Charcoal black, brass, and marble combine to create this statement kitchen. Fancy a tour?

Moving from London to East Sussex to raise their young children, Tara and Ben Ashwell settled on a detached Victorian house in a pretty village. “It had been lived in by the same family for over 50 years, but had recently become rather neglected,” recalls Tara. “But even though it was so tired and dated, we could see the opportunity to give the whole house a new lease of life.” Here, KBB journo Amelia Thorpe finds out more about the kitchen renovation…

The kitchen renovation

Interior designer Tara and Ben, who runs a global security consultancy, have three children, Harry, nine, Annabelle, seven, and Wilbur, four plus Golden Retriever Vardy. Surrounded by half an acre of mature garden, this six-bedroom house with its tall ceilings and well-proportioned rooms shone with possibility (and plenty of space) for their family life.

As renovations began, they soon turned their attention to the kitchen, as Tara explains. “It was a galley kitchen which was difficult to use, with limited natural light and limited storage,” she says. “As we knew it would be the heart of our home, we wanted to create a new, larger space designed for family and for our love of entertaining.”

Their solution was to remove an internal wall dividing the kitchen from a walk-in larder to create a single, wider space, and then to extend two metres into the garden. Floor-to-ceiling metal-framed glazed doors offer maximum natural light and direct access to the garden. “This gave us plenty of room to include an island as the centre of a more social kitchen, plus lots more storage to be able to keep equipment and clutter out of sight,” continues Tara.

The design

Working with kitchen specialist Herringbone House, Tara chose bespoke classic Shaker-style cabinetry. “I wanted the furniture to feel traditional and grounded, in keeping with the age of the house, painted in off-black with big brass handles to suit its scale and add a contemporary touch,” she says. “I felt that anything too pale would have looked wishy-washy, and that the kitchen needed to stand up to the substantial style of the house.”

An L-shaped run of wall furniture includes a faux chimney-breast built to accentuate the role of the sturdy French range cooker as a focal point in the design. The chimney-breast also conceals a built-in extractor, while an antiqued mirror splashback bounces light back into the room. “We worked very carefully to ensure the functionality of the room, so that everything has its place, and to create a symmetrical look that results in a balanced feel,” adds Tara.

The details

Built onto the island, the sink zone faces out into the kitchen and to the dining room beyond. Below, two dishwashers mean that piles of dirty dishes do not amass on the island worktop. “There’s room to put everything straight into the dishwasher, so that surfaces are kept clear,” she says. “Given that we cook every meal from scratch and that we often entertain, two dishwashers are incredibly useful – and make another very practical feature of this room.”

Worktops are made of Arabescato marble. “I’m passionate about natural and raw materials,” says Tara. “I’m happy to live with the fact that the marble will show stains and scratches over time – to me, those marks tell stories of our life and add depth and character that manmade materials just can’t replicate.”

The cool white and grey marble contrasts against the off-black paint of the kitchen cabinetry, while brass touches bring in warmth, from industrial-style lighting to contemporary, square-shaped pull handles. “The pendant lights from Industville are deliberately overscale to suit the proportions of the room, while their brass finish creates a beautiful glow,” she says.

And every detail counts; from a simple café curtain to provide privacy and soften the scheme, to the gentle grey wash of the elm bar stools and smoked finish of the wood flooring, they all play their part in creating the thoughtful result.

Looking back…

Given that this is her own home, what has interior designer Tara learnt from the project? “Clients often come to me with a picture of what they want their kitchen to look like, but now I’m even more convinced that any project has to start with its functionality,” she says. “Think through all the details, from where you’ll make breakfast to how high your smoothie maker is and where you’ll store it, so that it will be a practical room – and only then do we work on making it beautiful with materials and colours.”

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