Creating a country style kitchen

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When a disaster nearly destroyed their 15th-century home, Jo and Richard Mainwairing knew the time had come to create their ideal kitchen.

When their period home was flooded and the ground floor gutted, the prospect of finally getting the kitchen they’d always wanted gave Jo and Richard Mainwairing the motivation they needed to restore it. The former coaching inn, situated in the Cotswolds, is believed to date from 1475 and had been converted by the previous owners. With plenty of work required on the rest of the property, the functional kitchen was left as it was and it wasn’t until after the flood that they seriously approached the idea of change.

Once Jo, Richard and their children Eleanor and Sam had moved to a rented house, they met kitchen designer and Parlour Farm (01285 885336; parlourfarm.com) co-founder Nick Grunfeld, who was recommended by several friends. Nick describes the room as consisting of ‘a sink, dishwasher, hob and a couple of wall cupboards’. The advantage of this, he explains, was that ‘it was a blank canvas.’ Jo says: ‘We wanted a dream kitchen that had an island, storage, proper cooking facilities and was good-looking.’

With firm ideas on the new room coming from every member of the family, creating a design that pleased all of them wasn’t easy. However, Nick says this is often the case, and through lengthy discussions and practical demonstrations they came to a unified agreement. Compromises include the large range where Jo can cook and still enjoy the company of friends, and even a ‘boy’s station’ focused around the eye-level microwave where Sam and his friends make popcorn.

As the project progressed, Jo set up a temporary study and continued to work from home in her job as sales director for a molecular biology firm, so she was on site for consultation about the new kitchen. The family liaised closely with the Parlour Farm team, with Jo making regular trips to the showroom to choose door handles and discuss bespoke furniture design. While she had previously owned a dresser, as the project went on it became clear that it was far too small for the revamped space and the new one now displays a collection of treasured items, including wedding gifts.

With a heavily beamed ceiling and only one window in the room, the Parlour Farm country range was the perfect choice – it was sympathetic to the period of their property, as well as reflecting the maximum amount of light. The reconstituted flagstones were chosen to balance out the dark exposed beams, while the granite is practical in a busy family kitchen.

Although the basics of the room remain the same, the downstairs space works better since the new kitchen was installed and the family are enjoying two previously underused rooms that adjoin it. Jo says Nick’s designer’s instinct came to the fore to make the space ‘feel right’ and he admits ‘it came down to a deconstruction of the ground floor space to give every area a defined role so, while separate, each room flowed seamlessly to the next’. He even had a table and chairs delivered to prove that the proposed set up made the best use of space and that the family could enjoy suppers around the island, and more formal dining in another area.

After the chaos and upheaval of repairing their flood damaged home, the new kitchen is the reward for their efforts and the result of a close cooperation between Jo, Richard, the children and their designer. They can all say they played a significant part in creating a beautiful, functional room, which enhances their home and their daily enjoyment of it.

Read all about a family kitchen...

FEATURE KATHARINE CLEMOW PHOTOGRAPHS NIKKI CRISP
Featured in the June 2011 issue of Period Living