“Bespoke” has been a popular marketing buzzword in recent years. Google the term and you will find all kinds of “bespoke” products; hats, cuisine, software, etc. The braid use can make the term seem meaningless though.
The word originally stems from 17th and 18th century England as a term for custom-built goods and home designs for the upper-class nobles and wealthy merchants. Bespoke designs have an air of quality tailoring and customization. In modern speech, the term mostly refers to housing designs that are specifically tailored for an individual person.
What Is a Bespoke Kitchen?
A bespoke kitchen, therefore, is a custom-made kitchen that is uniquely tailored for each client. Bespoke kitchens tend to have very diverse appearances and incorporate aspects of both traditional and modern designs. Bespoke kitchens have become popular as more people want their living space defined by personal nuance.
More specifically, a bespoke kitchen is one that is tailored to your needs. Companies that specialize in designing and building bespoke kitchens work one-on-one with clients so that they can take the image in the client’s head and turn it into a material reality. Bespoke kitchen designs include designs for the flooring, walls, furniture, appliance placement, materials used, and much more. It’s all about expressing a unique and individual style.
Individual Bespoke Kitchen Design Ideas
Seamless Kitchen Sinks Integrated Into The Countertop
An integrated kitchen sink is a good option for several reasons. Integrated sinks create a good sense of space and scale in the kitchen and allow you to combine several pieces and appliances into a single structure. Integrated sinks are built directly into the counters such that there is no division between the sink and the rest of the kitchen counter. Integrated sinks also make it much easier to clean and prevent mold build-up between the countertop and sink.
The good thing about integrated kitchen designs is that you can use the same materials on the countertops and the sink to give a consistent and continuous look. Integrated sinks can be made out of a large range of materials, including concrete, stone, granite, Corian, stainless steel, and much more.
Integrated sinks do not have to just be for a larger, full-size kitchen either. An integrated sink can work perfectly well in a mini-kitchen as well. In fact, an integrated sink for a mini-kitchen is a great idea as it cuts down on total size while maximizing and making as much use of counter space as possible.
Cast Iron Kitchen Sinks
Very few kitchen materials are as high quality as a cast iron sink. Cast iron sinks have been around for a long time but they are making a comeback in the context of bespoke kitchens as they are extremely durable, long-lasting, and have a certain rustic charm that makes them desirable. Cast iron sinks are made out of two basic layers. The first is a heavy iron alloy that is then coated with a second later of thick enamel.
The combination of these two materials makes an incredibly durable sink that lasts a long time. A cast iron sink can last for a lifetime of use and retains heat, resists corrosion, and has an attractive, shiny luster thanks to the enamel coating on the top.
Designing a Kitchen Around a Major Appliance
Another popular bespoke kitchen design is designing a kitchen around a major appliance such as an oven or a center island. Building a kitchen design around a central piece is a way to give a kind of symmetry to your kitchen and give it a central focus. Orienting your kitchen around a central appliance is also a way to save on space and make the most efficient use of space that you have.
Oven
For example, a lot of homeowners plan their kitchens beginning with the oven and building up from there. An oven-centered approach is basically essential if you plan to have more than one oven in your kitchen. The regular rectangular shape of modern ovens provides a good focal point from which you can spread your kitchen design out. For example, a set of ovens stacked on top of one another make a great centerpiece for your kitchen.
An oven-centered design is also very efficient as all parts of your kitchen are close enough to the oven for most cooking purposes. Focusing on the oven also allows you to fix the placement of all the larger appliances before focusing on smaller elements like food storage and sink location.
Integrated Cabinetry
Integrated cabinets are another popular approach for building a bespoke kitchen. Integrated cabinets are cabinet setups in which the appliances are built directly into the larger cabinetry. So once you know where the oven is going to go, why not add the fridge and other appliances together in a single structure? Cabinet housing is useful not only because it looks great but it
also neatly organizes all of your appliances so they are in the same place.
Integrated cabinets can also be made of several different materials, including stainless steel, hardwood, granite, and more. You can also make a choice between a more modern, sleek, metal design or a more classic architectural design with elegant wood cabinets. There are a lot of options to choose from here which is why integrated cabinets are such a popular choice for bespoke kitchen designs.
