kitchen design Archives

Bespoke Kitchen Design Tips

Posted in Apr 2023

How We Approach The Bespoke Kitchen Design at Artichoke

Artichoke’s approach to kitchen design is far more architectural than most, and we are highly experienced in resolving how interior space is organised by furniture.

Before any drawing work is done, it’s important for us to gain a thorough understanding of our client’s domestic arrangements. Gaining this knowledge helps us design spaces that work effortlessly. It is the key to providing functional solutions for our clients.

The Birth of Modern Kitchen Design

In order to design kitchens of the future, it helps to understand the kitchen design of the past. By doing so, we believe we can help clients with large country houses understand how their houses were initially intended to be used, and in doing so, how we can improve how they are used in the future.

The Artichoke team pays particularly close attention to how country houses were originally intended to operate, and how changing socio-economic environments have affected this use over time. There have been huge cultural changes over the last 150 years.

Read more about The Birth of Modern Kitchen Design

General Requirements for The Bespoke Kitchen Design

The key to a successful outcome is to establish a clear brief for the kitchen and surrounding areas of the house.

Who is the client? Is the person providing us with the brief for the kitchen the person paying for it? To us it is vital to establish a relationship with all interested parties.

Who will be using the kitchen and how does the household operate? This might sound like an odd question, but often, the person who will be using the kitchen is not the same person paying for it. For instance, some clients have housekeepers, so it’s vital to understand their needs within the kitchen.

How many people does the kitchen need to serve on a daily basis?

What is the largest number of people the kitchen needs to cater for on a semi regular basis?

Does the client have a budget? It is vital to establish a budget for the kitchen early on. Setting financial expectations from the outset will help control the kitchen specification.

What are the client priorities for the kitchen: Quality / Cost / Function / Aesthetics / Deliverability? The prioritisation of these five topics will have an impact on the kitchen design.

What is the time frame for the project? The sooner we can identify and consider the risks to the project; the more effective we will be in providing for them. Quite often for instance, the builder will be screaming for positions of gas, water, extraction and drainage before the design has even been started.

Does the kitchen need to accommodate religious dietary needs such as ‘Kosher’? This is important as some religions have very specific food storage needs.

Is the property listed? What are the listing restrictions and do any apply to the kitchen space, ducting routes etc?

Where is the kitchen located within the house? Has it been nominated enough space?

Is there a requirement for the kitchen to be supported and serviced by others rooms such a scullery, cold room, dry larder, wines cellar or butler’s pantry?

What is the route in to the house and kitchen for groceries, and what is the route out for waste? Where is the location of waste for recycling? Understanding this can have an important influence on the position of fridges, bins and internal doors.

Is there an existing kitchen, and are its contents relevant? Quite often there is a real benefit in surveying the clients’ existing contents and existing storage volume as this can have a direct bearing on how the new bespoke kitchen is designed.

What is the floor finish? We need to first consider the setting out of the floor in relation to the kitchen plinth lines to ensure joins don’t clash or look ill-considered.

What is the structure of the flooring proposed? The weight of the kitchen furniture and kitchen appliances are significant as they will deflect the sub floor and compress the floor coverings if they are not correctly engineered.

What are the window furnishings? Do they need to be accommodated into the design?

What are the heating requirements for the kitchen and how is the space to be heated? If the kitchen is under floor heated, BTU calculations should be made by excluding the kitchen furniture foot print, otherwise too much heating might be installed into the room. Heating underneath fine furniture is also likely to cause timber movement and potentially structural damage.

What are the general ergonomics of the client? Are they exceptionally tall, and what is the height of their partner? Do they have any disabilities to consider?

Appliances and Kitchen Equipment

What fuel type is available? Often in rural locations, natural gas is not available which means LPG needs to be considered as an alternative. If the LPG route needs to be taken, checks need to be made to ensure that chosen gas appliances can be converted to LPG.

What is the oven capacity needed and how many hobs are required?

Does the client prefer a range oven or ovens in column? Understanding the age of the client is an an import factor when choosing positions of ovens in a kitchen, flooring types, access, waste routes and so on.

What type of cooking does the user of the kitchen do? Knowing this will effect the choice of appliances. Oven types can vary from conventional, fan assisted, grilling, baking, steaming, microwave and multi-functional options whereas hobs now come in a dizzying variety, including ceramic, induction, gas, wok, grille, steam, fryer, Teppanyaki, domino.

