Kitchen Tour: A Dark Grey Shaker-style Kitchen in London

Kitchen Tour: A Dark Grey Shaker-style Kitchen in London- Colour has a huge effect on the atmosphere of a space, and this beautiful kitchen in a Georgian terraced house in London proves that, sometimes, it pays to be bold. It’s fitted with classic Shaker cabinets, but wears a striking shade of flinty grey on the walls, units and shelves, punctuated by a pale marble worktop. “It’s a very warm, atmospheric space,” says Emily Rumble of deVOL, who designed the kitchen. “It’s a small room, but the colour really makes it feel cosy and inviting.”

deVOL Kitchens

Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here A couple with a young child
Location Bloomsbury, London
Size 3m 80cm x 3m 80cm; part of a Georgian terraced house
Designer Emily Rumble at deVOL Kitchens

The room is square and compact, with a chimney breast on one interior wall and a window overlooking the leafy square at the front of the house. These key features dictated where the cabinets and appliances could be installed.

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deVOL Kitchens

The owners didn’t want to take out the chimney breast. “There’s a similar one in the adjoining dining room, so it provides symmetry,” explains Rumble. “It can also be costly to remove a chimney breast.” So it made sense to slot the range within it and put the sink beneath the window.

“These initial parts of a design can be quite easy,” says Rumble. “It’s then fitting the other elements in that’s harder! It’s about making sure you still have symmetry and plenty of storage in a room that’s quite limited in space.”

deVOL Kitchens

“We were very focused on having something under the window to create symmetry,” says Rumble. “Then we wanted to maximise the rest of the space without making it look crowded.”

deVOL Kitchens

The wooden shutters are an intriguing original feature. They pull up to conceal the window and then fold down behind each other. “They bring some natural wood tones into the space,” says Rumble. “The wall and cabinet colour had to tie in with that.”

deVOL Kitchens

The owners chose a rich, dark grey for the cabinets and walls. “It’s the Flint colour from our bathroom range,” says Rumble. “It’s not a standard colour for our kitchens, but the owners were torn between a softer grey and a very dark blue and this seemed like a natural, in-between shade to go for.” Warm brass handles glow out softly from the dark backdrop.

deVOL Kitchens

Open shelves were built in on either side of the chimney breast. “We wanted to make a grand feature of it,” says Rumble. The shelves were designed to be slightly higher than the run of cupboards on the opposite side. “Thanks to the dark colour, this difference in height is not noticeable and the vertical and horizontal lines are not so obvious.”

deVOL Kitchens

The worktop, range splashback and upstand are 30mm-thick marble. It has a honed rather than a polished finish, chosen by the owners for its matt appearance. “Marble is not quite as hard-wearing as a man-made composite or a stone such as granite,” says Rumble. “It’s a naturally porous material, so it can get scratched and stained, but it’s very beautiful.”

Opera A3 dual-cavity cooker, Smeg.

deVOL Kitchens

The cabinets are a classic Shaker design, made with ply carcasses and solid tulipwood fronts. A small open section next to the dishwasher provides storage for chopping boards and platters.

Shaker cabinets in Flint, deVOL.

deVOL Kitchens

The kitchen opens onto a dining room next door, at the back of the house. Its pale walls make a fresh contrast to the kitchen’s dark tones.

deVOL Kitchens

A bespoke butcher’s block fulfils a range of functions. It’s fitted with wheels so it can be moved, and offers a space at which to perch with a coffee. It also contains bins and long drawers. “There aren’t a lot of drawers elsewhere in the kitchen,” says Rumble, “and there also wasn’t a very obvious space for the bins, so we fitted them in here, too.”

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deVOL Kitchens

This run of cabinets contains a larder in the centre and a fridge and freezer on either side. “We worked hard to build in as much storage here while keeping it looking discreet and uniform,” said Rumble. Using the same dark shade on the cabinets and the walls helps them to melt into their backdrop and appear less noticeable.

To the side of the larder, a small section of worktop acts as a breakfast station. “We encourage people with larders to use this little return for their toaster and mugs and treat it as a tea and coffee area,” says Rumble. “Here, the owners didn’t need a kettle because they have a boiling-water tap.”

deVOL Kitchens

The spacious larder is lit internally and has sockets, so the microwave and other appliances can be plugged in permanently and used inside it.

deVOL Kitchens

“When there’s a beautiful central window, it’s nice to fit a sink under there,” says Rumble. The window gives views over the garden square at the front of the house.

Ionian mixer tap in chrome, Perrin & Rowe. Pro3 Classic boiling-water tap, Quooker. Sink, Villeroy & Boch.

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