Integrated cabinets also provide a sense of consistency to the overall design because they are meant to keep a unifying theme across the kitchen design. So for example, if you have stainless steel appliances, why not coat your cabinets in the same stainless steel as those appliances?
Use Natural Materials
Kitchen materials are standardized in a lot of cases. But the point of a bespoke kitchen is to create a unique kitchen design with personalized details that will catch the attention of anyone. Bespoke designs are not content to settle for the common but seek to incorporate something new in the design of living spaces.
For example, many modern kitchens go heavy on the granite-centered design for countertops and tables. An alternate material that has an entirely different look and feel with similar strength and versatility is butcher block, Chevron is another eye-catching design for butcher block countertops
Either way, the quality of materials is of top importance. The problem with bespoke kitchens is that they are normally custom jobs and so can be very expensive to build. The good thing about a bespoke kitchen though is that you can be incredibly flexible with your design choices and choose less expensive materials. So if you cannot put up the money for stone or granite countertops, settle for another cheaper material like wood. In fact, you might find out that you like the alternative materials more and they will grow on you. You can also always upgrade the kitchen materials later down the road.
Make it as Personal as Possible
The entire point of bespoke kitchen design is to make your kitchen as unique and personal to you as possible. When building a kitchen from scratch there are hundreds of decisions to make, such as the placement of appliances, materials, colors, overall design philosophy, and much much more. As such, there are literally hundreds of ways to exert your personal preferences and leave your fingerprints on the design.
For example, something as simple as kitchen cabinet color can be something that expresses your individuality. So say you want white cabinets. Even there, there are hundreds of different shades and tints of white to consider, each of which has a different ethos and ambiance. What style of paint will you use? What kind of sheen do you need? What kind of finishes will you apply? Does the cabinet color match the overall design and feel of your kitchen? There are all kinds of questions that you can ask yourself to better suss out your personal ideas for making a unique kitchen.
Organizational Style
One other factor to consider with bespoke kitchen designs is organizational style. Many designers work under the assumption that different personality types have different organizing strategies that they prefer. Some people want a simple setup while others do not mind visual abundance where all the items take up our visual fields. It is important to determine organizational style near the beginning of the design process as it will ultimately dictate numerous design choices and the overall aesthetic and function of the kitchen.
Everyone responds differently to different stimuli so different people have different comfort levels when it comes to organizational styles in the kitchen. For example, if you are easily overwhelmed by visual stimuli, then a closed-storage style with deep shelves and cabinets might work well for you.
On the other hand, if you crave visual stimulation, then an open exposed cabinet design might work well for you. Things like pot racks, open shelves, open islands, and more are all great examples of a very decentralized and open organizational style that is popular in modern bespoke kitchens. Something about the spacing of objects is very pleasing to the eye.
Take Inspiration from Other Designs
We have all definitely done that thing where we Google pictures of our dream homes and imagine what it would be like to live in these homes with amazing designs. There is nothing wrong with looking to examples and other kitchens you like for ideas for your bespoke kitchen.
Research is crucial and thankfully, the internet makes it very easy to perform research and see all the different design choices that you can make. Looking at other pictures itself is not enough. You must also dive deep into what draws you to the particular design elements that you appreciate. For example, you may not so much like the exact oven use but something about the placement speaks to you. Or you may not like the actually existing cabinets but enjoy the general geometric design of the kitchen space.
Wrap-Up
Bespoke kitchen designs are taking the world by storm thanks to their customizable potential and ability to imbue a space with originality and unique identity. With a bespoke kitchen, you basically have complete control over the look, design, and feel of your kitchen. In a world where many homes have a prefab design already built in, the rise of bespoke kitchens signals a movement to make homeownership more personal.
So if you are thinking about trying to design your own bespoke kitchen, then hopefully this guide has some good ideas to help get you started. At the end of the day, what works in a bespoke kitchen is entirely up to you. The good thing is that you have essentially unlimited flexibility to choose designs that speak to you individually.
