Kitchen Tour: Warm Wood is the Star of This Extended Space
A bespoke plywood kitchen works beautifully with the homeowners’ vintage style
The owners of this ‘between the wars’ house in east London loved the warmth of the plywood kitchens made by Uncommon Projects, so commissioned the company to create a bespoke design for their new extension. Because they’d got in touch early in the build, the designers were able to develop the architect’s plans in order to create the optimum kitchen layout. This included a generous island, a wine fridge and a window seat with views across the garden.
“The house was originally stepped at the back,” Alan says, explaining that the extension followed this line, stretching both sides of the room by around 4 metres.
The kitchen features oak-veneered birch ply cabinets with dark grey doors. They work nicely with the flooring, which is stained oak parquet. “You have to accept that, in a kitchen, the floor is going to get a lot of wear and tear. I think parquet is a really good choice – visually, it’s not boring, it’s good for hiding dirt, and it tends to wear well.
“The owners have really good taste,” he adds. “They already had the table and chairs, and the colour of the table picks up on the [vintage] light fittings. The grey of the doors blends in well, too. They knew it would all work together.”
Oak-veneered birch plywood cabinets with doors spray-lacquered in RAL 7022 Umbra Grey; sliding wall unit doors in cork-veneered birch ply, all Uncommon Projects.
The kitchen features oak-veneered birch ply cabinets with dark grey doors. They work nicely with the flooring, which is stained oak parquet. “You have to accept that, in a kitchen, the floor is going to get a lot of wear and tear. I think parquet is a really good choice – visually, it’s not boring, it’s good for hiding dirt, and it tends to wear well.
“The owners have really good taste,” he adds. “They already had the table and chairs, and the colour of the table picks up on the [vintage] light fittings. The grey of the doors blends in well, too. They knew it would all work together.”
Oak-veneered birch plywood cabinets with doors spray-lacquered in RAL 7022 Umbra Grey; sliding wall unit doors in cork-veneered birch ply, all Uncommon Projects.
The kitchen features a large island (1.2m x 2.4m) with a breakfast bar alongside a standalone dining area. A key part of the design is the island hob, which features an integrated extractor at its centre.
“For us, using one of these is crucial,” Alan says. “It means you can have a hob in the middle of the room and no ceiling extractor, so you can still have fabulous lighting above the island.”
The sink is against the wall. “I find people often put the hob against the wall and the sink on the island,” Alan says. “I always try to do it the other way around, because the sink is the messiest part of kitchen, so it’s best to have it tucked away. This hob allows you to do that.”
Extracting induction hob, Bora. Bar stools, Hay.
“For us, using one of these is crucial,” Alan says. “It means you can have a hob in the middle of the room and no ceiling extractor, so you can still have fabulous lighting above the island.”
The sink is against the wall. “I find people often put the hob against the wall and the sink on the island,” Alan says. “I always try to do it the other way around, because the sink is the messiest part of kitchen, so it’s best to have it tucked away. This hob allows you to do that.”
Extracting induction hob, Bora. Bar stools, Hay.
The worktops are what Alan describes as an “open sandwich” of white Corian on ply. “When you make a Corian worktop, it always has a ply or MDF base,” Alan explains. “Normally, you’d put a Corian edge on to cover this, but we chose to show the workings of it. We like the detail.”
The white door on the left leads to a utility room.
Worktop in Arctic White, Corian.
The white door on the left leads to a utility room.
Worktop in Arctic White, Corian.
The base units, from left to right, feature a large undersink cupboard, a dishwasher, waste and recycling bins and an extra-wide undercounter larder cupboard.
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Browse the Houzz Professionals Directory for reviews of kitchen designers and fitters in your area.
The tall units house storage at the top and, on the left, a microwave and a standard oven, fitted so as to appear to be one oven. “Neff does metal strips called ‘seamless strips’ that you can use to do this,” Alan explains.
Next to these is an integrated fridge-freezer, and then a full-height pull-out larder.
Ovens, Neff.
Next to these is an integrated fridge-freezer, and then a full-height pull-out larder.
Ovens, Neff.
The owners love their wine and were keen for the kitchen to have plenty of storage. This end of the island includes a built-in rack, while at the other end there’s a wine fridge.
On the kitchen side of the island, there are pull-out larder cupboards either side of the hob and pan drawers beneath it.
A long wall unit conceals LED lighting to illuminate the worktop. The shelves have some open sections and others concealed by cork-veneered doors. The unit allows the owners to store crockery and display their collection of vases and bowls. “They have lots of nice vintage knick-knacks,” Alan says.
On the kitchen side of the island, there are pull-out larder cupboards either side of the hob and pan drawers beneath it.
A long wall unit conceals LED lighting to illuminate the worktop. The shelves have some open sections and others concealed by cork-veneered doors. The unit allows the owners to store crockery and display their collection of vases and bowls. “They have lots of nice vintage knick-knacks,” Alan says.
The window seat overlooks the garden and is a pleasant spot for people to perch and chat to whoever’s cooking.
There’s open shelving to the left of it and more functional storage beneath via hinged lids. The lids have the same cut-out handles as the kitchen cabinet doors. “It’s a nice flush, tidy detail and, because we use plywood, it works, as you can expose the edges of the wood,” Alan says.
There’s open shelving to the left of it and more functional storage beneath via hinged lids. The lids have the same cut-out handles as the kitchen cabinet doors. “It’s a nice flush, tidy detail and, because we use plywood, it works, as you can expose the edges of the wood,” Alan says.
Everything is made from birch ply but, apart from the edges, this has been veneered in oak. “Everything is treated in hard wax oil,” Alan says. “It brings the colour up to be very close to the oak veneer.”
Tell us…
What’s your favourite detail in this birch ply kitchen? Let us know in the Comments section.
Tell us…
What’s your favourite detail in this birch ply kitchen? Let us know in the Comments section.
Who lives here? A young couple, both creatives
Location Clapton, London
Property A semi-detached, interwar house
Kitchen dimensions 6.3m x 5.7m
Designer Alan Drumm of bespoke plywood kitchen company Uncommon Projects
Cost Around £34,000
Photos by Jocelyn Low
“This project gave us a lot of scope,” designer Alan Drumm says. “What’s nice about these interwar houses is they’re wider than Victorian ones, which is why we were able to have a generous dining space as well as the kitchen filling one side of the room.”
The whole of the area on the right-hand side of the black column is new space, and the column marks the original back of the house.