What are the kitchen extraction requirements? Where is extractor motor located? Ideally in-line or externally as this will be quieter. Does the client fry a great deal on a Teppanyaki type hob? Knowing the size of the room in cubic metres will effect the size of the extractor motor.

What type of lighting is integrated into the extractor system? Does this co-ordinate with the task lighting throughout the rest of the kitchen?

Refrigeration

What volume of refrigeration and freezer is required?

Is there remote cold storage available? There is little point in taking up critical space in the main kitchen with long term storage.

What wine storage and cold drink storage is needed?

Is cold water and ice making required?

Water, Sinks, Dishwashing and Waste

Is there enough drop? It’s important to consider waste water routes when siting sinks to ensure enough drop is available to deliver grey water into the drainage.

Thought should be given towards the material of the sink. Consider the suitability of the kitchen sink materials from a functional and aesthetic perspective. Options include ceramic / cast iron enameled / stainless steel / wooden / corian / synthetic / stone. If there is crystal being hand washed in the scullery sink then wood is more appropriate than cast iron.

Consider the different uses of a sink. Preparation of food, drainage for cooking liquids, and scullery. In larger kitchens that serve large volumes, it helps to separate these functions. In smaller compact spaces it may be necessary to combine all these function into one sink.

Thick worktops When specifying thick kitchen worktops, consider the fixing of taps; it may be necessary to undercut the worktop to accommodate the thread length of the tap.

Solid Stone Sinks: when specifying stone sinks it is well worth understanding their weight, depth, support and how to integrate ‘over flows’.

Matching metal finishes. When specifying taps and sprays it is important to consider the metal finishes available. Is it possible for the taps to match the wastes in the sink? Will they have to be custom finished?

Dishwashers: Dishwashers have a minimum height beyond which they cannot be compressed. With integrated models it is important to ensure the height of the plinth and length of the integrated door is considered so the geometry of opening door works. Particular care should be taken with ‘in frame’ doors. If the kitchen caters for large parties, are two dishwashers needed?

Bin Drawer Doors. Dishwashers and bin drawers are the most frequently used moving parts of a kitchen, and therefore need to be robust. Does the adjoining furniture need to be protected from steam and water? The design of a bin drawer needs to facilitate easy cleaning and sorting of waste for recycling.

Waste Disposal. Is kitchen waste disposal needed? Switched or continuous feed?

Consider the storage of waste. If possible, do not store waste within the kitchen but look to a transitory location for larger volumes between ‘bin days’. Dealing with waste is an essential process within a household and a holistic strategy needs to be developed that works.

Kitchen Equipment and Gadgets

There are a never ending list of kitchen gadgets and equipment for food preparation. It is worthwhile finding out which ones need to be stored in and around the kitchen; here is a check list:

Integrated and worktop coffee machines.
Air Fryers
Sous-vide.
Multifunctional taps (and affiliated reservoirs).
Bar top bottle coolers.
Ice cream makers.
Bread makers.
Fish kettles.
Rice steamers.
Food processor.
Mixers.
Juicers.
Coffee grinders.
Sandwich toaster

Moving a Kitchen in a Listed Building

Moving a kitchen in a listed building is a common requirement among many new country and listed house owners, and it’s becoming increasingly popular as family lifestyles continue to become less formal. Listed Building Consent may be required to create a new kitchen or alter an existing one if your house is a Grade 1 or Grade 2 listed building.

Read more about Moving a Kitchen in a Listed Building or for further information, call us on 01934 745 270 or email newprojects@artichoke.co.uk

All images are of Grand Family Kitchen in Regency Country House in Hampshire.

Artichoke Features in Country Life Top 100 (2023)

Posted in Mar 2023

‘One of the best country house specialists in Britain’

We are delighted to be included for the 5th consecutive year in the Country Life Top 100 and be recognized as the widely respected in the design and manufacture of joinery-led rooms for country houses.

This represents the ultimate recognition of our expertise in working on fine English houses and an acknowledgement of our mission to create Britain’s future heritage.⁠

Artichoke interiors, which are joinery-led, fulfill the unique promise of architectural joinery, which is not just to embellish rooms, but to give them their status and their role in the life of a household. Explore the extend of our services.

Architectural joinery achieves something no other trade can, in creating liveable, elegant and architecturally authentic houses. This puts us in a unique position, filling the gap between architects and interior designers, creating the interior structure that makes sense of a house.

