Kitchen of the Week: Sinuous Curves in an Unusual Kitchen Design

Kitchen of the Week: Sinuous Curves in an Unusual Kitchen Design- Sharp lines and fitted units may be prevalent in kitchen design, but you won’t find them in this striking space. Instead, this kitchen in a newly built home in Ireland is a mix of freestanding furniture and pieces that seem to grow out of the floor, all with the kind of smooth, sensual curves that just beg to be stroked.

It was designed by Johnny Grey who, thanks to his research into neuroscience, feng shui and years of thinking about what makes a great kitchen, has created a relaxed, unique space that’s anything but trad.

Johnny Grey Studios.

Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here A businessman/art collector and his wife
Location County Limerick
Property A new-build house with 4 bedrooms
Size The whole room, including the kitchen and dining space, is around 60 sq m
Designer Johnny Grey of Johnny Grey Studios

Designer Johnny Grey came on board when this new house was just a set of plans. ‘This space was originally half the size, with a wall separating the kitchen from the dining area,’ he explains. ‘I pushed to have it all opened up, to create a connection with the garden. The very essence of a modern kitchen is to be able to linger here and feel connected with the outside, too.’

Johnny Grey Studios.

The house is built on land that had been part of a golf course. Curved lines are something of a Johnny Grey Studios hallmark, but the designer felt they were particularly necessary here. ‘The building is very angular,’ he says, ‘so the last thing you want is more angles! You want some contrast.’

Johnny Grey Studios.

The central island is what Grey calls ‘the command position’. ‘When you stand there, you have three different views of the garden and can see people coming into the room, too,’ he says.

There is a neuroscientific reason behind why this feels pleasing. ‘In order to feel relaxed, we want to be able to see people as they approach,’ says Grey. ‘We want to see faces and make eye contact. These are hard-wired needs.’

Hobs, Gaggenau. The extractor was made bespoke.

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Johnny Grey Studios.

Grey is not a huge fan of fully fitted kitchens. ‘They’re always wall-based and use up all the corners and are inflexible,’ he says. He also takes issue with the huge stretches of work surface contemporary kitchens often feature. ‘I believe in having dedicated work surface,’ he says. ‘With too much space, it can be confusing. You don’t know what to do with it. With dedicated areas, it’s obvious. You can walk in and immediately know how to use the kitchen. It becomes subliminal.’

One of the key food prep areas is on the island, which also has a raised section. This does more than act as an optional breakfast bar. ‘It’s a proper food serving bar – a platform to put food on,’ says Grey. ‘If the island were all on the same level, it wouldn’t create the same sense of order.’

The platform also helps whet the appetite by drawing attention to the food. ‘Seeing the food here sends useful messages to your stomach to prepare for the meal,’ he says.

Johnny Grey Studios.

Grey had the units made by a cabinet-maker in Melbourne. The dark veneer on top is Papua New Guinea rosewood. ‘It’s one of the few hardwoods harvested in small amounts by people the cabinet-maker knows personally,’ he says. The pale wood is Canadian maple.

This section of the kitchen, with a glass splashback behind it, works as a coffee- and tea-making station. ‘So if you just want to make a drink, you don’t have to go into the main cooking area,’ says Grey.

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Johnny Grey Studios.

Grey loves to include freestanding cabinets in his designs. ‘This is how people always furnished homes in the past,’ he says. ‘They didn’t think about building in. You could take everything with you.’

There are many benefits to using freestanding over fitted. ‘A fitted kitchen blocks off corners, but freestanding pieces give a more relaxed feel to a space,’ says Grey. ‘If you can have some part of the furniture open so light travels through it, the space feels less trapped.’

This handsome piece is inlaid with walnut and box wood.

Johnny Grey Studios.

On the kitchen’s many curves, Grey explains that he favours soft geometry. ‘I want the furniture to rise up out of the floor; to make it feel as if it’s growing like a plant,’ he says. ‘It’s a bit different, a bit more fun. This kitchen is actually quite rectilinear, but the interpretation is very different and feels soft. This encourages everyone to linger in this space. People lean against these curves.’

Johnny Grey Studios.

When starting on a kitchen design, Grey often asks clients to choose a painting they love. ‘This suggests the atmosphere, mood and sometimes the colour,’ says Grey. The sculpture hanging by the door was an inspiration for this kitchen. ‘It’s a primitive and beautiful mood piece,’ he says.

The table is an original Eames design flanked by Cherner armchairs.

Cherner armchair, available from The Conran Shop.

Johnny Grey Studios.

The fireplace sits in the centre of the space, between the cooking zone and the dining area and garden beyond. ‘There’s plenty of room to draw up a chair and just sit around the fire,’ says Grey. ‘It works really well. The owners tend to live in this space.’

Wood-burning stove, Focus Stoves.

Johnny Grey Studios.

The fold-out doors, visible from the kitchen island, invite the outdoors in. Their angled shape is offset by the soft curves in the kitchen.

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