Essential Kitchen Bathroom Bedroom Magazine November 2014 Back Issue

As I stand here, writing directly from the Hoxton showroom of British Standard, one of the country’s most forwardthinking kitchen companies, it feels like the perfect time to take a moment to appreciate just what’s happening right now in kitchen design. It’s shoot day and boxes are being unpacked all around me. Everywhere I look I see the simple design and construction details that are informing kitchen designers now. In this showroom – as is the case in so many leading UK kitchen studios today – the cabinetry has returned to traditional craftsmanship and values yet with a style that is refreshingly all brand new. It was on this backdrop that we approached our Best of British feature (page 90), taking a look at some of the country’s most influential kitchen companies and celebrating their unique approaches to design. In the first of this two-part series we focus on our favourite ‘modern classics’ - those kitchens which could almost have been below the stairs of an original Georgian house or one of the Shaker houses in New England, but have now taken centre stage in our progressively food and family-centric lives. As our design aesthetic becomes increasingly shaped by the pared-back and rustic, the minimal and the utilitarian, we are consistently looking to the past and our own design heritage for ideas on how best to think for the future, as is also reflected in our interviews, with interior designer Lee Broom (page 72), fashion designer Orla Kiely (page 162) and chef Lee Westcott (page 102). This is an exciting time in design, and it's an honour to be reporting from the front line.