Bishop's Stortford Kitchen

The Backstory

Right before Christmas 2020, we completed this show stopper of a kitchen for a lovely family in Bishop’s Stortford. The family is renovating an old Victorian house which had spent the last 100 years as a boarding school! Initially two houses, then split into flats and rooms, they renovated it back to a family home.

“The house came up on our road, it came up by chance and we decided it was time for another renovation project, it’s the 3rd house we have renovated on our road.”

As the house was split into flats, there were three kitchens, all very old and tired. As part of the renovation, the back of the house was knocked off and a larger kitchen space was built.

“The whole house needed a full renovation, it was a huge project.”

The couple had carried out three full house renovations prior to this one as Mairead was an interior designer before setting up her business ‘Wild Hearts Wonder’.

“The experience [from the previous renos] was invaluable for this project, I had learnt so much along the way.”

A local building company carried out the build, and an architect designed the new extension. Despite having numerous surveys, not one picked up the first grade asbestos! The couples’ builder found it on the first day and unfortunately set the project back weeks.

We asked the couple what they learned the most in their journey through planning and designing a new kitchen and they said:

“We’ve learnt to future proof. Children are little for such a small amount of time; we’ve added extra appliances to make entertaining and general daily life with a large family easier, i.e. two dishwashers, two fridges and plenty of storage.”

The Design

The family wanted a spaced out designed that worked for them.

“You can’t really achieve this [a space that works perfectly for you] with an off the shelf, a walk-in pantry for example or a chimney breast in an awkward place need a bespoke finish to make the kitchen work as hard and efficiently as it can.”

They knew exactly how they wanted it and what the space would allow, but wanted to hear other ideas to see if there was anything better to add. They knew they wanted a dark shaker kitchen, with lots of brass, Mairead did want a pink Island, but lost the battle with the other half on that one! A boiling tap and a coffee machine were essential for them too and has always been included into any kitchen Mairead designed.

“They [boiling tap and coffee machine] are a must above all else!” My favourite part is the coffee machine, it’s in constant use and I can’t function without it!”

Making Your Dream Kitchen In Our Workshop

We make all of your cabinetry in our workshop just outside Canterbury ourselves, completely tailor made to what your lifestyle and your space needs.

You can come visit our workshop and see your cabinetry being made, just email your designer and ask about a workshop visit or give us a call.
The Herringbone Workshop

The Details: Colours, Hardware & More

The couple did lots of research online. It had to work with the age and style of the house, which luckily for them was their taste and style so choosing palates and appliances was more of a joy than a chore.

For their bespoke cabinetry, they went for a bold colour choice of Mylands ‘Sinner’ as the space is so large and heavily windowed, the black doesn’t overpower the space or make it feel dark. On top of the bespoke cabinetry, sits a gorgeous Dekton worktop in the colour ‘Bergen'.

For their hardware, they went for long bar pulls in a beautiful satin brass finish. These were matched with satin brass hinges on the cupboard doors, brass plug sockets and a brass plated Quooker boiling water tap. The most striking Bora hob sits on the long kitchen island; perfect for cooking for the whole family and incredibly social for entertaining.

A lovely counter-top unit sits at the end of the the kitchen run, featuring reeded glass doors, three painted shelves inside housing the family’s impressive collection of glasses, stand mixer and cocktail making equipment. The gorgeous Dekton worktop flows straight into the unit acting as a cold shelf; this is so practical as any drink or batter mixture spills can be easily wiped up.

On Using Herringbone

“Great. They managed to get it functioning just before lockdown, which we were very grateful for!”

-Mairead & Ben , Bishop’s Stortford