Artichoke looks backwards to take our clients’ houses forward, recoupling exceptional artisan skills to design expertise. We are makers and creatives working as one to achieve the remarkable for our clients and their houses. Read about how we work.

We have been lucky to work very closely with Country Life magazine in recent years and to be part of this list, standing shoulder to shoulder with some of the most incredible companies of designers and artisans in the country which makes us very proud

The full Country Life Top 100 2020 list can be viewed here

To see some of the stunning work we have completed please click here.

We’d love to hear more if you have a project in mind. Whether it’s a single room – maybe a kitchen or a dressing room, or a whole house project, please do get in touch – speak with a member of our team on +44(0)1934 745 270 or email us at newprojects@artichoke.co.uk .

The Birth of Modern Kitchen Design

Posted in Aug 2022

In order to design kitchens of the future, it helps to understand kitchen design of the past. By doing so, we believe we can help clients with large country houses understand how their houses were initially intended to be used, and in doing so, how we can improve how they are used in the future. The Artichoke team pays particularly close attention to how country houses were originally intended to operate, and how changing socio-economic environments have affected this use over time. There have been huge cultural changes over the last 150 years.

It was not until the mid 19^th century that kitchen design became of interest to house owners. Prior to that, the owners of large country houses were simply not interested in their kitchens or how they were designed. The rooms were out of sight, often in the basement or away from the main body of the house. They were therefore out of mind, run by the cook, the servants and the housekeeper, and the closest they got to interior design was choosing the paint colour.

The Kitchen at Tyntesfield, North Somerset

In the 1860s, changes in social attitudes began to alter the social hierarchy of the country. Before this, the Lady of the grander country house would plan her weekly meals with her cook. With the industrial revolution creating more jobs in factories, and an establishing rail network allowing easier movement, a burgeoning middle class began to appear. Servants’ positions became less interesting to the ambitious jobseeker. This turn of events was very well documented in the BBC’s series Downton Abbey.

The growth of the middle classes (who could afford fewer servants and smaller houses), meant an increasing number of women found themselves in the kitchen. Originally they made bread and trained their staff, but more increasingly they found themselves working alongside the kitchen staff they employed. It was inevitable that improvements to cleanliness, comfort and kitchen interior design would soon follow. This was emphasised by influential cookery writers of the age such as Mrs. Beeton who capitalised on the country’s new found love of kitchen design and kitchen living.

Image of a green kitchen island — Shows Artichoke’s design for a Jacobean house in which we have taken inspiration from the kitchen at Tyntesfield Abbey.

The improved kitchen interior was further fuelled by the introduction of mains water, gas and plumbed in sinks and boilers during the 1870s. The Victorian kitchen was now becoming a more pleasant place to spend the day.

Fast forward to present day, and it is estimated that the British spend over an hour and a half a day cooking which for many represents 3 years over the average life. It’s small wonder then that we place so much value on good kitchen design.

For more information on our bespoke kitchen design service please click here. Contact us on 01934 745270 or email newprojects@artichoke.co.uk if you have a design project you would like to discuss.

Villa Guglielmesca, Tuscany, Italy

Posted in Dec 2021

Villa Guglielmesca is situated near the town of Cortona, in the province of Arezzo in Tuscany. While the prevailing character of Cortona’s architecture is medieval Renaissance, the villa itself dates back to the beginning of the 1900s. Originally a private house, it was transformed into a hotel with 12 bedrooms in the 1950s before being purchased by the current owner.

CIMG6588 — Villa Guglielmesca, Cortona, Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy (in 2020 before work started)

In 2010, Artichoke was commissioned directly by the owner to reconfigure the villa and make it function again as a private residence. This has involved extensive interior architectural design work by Artichoke’s creative team and includes designing the architecture and furniture for the entrance hall, master bedrooms, bespoke Tuscan style kitchen, dining room, butler’s pantry, boot-room, guest and master bathrooms, ballroom, interior architectural joinery, doors, skirting and floors.

Front Entrance Door

The front entrance door was designed taking inspiration from the architecture of local Tuscan vernacular. Our initial design below proposed the door as European Walnut, although the door is now more likely to be hand painted. The exterior elevation on the left shows the stone architrave which will be in Pietra Serena to match the Tuscan columns and the fireplace found in the Tuscan style kitchen. Pietra Serena is a beautiful grey Tuscan sandstone which was used by Michelangelo in the Medici Chapel Romeare.

