A colourful kitchen and an undermount sink for a terraced house kitchen
We speak to homeowners Lucy and Sacha to discuss their bright new kitchen; from its frameless cabinetry to the mix of grey and mint green
Sacha Khari and Lucy Blatch knew exactly what kind of kitchen they wanted when they bought a Victorian terraced house in North East London.
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They were doing a full renovation of the property, including the existing kitchen, and set about finding traditional, Shaker-style furniture for the newly extended space. But, having found exactly what they were looking for, both Sacha and Lucy felt unable to commit to the design.
Here’s what they went for instead.
The project in a nutshell:
The property: A Victorian terraced house in North East London
Who lives here? Sacha Khari and Lucy Blatch
The designer: George Glasier, co-founder at Pluck Kitchen
Budget: Pluck kitchens start at £10,000
“We’d been so certain about what we wanted, but neither of us could get excited about what we were seeing,” remembers Sacha.
“We toed and froed for ages before I saw something completely different in a newspaper cutting.
“It was everything we thought we hadn’t wanted, but when I showed it to Lucy she immediately said yes,” she adds.
The kitchen Sacha and Lucy had fallen for was by Brixton-based designers, Pluck. It was a far cry from an in-frame, muted, traditional design and shamelessly embraced colour and contemporary lines.
“This was like no other kitchen we’d seen,” says Sacha, “we liked the fresh, bright colours, the recessed handles and exposed plywood edges of the cabinetry.”
The couple chose Pluck’s Lemon colour palette – with a mix of grey, mint green and wood for the furniture and a yellow Corian worktop.
“We took a leap of faith with the colours,” explains Sacha.
She says: “We’d never imagined having a green peninsula and we had only the drawings to go on.
“Lucy and I were a bit nervous, but we had developed a great rapport with our designer, George, and decided to trust him.
“It was absolutely the right move as the peninsula is really the star of the show.”
Sacha and Lucy, who both work in the media, had downsized when moving further into London and so storage was an important part of the kitchen design. Full-height cupboards along one wall are discreet and stylish, but provide masses of space.
Another point for discussion was whether to have an extractor fan. Sacha was keen not to spoil the line of the design and, after long discussions, he and Lucy decided against fitting one.
“We’ve got lots of ventilation in the room with doors and windows,” she says, “and we were prepared to get a little cold when cooking in exchange for that beautiful long shelf – so far, so good.”
Any reservations Sacha and Lucy may have originally had about such a colourful and contemporary kitchen are long gone. “The kitchen sits so well alongside the exposed beams and other original features – the contrast of new and old is really pleasing and now we can’t imagine it any other way,” they say.
