Brothers Hugh and Howard Miller educated as architects earlier than turning their consideration, because the duo H Miller Bros, to kitchens, furnishings, merchandise and typically even gardens (they gained a silver gilt medal for his or her City Foraging Station design for on the Chelsea Flower Present earlier this yr). Their work is people-centered and their newest kitchen, made for a household of eager cooks in Hove on the south coast of England, is typical of their pragmatic and deeply thought-about method. Let’s take a more in-depth look.
Pictures by Robert Holmes.
Above: The huge elm island dominates the house with loads of room for prepping and an built-in range. Chevron particulars within the cabinetry add curiosity and draw every space of the kitchen collectively. The counter tops are White Attica quartz from Caesarstone.
Their consumer Regina, a former meals author, had beforehand lived and labored in Saitama, Japan, and alongside together with her husband Joe, was eager to combine the nation’s design spirit into the brand new household kitchen. It’s a ardour shared by Hugh, who travelled to Japan in 2015 on a analysis fellowship to review woodcraft. The design ideas he found there have since been embedded into his observe, and he continues working within the nation as a visiting lecturer at Osaka College.
The kitchen was crafted nearly completely from a single native elm tree. “It’s an uncommon timber,” says Hugh “with a fantastic wealthy grain, which appeared like the right analogy for the subtleties of Japanese design.” Every aspect of the kitchen has beautiful particulars and intriguing options, such because the central island’s legs that are primarily based on the normal Japanese system of the solar. “We like to consider every aspect of our kitchens as its personal piece of furnishings, the place stable hardwood is detailed and jointed, panels are related and plugged with contrasting dowels, and ironmongery is ready in by hand. I assume the idea is about detailing, articulation, and thoughtfulness. We would like our tasks to be distinctive, particular areas that stand the check of time.”
Above: The larder cabinet ticks all these containers with its modern sliding doorways inset with partially obscured glazing. Every part will be neatly tucked away in right here – together with the bespoke bread field – however it’s additionally simple to seize objects from eye-level shelving. Alongside this, a Fisher Paykel fridge freezer is integrated into cabinetry.Above: One other intelligent addition: a bespoke island field for housing favourite knives, cooking utensils, and substances in drawers that sit on high of the island and subsequent to the hob. Crafted in walnut, it contains a notch for propping up a tool so that you just an simply learn a recipe or comply with a video.Above: The again of the island has storage for tableware, a lot of which was made by the Liverpool-based potter Attila Olah. These cabinets and drawers enable the youngsters to put the desk with out venturing into the cooking house.Above: The elegant A-frame eating desk was additionally made bespoke in elm whereas Regina added the Pierre Jeanneret teak and cane chairs.Above: In one other nod to Japan, Hugh created a standard ‘Tokonoma’ residence shrine in elm which homes the household’s assortment of mementos and objects and runs alongside the eating space.Above: One of many many upsides of hiring fastidious and pragmatic designers: every drawer designed to your specs. There’s zero probability of shedding the ice cream scoop or spending 5 minutes looking for the zester in these cupboards. In addition to being made with sliding panels that reveal extra sections, the drawers have been lined in a cheery yellow vinyl from the The Colored Flooring Firm.Above: Verdant houseplants are an everyday characteristic of the brother’s kitchen designs: “It brings an area to life and it often appears superior towards the oranges and browns of the wooden we use,” says Hugh. Whereas many of the crops listed below are simply positioned on common cabinets, a particular herb planter was integrated into the worktop with drainage plumbed into the kitchen.
