estuary-side kitchen

This ultra-contemporary family home, designed by Grainge Architects, occupies a stunning location on the banks of the Exe estuary. From the outset our brief as very clear, to provide a large, sociable, open-plan kitchen space that maximised the natural light and estuary views. Our clients were instantly drawn to bulthaup’s b1 furniture for its timeless feel and simplicity of the handless furniture and seamless surfaces and edges.

To ensure the cook can socialise and entertain family and friends with ease, we created a large central theatre island, facing out toward the garden and estuary. The island houses a large induction hob and wide pan drawers as well as drawers for utensils, oils and spices meaning everything is close at hand whilst cooking.

As storage is always a must, a bank of tall, full depth cabinets has been set snugly into a recess with additional high level box cupboards overhead to maintain proportion and house items that aren’t used on a daily basis. This run of units includes a combination steam oven, warming drawer, two fan ovens and two larder fridges. Our clients liked the idea of a large American fridge so the two fridges have been placed side by side with opposing handing to provide the functionality and capacity of an American style refrigerator without spoiling the simple lines of the kitchen furniture.

At the far end of the kitchen a dedicated drinks area has been created so it can be accessed independently without getting in the way of the cook. This drinks station includes a built-in coffee machine, storage drawer and a Zip tap that is set into the worksurface providing both boiling and chilled water. For convenience, a fridge drawer has been integrated into the base units to store milk and other drinks.

The finishing touch to this project is the 3-metre-deep white Spiral Cellar. Sapphire Spaces has the only Spiral Cellar on display in the South West so our clients were able to see this clever wine storage system in action before commissioning one for themselves.

“There are so many decisions to make when doing a self build but Mark and his team always made the process easy. We are delighted with the design and quality of our bulthaup kitchen and would have no hesitation in recommending Sapphire Spaces.”

Nigel & Tracey