The splayed reveal August 2014, ready for plastering

Entrance Hall Design

Below is the Entrance Hall as it existed while Villa Guglielmesca was a hotel. As you can see, the existing interior architecture of the villa required significant design work. Our initial focus was to research and gain a thorough understanding of local vernacular to create an appropriate space for family living.

The Villa’s entrance hall when it was a hotel

The images below show the approved Artichoke re-design of the entrance hall with twinned Etruscan columns supporting the vaulted ceiling and hiding the re-enforced concrete columns. The stone we decided to use for the columns are made from Pietra Serena.

Screen shot 2013-08-19 at 13_10_10 — Artichoke’s re-design of the entrance hall

Screen shot 2013-08-30 at 09_14_17 — Plans show Artichoke’s architectural plans for the main hall

Bespoke Kitchen Interior Design

Artichoke’s design team also introduced the groin vaulted ceiling detail used in the entrance hall to the principal bespoke kitchen as both a device to architecturally tie the two ends of the vast space together and to frame the large open fireplace (also designed by us).

Screen shot 2015-03-27 at 09_49_53 — The Villa’s kitchen space taken back to brick

Inspiration for the bespoke Tuscan kitchen design in Villa Guglielmesca was taken from typical Tuscan agricultural furniture design. The primary timber being used for the kitchen is French oak. The oak on the island was bleached and the oak for the pan-shelves were fumed to age them. The breadboard island tops were made from wild-grain European walnut which we sourced in Italy. The arched doors on the end of the island, which is plastered, are made from solid oak, and roughly hand planed across the grain with a curved plane blade to create an aged effect to match the Tuscan style kitchen. The glazed dresser doors close on traditional espagnoletes.

These images are renders or computer generated representations of the designs which are part of our process. They enable all involved to see the current plans in a 3D format. They show the two brick islands in the Tuscan style kitchen finished in rough finish lime render

Boot Room Design

In addition to the villa’s Tuscan style kitchen, Artichoke designed a simple and authentic boot room for the private residence. Artichoke’s design teams have designed numerous bespoke boot rooms for country properties and apart from plenty of storage, a key aspect to most successful boot room designs is combining practicality with simplicity. Boot rooms get a lot of wear. They get dirty and are more loved for their practicality than their looks, mainly because most of the fitted furniture becomes draped in coats, hats and scarves, and eventually much of it becomes invisible. Artichoke designed the villa’s boot room with drainage at the centre of the room to allow mud to be washed and brushed away.

Screen shot 2013-08-19 at 15_56_58 — Artichoke’s renders (computer generated designs) for the villa’s boot room

Kitchen Fireplace

Artichoke designed the fireplace in the Tuscan style kitchen and surround as a multi-functional space, and it is far from simply decorative. A chargrill has been designed on the right hand side, with the left reserved for open fires and spit-roasting meats. The stone for the surround is Pietra Serena.

Shows the Artichoke designed fireplace being prepared in tandem with the groined ceiling in the tuscan style kitchen, also designed by Artichoke.

Interior Architecture

There are nearly 100 individual features designed by Artichoke inside Villa Guglielmesca, including coffered ceilings, fireplaces, windows, columns, doors and stone architraves. A few examples can be seen below:

Construction in progress of the groined ceiling in the Villa’s Limonaria

Pietra Serena stone architrave being set into the Villa walls

One of the Artichoke designed Pietra Serena window surrounds

Installation Phase

Artichoke’s European walnut vanity unit with walnut mirrors. The marble to be added will be Carrara

The Villa’s exterior showing the Pietra Serena windows and door frames designed by Artichoke. The shutters were make locally

Walnut skirting was designed for the dining room

Artichoke designed this simple linen store. Note the detail in the clay tiles at the threshold of the door

The Completed Project

This project can be found in full by visiting our website. A selection of images from the completed project are below. With each project, whether a kitchen or a whole house, we aim to create fitted furniture of lasting value, adding architectural value to our clients’ houses for their family and for future generations. We aren’t simply making joinery. We are making history.

To discuss your project, email the Artichoke team at newprojects@artichoke.co.uk or call on +44 (0)1934 745270.

Designing a Warehouse Industrial Style Vintage Kitchen in London

Posted in Sep 2021

Despite being designers ourselves, we are occasionally called upon by other designers to take their concept ideas forward to reality. Because we are both maker and designer we bring deep understanding of wood, the manufacturing process and period finishing to the conversation which enables us to add value to their ideas and create rooms of exceptional individualty and quality for their clients.

