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Jun 27, 2023

Goodbye fitted units — freestanding kitchens are in fashion now

RIP the fitted kitchen. If you’re splashing out on a new one and have square eyes from scouring social media for inspiration, you’ll have noticed that the most coveted are no longer a slick affair.

RIP the fitted kitchen. If you’re splashing out on a new one and have square eyes from scouring social media for inspiration, you’ll have noticed that the most coveted are no longer a slick affair. Gone are the glossy fronts and chrome handles; in are hand-painted cabinets, rustic floors, even the odd antique to create a lived-in look. Pinterest searches for “unfitted kitchen” are increasing month on month, and Will Eaves, international design co-ordinator at the kitchen-maker British Standard by Plain English, confirms that wall cupboards aren’t on the agenda any more. “The kitchen sets the tone for the rest of the house,” Eaves says. “It’s where people host the most and get to show off their style.”

You will need some proper cabinetry to house any integrated appliances and that charred wok, but the effect to go for is positively homespun. It also helps to have a narrative. Charlotte Simpson (@interior_bug), creative director ecommerce for the fashion website Farfetch and owner of the kitchen pictured above, took inspiration from the restaurants at the Pig country hotel chain, creating a potting shed-style interior. “I wanted it to feel like the kitchen had always been here,” she says.

Want in? We asked the experts how to create an Insta-perfect kitchen.

Step away from navy. The interior designer Duncan Campbell suggests using a “delicious colour, like olive, turmeric or raspberry, that you’d find in nature”. In his London flat he swapped the Yves Klein-blue cupboards for Pompeian red paired with pale pink walls. “It’s like having a new kitchen,” he says. Loading up on greens? Simpson rates Little Greene’s selection, settling on mossy Citrine for her cabinets by British Standard.

Simpson based her design on a pair of 1930s cabinets from a Ukrainian chemist. “The idea is that we can take them with us if we move,” she says. Often cheaper than having a pantry built to specification, “it’s also a creative way of making up a kitchen, as it lends a layer of character”, the interiors stylist Twig Hutchinson says. Vinterior, Pamono and Cart-House are the etailers to bookmark, and Hutchinson suggests hunting down a butcher’s block as a less conventional — and mobile — island. If you’re making do with existing cabinets, Lisa Mehydene, the founder of Edit58, says an old plate rack or shelf can inject personality.

Tea stains and scuffs are finally welcome. The interior designer Bianca Serrao (@the_home_reform) admits the fragility of marble might be off-putting to some, but “it ages over time and I’m at peace with all the quirks that come with it”. Meanwhile, the initials graffitied on Simpson’s iroko worktops aren’t even hers. Originally from a school science lab, the worktops were sourced from Retrouvius (expect to pay from about £190 a square metre, plus VAT).

Simpson’s taps don’t boil, fizz or mix water, they just, erm, dispense hot and cold. “Coffee and tea-making has become such a ritual, and people are happy to become more involved in the process,” says Eaves, who points out that hot taps and coffee machines take up precious space. Much “smarter” is a stove-top kettle from Le Creuset or a Japanese enamel style from Labour and Wait.

Terracotta tiles are the antithesis of the showroom kitchen. They bring a slice of homely Tuscan charm in a way that vinyl flooring can’t — and they conceal dirt and dog paws a treat. Try the Handmade Terracotta Tile Company or Baked Earth to get the look.

Here’s where you show off that jelly mould you found for a song on Facebook Marketplace (bonus points for casually leaning a cheap but intriguing oil painting against the wall). “We spend so much time in a kitchen, it should inspire us and reflect who we are,” Mehydene says. Kitchen greenery is also very much on trend with potted geraniums scoring more style points than freshly cut flowers.

Those patinated copper pans hanging off that gorgeous brass rail? They’re purely decorative. But Simpson does use S-hooks to dry chillies or herbs, furthering the potting shed vibe. Look up Rowen & Wren’s Grove style in antique brass (from £49), or for a wooden peg rail check out Willow & Stone.

When Sandra Baker (@the_idle_hands) changed the kitchen in her Victorian house in Leeds from dark forest green to mustard yellow last year, a sizeable cohort of her 106,000-strong Instagram following were up in arms. “I loved the drama of the green, but I was craving a bit of lightness and cheer,” she says, “and after three years with a hand-painted kitchen it can start to look a bit shabby.” The makeover was done by a team of specialist spray-painters, who masked the frames with forensic precision and took the doors off-site to recolour them. Baker added a patterned wallpaper, which helps utilitarian spaces feel less sterile. The adjoining pantry has been reimagined in a rusty shade too. “It’s like having a warm hug in here now. I think yellow is going to increase in popularity, at which point I’ll probably decide to move on,” she laughs.

Sophie Rowell’s (@cotedefolk) kitchen in Folkestone might appear plum, but it is in fact a rich shade of chocolate (London Brown by Mylands). Either way, it’s a far cry from the white, handleless Ikea cabinets she originally installed six years ago. She recently called in her carpenter to update it with new fronts (there are also a slew of companies specialising in this, including Plykea, Naked Kitchens and Holte). Rowell also requested a copy of an antique Swedish dresser to disguise the free-standing fridge. While the appliances and quartz worktop stayed — “the bulk of your budget should always go on the worktop,” she believes — the unused island was banished in favour of a dining table. Everything it housed has been relocated to a lilac countertop cupboard with doors that cleverly slide into the cabinet. “There are plug sockets so it houses all the ugly stuff you don’t want to see, like the toaster,” she says, and it hides the lead of a chic table lamp. The wall panelling is a clever duff — grooves were gouged into a single sheet of MDF and topped with high-sheen paint for durability.

The remarkable cabinetry the journalist and photographer Caroline Briggs (@edwardian_seaside_home) found for her kitchen is proof that you don’t have to spend a fortune to create something unique. “You just have to be patient, it’s not something you can rush,” she says of hunting down reclaimed pieces. As she was renovating her home in Whitley Bay, a trawl of the high street showrooms left her cold. So when her twin sister happened upon a Victorian corner kitchen for £1,500 in a local antiques shop, she hot-footed it there with her joiner, who said he would make it work. Units were carved up and spread out, and additional cabinetry was made from salvaged wood. The floor is another tale of serendipity: her son’s primary school had ripped up the parquet from its hall and invited parents to claim whatever they wanted. Briggs got a staggering 30 sq m free. The regular oiling her wooden worktops require must feel like a small compromise.

Farrow & Ball’s creative director, Charlotte Cosby (@charliecosby), isn’t a “pink person”, and it was actually the last colour she had in mind for her new kitchen in Dorset. “I had my heart set on [the Farrow & Ball shade] Green Smoke, but when the terrazzo worktop was laid I realised it just wasn’t going to work,” she says. Lucky, then, that her units were still in their primed state, so she picked out Setting Plaster from her employer’s colour chart to echo the pink in the worktop. On the back wall Templeton Pink’s yellow undertone brings a warmth rather than a sweetness. Cosby advises placing colour samples exactly where they will appear and checking them under natural and artificial light and at different times of the day so there are no nasty surprises. What threw her off was only having a tiny sample of the worktop to hand, but being terrazzo it’s excellent at disguising crumbs. The co-ordinating green Rangemaster oven was a happy accident.