A hand-painted kitchen for a centuries-old house near Bath

By Thomas Matthew

In a centuries-old house near Bath, the kitchen is built around the chimney breast, where a black range now stands under a built-out canopy. Every cupboard around it was drawn for the way the room is used day to day.

What we made

The cupboards are hand-painted and in-frame: a soft putty grey around the walls, with a deep blue island at the centre. The island ends in a curve with seats along it, so it is somewhere to sit as well as somewhere to work.

At the sink, glazed wall cupboards in the same deep blue hold the glassware, above a mirrored splashback that throws the light back into the room. A brass swan-neck tap arcs over a deep ceramic sink, with the drainer grooved straight into the worktop, and aged brass knobs sit warm against the blue. Tall painted cupboards carry the storage on through to the back hall.

We made it all in our Poole workshop and brought it up from Dorset to fit. The last coat of paint went on by hand in the room itself, once every cupboard was in place.