We were invited to do just this for the design team at Studio Indigo. The practice, based in Chelsea, is one of the best design companies we work with. Quite uniquely their teams are made up of both architects and interior designers, which gives their clients a really efficient service. We love working with them for this reason.

This particular project was for a Victorian villa in London which was to have a modern and fresh industrial style vintage kitchen at its heart.

Initial Conceptual Idea

Studio Indigo’s initial idea was for a U shaped island on one level at the centre of the room with an integrated central hob and preparation sink.

The original island featured a central raised bar which enveloped a supporting post at the centre of the room. The ovens were to be behind with tall refridgeration on a tall run alongside the main scullery sink.

Design Development

As is the case with most projects, as discussions with clients continue, ideas develop and interior architecture shifts. One of the principle issues we all had with the initial kitchen was there was little room for larder storage. To overcome this, we consulted with the team at Studio Indigo and commandeered some redundant space under the stairs behind the kitchen to the right which provided ample room for larder storage for the family. This freed up the main kitchen and allowed us to make some important improvements to the design.

Moving the larder storage out of the main kitchen freed up the design of the main run.

Once this was resolved, we could then turned our attention to the island, the centrepiece of the room. Our first collective decision was that we should raise the entire front face of the island to hide the main hob from the rest of the room; hobs can be messy spaces and rarely benefit from being on view. In rooms with tall ceilings such as this, we also find that raising an island’s height better serves the room’s proportions.

3D Renders

Once the design was agreed, a render could be produced to bring the elements of furniture to life. At this stage it was decided to add zinc to the raised island section which had the effect of turning it into a bar from its public side, a feature which suited the client and the relaxed intention for this social kitchen space.

Seating Area

The initial idea for the bench seat from Studio Indigo was to create a wonderful Victorian industrial booth seat with distressed bronze finish, leather seating and shelving. Their initial concept sketch to us below was incredibly helpful.

As research was undertaken into the best approach to take for this piece, it became apparent that to create the frame from mild steel, which is hollow and has rounded edges, would not deliver the crisp engineered look we were all after. It could also buckle if fallen into, creating a safety concern,. It was therefore decided to make the entire frame from solid brass bar. This provided the opportunity to create a really authentic engineered look, and it also allowed us to distress the surface of the brass to add patina to the piece.

The Completed Room

Some professional images taken of the completed work are below.

Photo credit Studio Indigo.

Further information regarding this completed kitchen space can be found here.

If you would like to discuss a kitchen or joinery design project with Artichoke, please email newprojects@artichoke.co.uk or call 01934 745270

The Case for Slow Making in a Throwaway Culture

Posted in Jun 2021

Slow making versus throwaway culture has been brought into sharp focus over the last year and a half as we have all begun to realise the impact that poor quality purchasing decisions can have on both our lives and the planet. With sustainability becoming an increasingly important factor in how we all behave, we felt it warranted further exploration.

If you type ‘How long should a kitchen last’ into Google, the accepted answer is around 20 to 25 years. Most commentators seem to feel this is some sort of benchmark to be celebrated. We don’t.

Cost efficiencies come at a price

There are two reasons why most kitchens have such short shelf lives. The first is quality of design. The second being quality of manufacture. For a kitchen to last 20 years, it must be of a certain quality but it won’t be outstanding. Market forces will prevent it from being such. It is impossible to make kitchens or architectural joinery of a quality that will last for generations at a price point that most kitchen companies like to pitch their product at. To provide a product which is commercially attractive to their market, something has to give. That something is time and the quality of materials. Time must be saved to reduce cost in order to reduce price. Cheaper materials are chosen to help the company reach its desired price point.

walnut and oak boards in Artichoke workshop — Responsibly sourced solid hardwoods, seen here in Artichoke’s workshop, will last forever.

Time costs money

Rooms that will last for generations need to be timeless in how they look and robust enough to endure decades of use. Achieving this requires time. And with time costing money, kitchen companies find savings. Pre-designed ranges achieve economies of scale. Cost efficiencies are found in a myriad of ways – by speeding up manufacturing processes and taking shortcuts in making traditional joints. By making doors thinner, by mechanising finishing and by using cheaper, often man made materials, This speeds the design and manufacturing process up and lowers the quality. This all sounds rather sniffy but it’s not meant to be. It’s simply economics. These companies are providing a product at a price point that is acceptable to their customer. However, it’s not our product and its not our market. We discussed this need for time with Country Life a few issues ago.

