Considering proportions when designing a Luxury Kitchen
Here at Papilio when designing luxury kitchens that last the test of time we aren’t just thinking about the quality of the manufacturing as this goes without saying, more so we are considering if the kitchen will still look stylish and fresh as the years progress. The secret to achieving “timeless” bespoke kitchens is for the kitchens designer to make the furniture sit effortlessly in the space.
One of the most overlooked and yet most important factors to consider when designing luxury kitchens is proportions. If the room has high ceilings then the cabinets should complement the room proportionally, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the cabinets need to stretch up to the ceiling and fill every available part of the wall, what we aim to achieve is balance and harmony between the bespoke kitchen and the architecture of the room.
A great example of where we have designed a luxury kitchen and have balanced the proportions of the room with cabinets was “The Georgian Manor House” Kitchen. The ceiling height in this project were exceptionally high and the room exceptionally narrow and just to add to the dilemma the building was Grade 1 Listed.
It was decided through the design process that we would have 4 different cabinet heights to provide the balance needed in the room. The rear wall was very narrow compared to the height and length of the room, so this was the obvious place to locate the towering open shelved cabinets. The proportions of this piece of furniture are the secret to providing the correct balance to this space. We then used the other cabinets to step down, giving the illusion of width to the room.
If you study the picture of this particular bespoke kitchen you will notice that the right-hand wall cabinets are higher than the left hand cabinets, this was a very deliberate design technique to create intrigue and also to soften the space so that the height of the ceiling was not over baring. The final step down was to base cabinet height although these were set at a slightly higher than usual height to accommodate the owner’s taller statue, another benefit of employing a kitchens designer.
The last design technique we used to pull this kitchen into proportion was to reduce the width of the island ensuring that there was still enough room to manoeuvre around the cabinets and yet still giving the island enough width to have some presence in the room. So, there you have it a brief explanation about balancing the furniture in a luxury design kitchen.
