A large painted in-frame kitchen: an island under three brass pendants with two bar stools at it, a leaded casement window over the sink run behind, a tall bank of cabinetry holding black ovens to the right, and an arched plastered recess with shelves to the left.

Bolney · 2024

In-frame kitchen with a range mantel, Bolney

A painted in-frame kitchen taken part by part: a range under a mantel, a double butler sink with drainer grooves cut into the stone, a tall bank panelled on its end, a glazed dresser and a utility run with a bench.

Town: Bolney

This is one large room that opens through into another. The doors sit inside a face frame rather than over the front of the carcass — slower to build, harder to set out, and still closing properly a decade later. That fixes the tolerances for everything else: where a run stops, what happens at the end of it, and what height the cornice sits at when the things under it are not all the same height.

What follows is the room part by part.

How it went in

01

The island

Three banks of drawers under one stone top, with an overhang at the near end and two bar stools at it. Drawers rather than cupboards: every front has to line through across all three banks, and stay lined through once they are loaded. Three pendants hang over the top.

Looking across the black range top and the edge of a stainless extractor to base units under a light speckled stone worktop, a leaded casement window over a butler sink with a brass bridge tap, wall cabinets either side under a cornice, and the island with painted drawers and a brass dome pendant to the right.

02

The sink wall

A double butler sink under the leaded casement, and the drainer cut into the stone beside the bowls rather than sat on top of it. The grooves fall to the bowl, so the water runs back into it instead of across the worktop. The stone returns along both walls out of the corner. The wall cabinets sit either side of the window rather than over it, with the cornice carried straight across above them.

A double butler sink under a leaded casement window with a brass bridge tap and drainer grooves cut into the light speckled stone beside the bowls, base units with dark cup handles below, and wall cabinets either side under a continuous cornice.

03

The range and the mantel

The range sits in a recess under a painted mantel: a moulded shelf on plain pilasters, with a narrow drawer bank each side. The splashback is laid herringbone, which puts a cut at every edge and leaves the setting-out on show. Left of it, an arched plastered recess with two shelves on shaped brackets, over a stone-topped counter with a brass tap and a small sink — a second water point, off the main run.

A black range cooker set into a recess under a substantial painted mantel with a moulded shelf and plain pilasters, a pale herringbone-laid tile splashback behind it, narrow drawer banks either side, and to the left an arched plastered recess with two white shelves on shaped brackets over a stone-topped counter with a brass tap.

04

The tall bank

The bank stands proud of the wall, so it has an end as well as a front, and that end is finished in vertical beaded panelling under the deep cornice. That is a decision about how a run stops when the room carries on past it; the alternative is a carcass side facing an opening. Two black appliances are stacked in it, with a cupboard over them and two drawers under.

A tall bank of painted in-frame cabinetry standing proud of the wall under a deep cornice, holding two stacked black appliances with a cupboard above and two drawers below, its end finished in vertical beaded panelling, beside an opening through to a large adjoining room with windows and a wall light.

05

The dresser

Two full-height cupboards flank four glazed uppers with clear glass and glass shelves. Under them a stone counter with a small undermount sink and a brass mixer, then a cupboard, three drawers, a cupboard. Two twin sockets sit on the wall behind the counter, so it is somewhere to work rather than a case to look at. The cornice crosses the whole width at one level although the sections beneath it are not all the same height, and the returns are panelled.

A built-in dresser run with four clear-glazed upper cabinets on glass shelves between two full-height painted cupboards, over a stone-topped counter carrying a small undermount prep sink, a brass mixer tap and two twin sockets, with a cupboard, three drawers with dark cup handles and another cupboard below, all under a deep cornice.

06

The utility run

The same details, working harder. A butler sink with drainer grooves cut into the stone again, drawers and cupboards under it, four wall cabinets over on one line of cornice, and a full-height larder on long bar handles at one end. At the other, an oak-lined bench is set into the run under a window with a cupboard above it — built into the cabinetry rather than a seat pushed against a wall.

A utility run with a tall double-door larder on long bar handles at one end, four wall cabinets under a cornice over a stone-topped run holding a white butler sink, a brass tap and drainer grooves cut into the stone, cupboards and drawers with dark cup handles below, and an oak-lined bench seat set into the cabinetry under a window with a cupboard over it.

07

The whole room, a week earlier

The same room photographed on 24 May, eight days before the rest of these: the arched recess and its shelves at the near end, the range under its mantel, the sink run under the leaded casement and the island in the middle of it. The stools are not at the island yet. Everything built is already in.

The whole kitchen from the arched recess end: painted shelves and a brass tap in a plastered arch to the left, a range under a mantel with a herringbone panel behind it, a leaded casement over the sink run at the back, three brass pendants over a light speckled stone island with no stools at it, and tall cabinetry to the right. — 24 May, before the stools

08

The dresser by the garden door

The same dresser as above, taken from the room it stands in rather than from the kitchen: four glazed cabinets lit from inside over a stone top with a small round basin cut into it, a tall cupboard closing each end, and a garden door to the right. The kitchen is through the opening on the left.

A painted dresser run against the wall of a room off the kitchen: four glazed wall cabinets lit from within over a light speckled stone top with a small round basin and a brass tap, drawers and cupboards below, a tall cupboard closing each end, a glazed garden door to the right, and the kitchen visible through an opening to the left. — Lit, from the room it stands in

This project involved bespoke kitchens. See more work across West Sussex.

Related work

Inside the finished roof space: a painted steel frame standing clear of the slopes, timber joists spanning between the steels, a boarded floor, studwork dwarf walls along each side and a rooflight in the slope.

A room in a hand cut roof, Bolney

Bolney

A roof cut on site at Bolney in June 2021 and framed from the start to hold a room in the space beneath it, photographed through to August as that room took shape.

The front of the house mid-build: an oak framed porch in the middle carrying a pitched roof framed in softwood, with a flat roof deck running away on each side of it and scaffolding across the front.

Oak porch with pitched and flat roofs, Bolney

Bolney

A hand cut pitched roof over an oak framed porch, with a flat roof running away on either side of it, built while the house around it was still bare blockwork.

The whole hand cut roof frame standing on new blockwork walls, rafters running to the ridge with purlins and struts beneath them, seen wide from ground level behind scaffolding.

Hand cut roof, Bolney

Bolney

A hand cut roof in Bolney, built from the architect's drawings and to the structural engineer's specification, then felted and battened ready for the tiler.

Next step