Bespoke Oak Kitchen update

We did a kitchen last year with a custom oak and painted elements with an Oak worktop combined with a Corian worktop. The customer is running a blog documenting her green year last year and commented on her new kitchen with a couple of photos: http://www.2seven.co.uk/greenish/?p=831

Prep sinks - a great addition to a cook's kitchen

Adding a separate sink for the preparation of food to a kitchen design is a great idea for those who love to cook. Culinary experiments can get messy and, while the dishes pile up for washing, it can become awkward to get in to your main sink. By adding a second, small sink in the area most used for food preparation, you can ensure that there is always easy access to fresh, clean water. The example shown here was added to a traditional, shaker kitchen recently installed by Higham Furniture in a working farmhouse in Hertfordshire. Placed at the opposite end of the kitchen to the main Belfast sink, this rectangular Astracast Lincoln 2540 half-bowl ceramic sink is just the right size for rinsing food and measuring water. It also helps create a great space for the preparation of drinks, for those who like to entertain. The ceramic sink, combined with the traditional taps and stone worktop, keep this modern addition completely in line with the farmhouse style.

Ideal Home article - September 2011

If your interest was caught by the drawer unit we blogged about last week, here is an opportunity to see the whole kitchen. Our design has been featured in the September issue of Ideal Home magazine as an example of a kitchen with great bespoke storage.

Designed as a contemporary shaker kitchen to compliment the style of the flat, the kitchen includes a chunky island and a large bank of tall units. As well as a large larder, a feature that is fast becoming a Higham Furniture favourite, the tall units also hold an integrated oven, housing for an American fridge freezer and plenty of other storage. There is even a separate cupboard to provide space for a hoover and brooms. Crockery, pans and cutlery are then stored in the previously featured drawer unit, with even more storage on the sink run. There is even an integrated ironing board, hidden away inside a cupboard. It is little touches like this that make this kitchen special. Aesthetically, the kitchen is made even more striking by the use of a pale paint, in Farrow & Ball Estate Eggshell 'Blackened' to contrast the deep rich colour of a walnut

worktop and larder fitout. The client loved the worktop so much, she had the floor stained to match.

If you would like to read more about this kitchen, then you can view the article, © Ideal Home magazine, as featured in September 2011, on our press page, or visit their website, http://www.housetohome.co.uk if you would like to see some more of their features.

Drawer unit storage solution

Here at Higham Furniture, we are finding that large drawer units are proving increasingly popular in our designs. Our clients love them as they provide storage not just for their cutlery, but for crockery and pans as well. It can be a nightmare, rummaging in a dark cupboard for that vital, but evasive, item. With a deep pan drawer, however, you can pull the wares out into the light and locate your gadget with ease.

This rather attractive framed example was created by Higham Furniture last year. Housed in the chunky island of a traditional shaker kitchen, the unit acts as a base for a large gas hob and features three drawers, each of a different depth. The paleness of the drawer box and paintwork, in Ash and Farrow & Ball Estate Eggshell 'Blackened' respectively, contrasts strikingly with the worktop in full stave walnut, lightening the whole look. The use of dainty knobs on the drawer fronts helps to prevent the unit from feeling too heavy.

Made to feature anywhere between two and nine drawers, this type of unit can be a very functional, but also highly attractive, addition to a kitchen design.