Perfectly combining metals in your kitchen design
The design of a modern luxury kitchen involves the innovative use of different materials and daring combinations.
The range of materials available are truly impressive depending upon our tastes and inclinations: concrete, stone, marble, precious metals and wood.
A simple list like this often raises more questions than it answers:
- Do we mean faux concrete / stone effects? If so, what other things do we need to balance the feel that we want. Environmental concerns may also play a part here. Do we prefer using an eco-stone (made from paper) or ‘alternative’ and innovative hempcrete products.
- When considering marble, would we combine it with brass, bronze, stainless steel or oxidised liquid metal effects?
- Do the metals have to be precious?
- Antique woods or sea worn flotsam and jetsam can add spectacular textural notes.
- Modern technological advances can also help us here. For example, Terra Crudo (an ancient Sicilian mix of clay, straw and natural fibres) can provide an unusual adobe note.
How to style luxury kitchen appliances in your metal-based kitchen.
Obviously, the kitchen itself is a very important space that needs to be ergonomically friendly and also cater to our entertaining needs. Modern appliances are a must but how can we fit these into the spaces that we have available? Size considerations are important but so are the historical requirements of the property. A bespoke modernist kitchen may seem completely alien when plonked into a corniced Victorian property. Imaginative innovation can help us to make a coherent aesthetically pleasing space. Our own quirky individuality must also play a part. Nothing needs to match in providing a personal, contemporary and sophisticated look. It is important, however, that the different elements are brought together comfortably.
The use of metals can help us here:
- Seamlessly mixing metals can blend old and new within the same space. Using two metals together with the same finish may have a flattening (almost sterile) effect. Different finishes (polished / satin / antique) combined with satin brass or polished nickel silver are all possible ways of adding volume.
- Thinking differently about the structures within the kitchen is also important. For example, can the cooker hood be of mixed metals (polished stain-less steel trim with satin brass rivets etc.)? Pot racks can pull the space together – polished nickel and brass with or without industrial type light fittings.
- Light fittings made from geodesic forms can soften the space. Making them from digitally etched metal sheets with a combination of finishes – brass, copper soft silver etc. – add additional drama.
- Soft patina finishes can be complemented by satin nickel hinges and brass finials.
- Metal, as well as being an architectural medium, is flexible and malleable. This allows different techniques to be used including punching, etching, and embossing.
These considerations can help us to produce a functional, comfortable and integrated artistic space that reflects our own individuality.
