Open-Plan Kitchen

Character oak against matte black, handleless throughout, in an open-plan room with a whole wall of glazing onto the fields.

Essex, England · The Scandi

The work

A long island in solid character oak — knots, figure and all — set against a perimeter of matte black flat fronts with black stone countertops and a matching upstand. Handleless throughout, worked on continuous recessed rails rather than J-pulls, and standing on recessed dark plinths so both runs appear to float. The room is open to the living space and to a wall of black-framed sliding glazing, so the kitchen is on show from three sides. That is the reason for the discipline: there is no back to it.

Through-jointed, and left showing

The drawer fronts are through-jointed at the corners and the joint is left visible. It is a decision, not a shortcut — a mitered or lipped front would hide it, and hiding it is what most makers do. It only works if the timber is dry, the machining is exact and the finish is an oil rather than a lacquer, because the joint has to be allowed to move a little without opening.

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A run of brushed oak drawer fronts along the island, under a dark countertop

The dark run of tall units and base cabinets, with a patinated metal panel behind the range

A cutlery drawer standing open, with hand-cut oak dividers and the drawer box on show

The oak drawer run under the dark countertop, with the room behind it

The shadow gap between the oak drawer fronts, close to

An open drawer with oak dividers holding cutlery

Built-in ovens in the dark run, with the patinated panel above them

The open-plan room, the kitchen at the far end and the seating in the foreground

A tall cabinet in book-matched timber running floor to ceiling

Specification

The same construction, whichever range

The range decides the door and the ornament. Everything behind it is built the same way, in the same building, by the same nine people — and it is built that way whether the kitchen is going to Suffolk or to Connecticut.

What a kitchen costs, and why → How a commission runs → How it reaches you →

Specification

Setting out	Drawn in CAD, then again at full size as a rod pinned above the bench. Machining is taken from the rod, not the screen.
Carcass	18mm birch-faced plywood (a shade under 3/4 inch), glued and screwed, 9mm backs (just under 3/8 inch) housed in rather than pinned on. Adjustable feet throughout.
Face frames	Solid timber, mortise and tenon, with scribed filler stiles where the joinery meets the building.
Drawer boxes	Solid European oak, 16mm (just over 5/8 inch) sides, through-dovetailed front and back by hand, waxed.
Runners	Full-extension soft-close, rated to 90lb.
Painted work	Four coats, brushed by hand in our own finishing room, with the final coat cut in on site after installation.
Installation	By the people who made it. Nothing is subcontracted and nothing arrives flat-packed.

Every kitchen on this site is one we have made. The images are visualizations rather than photographs of our clients’ houses. They are built from our own workshop drawings and our own photographs of the work on site, and finished with AI, because our clients ask that their houses are not photographed or published. None of it is stock imagery and none of it is somebody else’s work. Drawings, samples and references for completed commissions we will show you in person — visits to the Mickfield workshop are by appointment.

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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