Kitchen of the Week: Elegant and Functional With a Walk-In Pantry
A designer team gives homeowners a generous cooking and dining area, enviable pantry, mudroom-laundry room and more
The kitchen in this 1930s London home had already been expanded, but it wasn’t working for the growing family who were about to buy it. The family chose to renovate before moving in. Designer Robert Burnett and his team ended up doing more than just the kitchen. In addition to creating a generous cooking space with a family-size island and dining area, they also created a walk-in pantry, a roomy mudroom-laundry room and a powder room.
The cabinet doors and frames are all solid, Forest Stewardship Council-certified tulip wood with oak dovetail-jointed drawers and oak veneered boxes. The tall cabinets are topped with small glass-fronted sections that tie in with the wall cabinets, as well as mirroring the transom window above the pantry door.
There’s an extra undercounter fridge on the left of this side of the island and cabinet storage on the other. Drawer storage is tucked beneath the oven with a cabinet above it.
Burnett adds that the clients also wanted to update their existing appliances. “Previously, they had quite a small cooktop and not enough oven space or a very good fridge,” he says. “They wanted two good-quality ovens, a big fridge-freezer, lots of food storage, a big cooktop, nice big sinks and a boiling-water tap.” The team also installed underfloor heating throughout the ground floor.
Faucet: Perrin & Rowe
There’s an extra undercounter fridge on the left of this side of the island and cabinet storage on the other. Drawer storage is tucked beneath the oven with a cabinet above it.
Burnett adds that the clients also wanted to update their existing appliances. “Previously, they had quite a small cooktop and not enough oven space or a very good fridge,” he says. “They wanted two good-quality ovens, a big fridge-freezer, lots of food storage, a big cooktop, nice big sinks and a boiling-water tap.” The team also installed underfloor heating throughout the ground floor.
Faucet: Perrin & Rowe
The tall cabinets contain a refrigerator-freezer (left), storage and a breakfast cabinet on the right.
“It was during the design process that we agreed on a larder press. That’s the traditional name for a cabinet with an interior countertop and spice racks on the doors,” Burnett says. “The cabinet also houses the homeowners’ toaster and coffeemaker and has integrated task lighting.”
Below the countertop, a door matches the one on the refrigerator to its left but contains interior drawers.
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Below the countertop, a door matches the one on the refrigerator to its left but contains interior drawers.
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Burnett carved out space for the tall units as well as a walk-in pantry by moving the left-hand wall back a little to create more space.
“The pantry is deceptive. It’s pretty big: 5 by 3 feet,” Burnett says. “The shelving is shallow in the bit you can see here, but it extends on the left-hand side, where there’s lots of storage, plus there’s a 2-foot-deep countertop at the end.”
A run of drawers has soft-closing slides and provides heaps of storage.
The wall cabinets above — as well as the top cabinets on the left-hand run — are tiled at the back to match the wall. “That was trickier to execute than it might look,” Burnett says. It looks as if the cupboards sit on a tiled wall whereas, in fact, each unit was painstakingly tiled to appear to run on from the wall tiles. “It’s a design idea that gives a more lightweight, less blocky look than glass cabinets painted at the back,” he says.
All the glass cupboards have internal LED lighting in vertical strips on each side of the doors. “This is really nice in the evening, as they give a soft glow,” Burnett says.
The wall cabinets above — as well as the top cabinets on the left-hand run — are tiled at the back to match the wall. “That was trickier to execute than it might look,” Burnett says. It looks as if the cupboards sit on a tiled wall whereas, in fact, each unit was painstakingly tiled to appear to run on from the wall tiles. “It’s a design idea that gives a more lightweight, less blocky look than glass cabinets painted at the back,” he says.
All the glass cupboards have internal LED lighting in vertical strips on each side of the doors. “This is really nice in the evening, as they give a soft glow,” Burnett says.
Directly behind the wall with the tall cabinets, Burnett made space for this roomy laundry room by moving the original powder room. On this side of the room, there’s a laundry zone with a sink, a solid oak countertop and a pulley clothes airer, as well as appliances. The flooring is designed to give the look of tumbled limestone, but is in fact porcelain.
Cabinetry: Howdens; cabinet paint: Hardwick White, Farrow & Ball
Cabinetry: Howdens; cabinet paint: Hardwick White, Farrow & Ball
Across from the sink are the family coat hooks, which, thanks to a newly created doorway, can be accessed directly from the home’s side yard. The door is out of sight just beyond the cabinetry.
Directly behind the coat racks is a room housing a Megaflo tank, the boiler and the underfloor heating manifold. Take a look at the plans at the end to get a clearer idea of the layout.
Directly behind the coat racks is a room housing a Megaflo tank, the boiler and the underfloor heating manifold. Take a look at the plans at the end to get a clearer idea of the layout.
Burnett stole a little space from the smaller front room to relocate the powder room so he could free up space in the laundry room. Foliage-themed wallpaper opens up the space, giving the impression from afar of a leafy view from a window. The white double doors enclose a coat cabinet.
“Before” floor plan
“After” floor plan
The before and after floor plans show how the new, harder-working layout fits into the original footprint.
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The before and after floor plans show how the new, harder-working layout fits into the original footprint.
More on Houzz
Read more kitchen stories
Browse kitchen photos
Hire a kitchen remodeler
Shop for kitchen products
Kitchen at a Glance
Who lives here: A family with young children
Location: London
Size: 212 square feet (20 square meters); 19 by 11 feet (5.8 by 3.4 meters)
Designers: Robert Burnett of Kitchens by Holloways and Elizabeth McFarlane
In the previous incarnation of this room, the kitchen ran along the wall that now houses full-height cabinets and into the corner where there’s now a walk-in pantry. There was also an island about half the size of this one.
“It was sort of an L-shape. It’s a nice big house and the kitchen felt a bit stuffed away in a corner and hidden away from the other living spaces and not what you’d have in a modern family home,” Burnett says. Now there’s a dining area (not photographed but in the spot from where this picture was taken), and the location of the countertops creates a new sense of connection to the garden.
Cabinet paint: Railings, Farrow & Ball; door handles: Buster & Punch
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