Bold & Daring Kitchen Design Tips From Interior Designers

We’ve recently completed the stunning Coulins project, on which FCI designer, Ben Ibanez, worked in collaboration with the immensely talented designer, Rina Vastu. Another gifted person working with us on this project was Polly, a garden designer whose talent and eye for planting schemes are simply unmatched.

Between them, they created a gorgeous residential home with an especially inspiring kitchen design.

We worked with Rina on designing and furnishing both the interior and exterior of this pool house which rests in the leafy and hilly Surrey.

The client wanted to turn this mansion into the ultimate party space with an outdoor pool, indoor kitchen, outdoor dining area and living room, games room, bar and a cinema.

One of the many features that stands out is the semi-outdoor kitchen – the client wanted a place where cooking and dining could be managed all year round and to make this work out, we went for a kitchen in the Garage.

This way, our client gets to enjoy their kitchen with a feeling of being outdoors – without actually being exposed to nature’s more harmful elements or worrying about the kitchen itself being exposed to them.

Why do we call this a bold and daring kitchen? Well, according to Benjamin, there are three main reasons for this:

• The concept itself is very unique and not something we usually work on. We’ve done hundreds of outdoor kitchens and thousands of indoor kitchens – but setting up a kitchen in the Garage is a bold step to take.
• The patterned tiles stretched from the garage towards the transitional patio and as compared to plain tiles, these can be tricky to work with as we need to make sure that none of the furniture or accessories is clashing with the flooring.
• The elephant – we mean the egg in the room! The client had chosen this enormous green oven from Big Green Egg and while we love this game-changing grill, it is traditionally used in outdoor kitchens where it easily blends in with nature – fitting it indoors was definitely a challenge.

So how did we pull it off?

Benjamin and Rina decided to go for a sleek, metallic table and high chairs that went with the Industrial feel of the room. The accessories and furniture was carefully chosen to allow the egg to remain the focal point of the room.

Instead of going for an ordinary dining table, we decided to go for a space-saving option: a sleek and narrow, bar-style table with wheels and extra shelving for storage. The table and chairs are both incredibly lightweight, so they can easily be taken outside for alfresco meals and parties.

The project intrigued us, so we asked our team for tips on how to design a bold kitchen and here’s what they had to say:

• “Choose only one item as your feature piece and work around it. This feature piece could be an oven, the Island or the dining table – I would just choose one of them to be bold, especially in terms of colour and keep the rest of the space neutral.” – Benjamin Ibanez
• “If you’re confused about what bold colour to choose, I would say that you should go for the one that makes you feel the happiest.” – Cristina Chirila
• “I think that the bold colour schemes of your kitchen depend greatly on the flooring, for example, if you have warm, wooden flooring, I would recommend a jewel tone colour as the star.” – Ricardo Jarjoura
• “I love the idea of using colourful chairs and rugs in a kitchen as they bring so much energy and personality to the room. This is also a very cost-effective way of refreshing your kitchen – just upgrade to bold chairs or bar stools and add an eye-catching rug.” – Jessica Codejon Alvarez

We understand that designing a bold and dramatic kitchen can be intriguing so if you need any help, get in touch with our award-winning team for a free design consultation.