Guides to commissioning an English kitchen.
Long pieces for anybody in the middle of commissioning a kitchen. No sales copy, and nothing in them we would not say to your face.
Three things are worth understanding before you commission an English kitchen from four thousand miles away: who is actually going to make it, what the words on the quotation mean, and how the countertop you choose will behave in ten years.
The guides below are the long answers. They are written from the bench rather than from a showroom, which means they include the parts a salesman leaves out. Where inset cabinetry costs you time as well as money. Why stone cannot honestly be priced until the cabinets are standing in the room. What to ask a maker who tells you everything is made in-house, and how to tell whether it is.
Before you commitHow to choose a bespoke kitchen makerTwelve questions, the answers that should reassure you, and the answers that should not.Read it →
Plain EnglishA glossary of kitchen and joinery termsThe words that appear in quotations and drawings, explained. If somebody uses one at you and does not explain it, ask.Read it →
MaterialsCountertopsStone, timber and end-grain block: where each earns its place, and how the joints and overhangs are detailed.Read it →
Seven rangesWhich range, and whyInset or handleless, painted or oak: which of the seven suits the house you already have.Read it →
Why these exist
Most of what is written about kitchens online is written to sell one. These are not. They are the things we end up saying on the telephone to people who are three months into a decision and have five quotations in front of them that all say “bespoke” and none of which mean the same thing.
If you read them and conclude that we are the wrong workshop for your house, they have still done their job. There is no version of this trade in which a badly matched client and maker ends well.
The journal →
Questions Americans ask us →
What it costs, and why →
Tell us about the room.
Where the house is, roughly when you would like to be cooking in it, and what you have in mind. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right people for it.
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