Architects Carolyn Trevor and Patrick Lahiff used their professional skills to remodel their Cambervvell home, moving the kitchen from the basement to the airier ground floor. The new room is blessed with high ceilings, so Carolyn has used the height to create maximum storage while retaining access to the garden via a bridge with a glass balustrade. Leaving the kitchen open to a spacious family/reception room at the front of the house provides a large light-filled entertaining space with huge windows at either end.
As the couple have five children, even weekday meals benefit from a sizeable dining table. “We often have friends to dinner during the week and at weekends, so there are usually eight or ten children at a time in the house,” Carolyn says, “And now at last, we have a table that can sit 14. lt’s by Monica Armani and has wheels so that you can drive it around,” she adds. During larger parties, Carolyn wheels the table to the front reception room where it sits neatly over the low-backed sofa in the bay window to free up yet more floor space.
Although the core of the kitchen features inexpensive gloss white cabinets by Hacker, Carolyn has incorporated luxury touches such as Calacatta marble splashbacks and contemporary stainless steel worktops with seamless integrated sinks. Additional statement pieces include the iconic Taraxacum 88 pendants by Achille Castiglioni for Elos and Charles Eames Eiffel dining chairs. “Combined with the beautiful ornate cornicing, high ceilings and direct access to the garden, it’s a great space. Several of our friends who live in flats that are too small for big dinner parties now hold them in our kitchen Carolyn reveals.