Having lived with plain maple units in her new-build Surrey home for five years, interior designer Helen Bygraves wanted a change and she chose to make it a dramatic one. “Kitchens are becoming more intimate and I found myself entertaining more and more in the kitchen,” she explains. “l enjoy socialising with guests as I cook, but I wanted the environment to be more glamorous.” The original kitchen was well made and laid out, so Helenjust gave it a facelift, spraying the cabinet doors with a dark wenge stain, which allows the grain of the maple to show through, and adding faux shagreen panels to the cabinet doors. The black granite worktops stayed but beige tile splashbacks were swapped for striking black glass.
Helen added a compact island unit with the help of a carpenter, using doors from the original kitchen supplier plus more granite. “l installed a beverage fridge in the back of the island, and had wine racks built either side but, from the living room, it looks like a solid block of furniture with bar stools,” she says. Swarovski crystal downlights add sparkle, reflected in stainless-steel appliances and utensils, and the area opens into a conservatory where the formal dining table sits. “The doors to it are always left open and the whole space is now a very sociable area, which comes to life at night”