Designing for sustainability

For us, sustainability is central to our mission. We don’t design rooms to be trendy. Trend has a shelf life, and anything with a shelf life usually meets its untimely end in landfill. We owe it to the raw materials we respect so much to take a much longer term view.

By designing architectural joinery which sits elegantly and serenely within its architectural environment, and by using natural materials which have not been processed, we are able to circumvent the need to replace it because it’s gone out of fashion or because its deteriorated. Our clients want joinery-led rooms which will be admired in 200 years in much the same way that we all admire rooms designed and created 200 years ago. To achieve this takes time, investment and a desire by the client to create heritage for future generations to admire and take value from. You cannot achieve design harmony in a beautiful period house by picking a pre-designed item off the shelf and hoping for the best. It won’t work.

Slow making

The slow movement is based on these principles. Slow making is our expression of this philosophy. It is not about doing everything at a snail’s pace. It’s about seeking to do everything at the right speed to achieve the desired result. And in our case, the desired result is in the creation of this country’s future heritage.

If you’d like to discuss our approach to architectural joinery and our passion for how brilliantly designed furniture can immesurably improve your experience of living in a period house, please email newprojects@artichoke.co.uk or call 01934 734270

English Joinery – the lost art explored in Country Life

Posted in Jun 2020

Shining a light on the lost art of English joinery in a recent article in Country Life magazine, Interiors Editor, Giles Kime invites our founder, Bruce Hodgson, to explain how door casements, shutters, panelling, skirtings, architraves, cornicing and dados can transform a space.

If you’ve been inspired to know more about the transformative impact of authentic joinery led interiors, please do get in touch and tell us about your project or read more about our services. To view the article in Country Life Magazine Interiors section, click here

Artichoke in Country Life Top 100 (2020)

Posted in Mar 2020

As the Country Life top 100 2020 is announced, we are delighted to once again be included for the third consecutive year. This represents the ultimate recognition of our expertise in working on fine English houses and an acknowledgement of our mission to create Britain’s future heritage.⁠

We are so delighted to be recognized once again for the quality of our work – achieving a fine balance between meeting the needs and tastes of owners and fulfilling the potential of a house without harming its architectural integrity. Over nearly 30 years, we’ve worked in houses of every architectural period and have built a detailed understanding of each. Artichoke interiors, which are joinery-led, fulfill the unique promise of architectural joinery, which is not just to embellish rooms, but to give them their status and their role in the life of a household. Architectural joinery achieves something no other trade can in creating liveable, elegant and architecturally authentic houses. This puts us in a unique position, filling the gap between architects and interior designers, creating the interior structure that makes sense of a house – and providing designers with the canvas they need.

The full Country Life Top 100 2020 list can be reviewed here

To see some of the stunning work we have completed please click here.

We’d love to hear more if you have a project in mind. Whether its a single room – maybe a kitchen or a dressing room, or a whole house project, please do get in touch – speak with a member of our team on +44(0)1934 745 270 or email us at newprojects@artichoke.co.uk .

Art Deco Kitchen and Dining Room, Mayfair

Posted in Jan 2016

If you are a fan of the Art Deco kitchen or the flamboyant Art Deco period in general, then it’s quite possible you’d have seen images of the lift doors in the Chrysler Building in New York which have been the inspiration for a bespoke Art Deco kitchen and dining room commission we have recently completed in Mayfair, Central London.

To set the scene, the Chrysler Building was constructed in the competitive and fast paced world of 1920’s New York. The economy in America was booming; the social scene was roaring, and the fields of design and architecture were creating their own very specific identities. The discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922 had also unleashed a huge thirst for Egyptian design with the Karnak Temple in particular influencing global design detail of the time.

The Chrysler Building was funded entirely by Walter P Chrysler who paid for the building from his own pocket in order that his children and grand-children could benefit from it. He made many of the bold design decisions alongside his architect William Van Allen. The eccentric Art Deco crescent-shaped steps of the spire (spire scaffolding) were made of chrome-nickel steel as a stylised sunburst motif, and underneath it steel deco gargoyles, depicting American eagles, stare over the city. Sculptures modelled after Chrysler automobile radiator caps decorate the lower setbacks, along with ornaments of car wheels. It really was an awe-inspiring folly.

