Give me a room I can fill with Laughter

The first rule of kitchen design is to create a room for love, laughter and fun, says Patrick Byrne of KitchenHaus“The best brief I ever got from a client in my thirty years of kitchen design is – give me a room I can fill with laughter,” says Patrick Byrne, owner of KitchenHaus. “Often clients come armed with ideas of where to put the cooker or the dishwasher. We listen and then we ask them to pause and tell us how they want to live and feel in their kitchen.” By understanding how they want to use the space, Patrick and his team create bespoke designs for multifunctional use, zoning areas for cooking, relaxing and watching TV, and for kids to do their homework and play. “It is our job to come up with design solutions for modern living that exceed our clients’ expectations,” says Patrick. A stalwart of the community, the KitchenHaus showroom has been on Battersea Park Road for nearly a quarter of a century. It has been meticulously refurbished to display a wide range of kitchens available from entry-level prices upwards. There are three collections, all bespoke or customisable. At the entry-level is ‘Metro’, inspired by German design and made in the UK, its contemporary, sleek, pared-down angular design and handleless cabinets exude timeless elegance and come in different colours and finishes. Other collections include, ‘Italigencia’, a modern Italian design combining artisan style with innovative bespoke storage, the epitome of understated luxury; and finally, the ‘Bolection’, traditional English and handmade with beautiful dovetail and solid timber drawer boxes, and large comfort-inducing pantries. Customers can choose from a selection of paints from popular brands such as Paint & Paper Library, Farrow and Ball and Zoffany; and worktops come in a range of materials from beautiful natural stone quarried in Brazil to porcelain indistinguishable from Italian Carrara marble or terrazzo. “All materials garner an emotional response,” says Patrick and this is important because by understanding emotional responses, the team can put together designs and materials that clients fall in love with, again and again, every time they enter their kitchens. Patrick acknowledges that buying a kitchen is one of the biggest spending clients will ever make and as such, “they should enjoy the process.”

That’s why the team provide strong customer service from listening to the clients’ needs at the beginning to fitting their fully customisable kitchen at the end. And on the very important point of the budget, he says, “There is a saying that you should always buy a good pair of shoes and a good bed because if you’re not in one, you’re in the other – I would add kitchens to that too!” Visit the showroom in Battersea Park Road for the latest in kitchen trends and book an appointment with a designer to create your kitchen full of love, laughter and life.