Luxury Country House Kitchen in the Surrey Hills
Set high in the Surrey Hills outside Haslemere, this was a substantial renovation of an established country home, working alongside Bramdean Construction to completely rethink the kitchen and surrounding living spaces.
The original kitchen was in what is now the dining area, where the table and fireplace sit today. As part of the renovation, the former living space was incorporated into the new kitchen, the roof glazing replaced and the existing oak frame retained. It gave us a wonderful footprint to work with – but also a room where the kitchen needed to sit comfortably alongside some very strong existing architecture.
The island was key to getting that right.
We went as large as we possibly could, designing it around the oak posts so that it sits naturally within the frame rather than feeling like a separate piece dropped into the middle of the room. It is a big island, but beneath that huge expanse of oak and glass, it can take it.
We positioned both the Bora hob and Belfast sink on the island, leaving the tall cabinetry to sit quietly along the back wall and, more importantly, keeping the working side of the kitchen facing those incredible views across the Surrey Hills. Twin patinated brass Quooker taps at the sink provide fresh and boiling water, while open shelves at the end of the island keep the side facing the dining room lighter.
The kitchen itself is in-frame, with our contemporary classic cabinetry hand-painted in Johnstone's Linen and topped with Cloudy Gris matt quartz. The pale cabinetry was an important part of the scheme; with so much beautiful oak overhead and underfoot, the kitchen didn't need another competing material or colour.
The detail is deliberately traditional without becoming overly decorative. An ovolo mould sits within the recess of each door, giving the cabinetry its Georgian appearance but without creating the usual little ledge for dust. Burnished brass butt hinges are matched with Hendel & Hendel Greenwich handles, and the cabinetry finishes at floor level with a skirting rather than a standard kitchen plinth – a small detail that makes it feel much more like fitted furniture.
Storage runs the full height of the back wall, including a larder cabinet and a bi-fold dresser housing the coffee machine and built-in microwave. There's a dedicated spice drawer, and two dishwashers sit either side of the Belfast sink. With a kitchen on this scale, one dishwasher simply wasn't going to cut it.
As you move through into the dining area, the cabinetry changes with the room.
Rather than continuing the kitchen into this space, we treated the joinery around the fireplace much more like furniture. The illuminated alcove cabinets have open shelving for books and collected pieces above closed storage, sitting either side of the original brick fireplace and timber lintel.
In the corner, a glazed bar cabinet gives the family somewhere to store glassware and prepare drinks away from the main kitchen, with a bronze mirrored splashback behind. It's connected to the kitchen, but very clearly belongs to the dining room.
Lighting was considered throughout the cabinetry, with soft uplighting above the main kitchen and within the open shelving. It comes into its own later in the day, when the natural light through all that roof glazing begins to disappear and the room takes on a completely different feel.
The adjoining utility is smaller and much more practical, so we changed the cabinetry construction to suit. Here we used spray-painted lay-on doors, which give around 8% more usable storage within each cabinet than an equivalent in-frame design. Across a whole utility, that's a useful amount of extra space without making the room itself any bigger.
The project also extended into the pool house, where the cabinetry takes a much more contemporary direction. A dark chocolate hand-rendered plaster finish gives the handleless doors a completely matt, softly textured surface, with the cabinetry running almost wall-to-wall above the worktop.
The bronze mirrored splashback is much more of a feature here, stretching across the full working area and reflecting the room and garden beyond. A Quooker sits at the sink, while the long timber table and stools bring some of the warmth of the main house into what is otherwise a very clean, contemporary space.
It's quite a contrast to the painted in-frame kitchen in the main house, but that's what we love about a project of this scale. There's room to give each space its own identity rather than simply repeating the same cabinetry throughout.
Bespoke Kitchens & Interiors in Surrey, Hampshire & West Sussex
Charter Walk specialises in bespoke kitchens, bespoke cabinetry and luxury interiors, creating individually designed spaces for country homes, period properties and contemporary renovations. From handmade in-frame kitchens and kitchen islands to bespoke fitted furniture, utility rooms, home bars, boot rooms and whole-home joinery, every project is designed around the architecture of the property and the people who live there.
Based near Haslemere, we design and install bespoke kitchens and cabinetry across Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex, including Haslemere, Godalming, Guildford, Farnham, Liphook, Petersfield, Midhurst and Chichester, as well as the wider Surrey Hills and South Downs.