There were many stunning and original design details included in the architecture of the Chrysler Building, but the one to influence the panelling and doors for our Art Deco kitchen and dining room are the incredible lift doors, of which there are 32 sets within the Chrysler Building. In Artichoke’s Art Deco kitchen and dining room there are 37 doors.

Screen shot 2013-09-30 at 16_14_17 — The lift doors in the Chrysler Building, New York.

Project 149 - View 5 — Our rendered images of the approved design.

According to the book, New York, 1930, ‘Architecture and Urbanism Between the two World Wars.’, the Art Deco Chrysler Building Lift doors are made of Japanese ash, English gray harewood and Asian walnut. Inside the elevators, the cabs include American walnut, dye-ebonized wood, satinwood, Cuban plum-pudding wood and curly maple. The cabinets are all different inside. The metal work is chrome-nickel steel to match the exterior of the building.

The creative idea for this project was originally conceived by our friends at Fletcher Priest Architects, with Artichoke being responsible for taking the conceptual idea of the Art Deco kitchen and turning it into reality.

The design detail within the doors includes some fascinating references to Egyptian mythology including references to the Egyptian feather of truth (the feather, because of its Egyptian name, “shut”, which was a symbol of Shu). This may have been a clever attempt at humour by the architect.

A Marquetry Bespoke Art Deco Kitchen and Dining Room

Artichoke was asked to create a panelled bespoke Art Deco kitchen and dining room for the project which overlooks Green Park. The design had similarities to the original doors in the Chrysler Building, albeit with less flamboyant metalwork, pared down Egyptian references and slightly different decorative veneers.

There are many complexities associated with a marquetry job of this nature. Firstly, unlike lift doors, kitchen doors are often different widths because they often house different hardware within them. How do the designers ensure therefore that the Art Deco kitchen panels are equal in size and mirror each other on either side of the room? This is a vital puzzle to solve in order to adhere to the classical symmetry and proportions so important in Deco design.

Secondly, from a purely practical point of view, how does one treat the copper sheet that’s embedded within some of the marquetry panels? Research shows that copper contains a repellant which actually breaks down most rubber based glues. Copper also expands rapidly when heated, so a cautious approach is needed when sanding the veneers, otherwise the copper is likely to heat up with friction, expand and ping off. Then, once the correct glue is found to successfully adhere copper, testing is needed to see how it reacts with the exotic wood veneers either side of it. Any reaction, and it’s back to square one!

In addition to that, copper discolours when being cut by laser, so specialist laser equipment with weaker strength beams were sourced specifically to cut the individual copper elements of the art deco kitchen panels.

Grain direction is another big discussion point, as is trying to ensure that the flitches of veneers used in the doors match each other in both tone and scale as closely as possible.

A successful sample; an initial experiment gluing up copper and decorative veneers

There are six primary doors and thirty one secondary doors throughout the bespoke Art Deco kitchen and dining room, including an automated moving partition wall that divides the rooms when entertaining.

Screen shot 2013-09-30 at 16_37_50 — The initial layout of the marquetry doors with their materials listed.

How the marquetry is cut.

Screen shot 2013-10-11 at 11_50_23 — Initial sample showing veneers and copper inlay for the primary doors on the right hand side and secondary on the left.
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The client approved the sample for the Art Deco kitchen’s secondary doors, but it was felt a more intricate pattern for the primary doors was needed. The later design is on the right hand side, showing a much more intricate pattern for the copper veneers on the primary doors. You may notice that the Egyptian feather has been re-introduced to the design on the right.

Screen shot 2013-10-28 at 16_18_14 — This more detailed elevation shows the intricate copper detailing on the primary marquetry panelled doors.

All of Artichoke’s bespoke kitchen projects are first made digitally using engineering software. This ensures that all of the cabinet-making issues can be ironed out before real production starts.

One of the 37 doors ready to be wrapped and taken to site.

The Completed Bespoke Art Deco Kitchen and Dining Room

Historical & Period Kitchen Reference Images

Posted in Dec 2015

At Artichoke, a significant number of the bespoke period kitchens we are commissioned to design are in English country houses, many dating back many hundreds of years. When designing for these clients, we find referencing from kitchens from the past a particularly useful way to gain inspiration. Here are a few of the period kitchens that have inspired our work: