will add up to one thing; a beautiful kitchen that is a joy to cook in.
We’re passionate about creating bespoke kitchens for every conceivable style, taste, and space. We’re just as passionate about finding exactly the right materials to carry off the designs. We are Papilio and would be very happy to have a discussion about your bespoke kitchen requirements.
