{"id":2724,"date":"2024-06-10T19:30:30","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T11:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/2024\/06\/10\/kitchen-of-the-week-a-creative-couples-ikea-hack-in-black-and-white-tiled-pantry-included\/"},"modified":"2024-06-10T19:30:30","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T11:30:30","slug":"kitchen-of-the-week-a-creative-couples-ikea-hack-in-black-and-white-tiled-pantry-included","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/kitchen-of-the-week-a-creative-couples-ikea-hack-in-black-and-white-tiled-pantry-included\/","title":{"rendered":"La cucina della settimana: Una coppia creativa che ha modificato l'Ikea in bianco e nero, con dispensa piastrellata inclusa"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The clock was ticking. Lena de Casparis and Scott O\u2019Donnell had six months to overhaul their terrace house fixer-upper in East London. \u201cWe could only afford to rent somewhere for that time, and we have two young daughters, so living in a building site wasn\u2019t practical; we had to make the project happen,\u201d says Lena. \u201cThese houses have a tendency to feel like dark tunnels,\u201d she adds. \u201cOurs was very in need of modernization.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple are accustomed to working on deadline and thinking deeply about details\u2014Lena is the associate editor and culture director of Elle UK <\/em>and Scott is a film producer at Somesuch. In addition to adding more light, their priorities for the remodel included hiring local talent, sticking to a tight budget, and incorporating salvaged materials.<\/p>\n

These elements all went into the making of the family\u2019s eat-in kitchen set in a new garden addition. The kitchen design is by H\u00f8lte Studio, a London workshop that combines its own fronts with Ikea cabinet boxes. \u201cWe love H\u00f8lte\u2019s simple, beautiful work and sustainable approach [[the company calculates its exact CO2-equivalent impact], \u201d says Lena. \u201cAlso they\u2019re right here and could work within our timeframe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The room pays homage to a range of things, from George O\u2019Keefe\u2019s pantry shelves to the feel of the wooden floor in De Casparis\u2019s childhood home. Join us for a tour.<\/p>\n

Photography by Beth Davis, courtesy of H\u00f8lte Studio (@holte.studio).<\/p>\n


Above: The couple worked with George Beedle, an architect friends, on the back addition which enabled them to have a spacious kitchen: \u201cit occupies what was previously a weird garden side alley,\u201d says Lena. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe design of the space centered around two things: a three-meter-long table [made by Lena and Scott\u2019s friend Will Elsworthy] and dark cabinets,\u201d reports Dan Robbins, the H\u00f8lte lead designer on the project. The latter were inspired by Ally Capellino designer Alison Lloyd\u2019s kitchen as admired in The Modern House Journal. \u201cI had an old Terence Conran book that I also looked at a lot when choosing elements,\u201d says Lena. And the idea to frame the kitchen window in yellow? That came from memories of visiting filmmaker Derek Jarman\u2019s celebrated dark cottage in Kent: \u201cThe yellow offers an optimistic touch\u2014and keeps the black from looking too clinical,\u201d says Lena.<\/p>\n

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Above: The cabinet boxes are from Ikea\u2019s Metod line, and are finished with fronts of Fenix, which Dan describes as \u201ca new generation, high-pressure laminate with a soft-to-the-touch surface that\u2019s extremely opaque and anti-fingerprint, making it great for dark colors.\u201d The wooden detailing on the integrated cabinet pulls are cherry\u2014H\u00f8lte offers a range of fronts and handles to create custom kitchens from Ikea basics, and also makes its own bespoke cabinets. The stainless range is by Smeg.
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Above: Lena and Scott bought their fluted sink at Insitu, an architectural salvage yard in Manchester, and paired it with old brass taps from Taps Refurbishment: \u201cYes, cold and hot separate taps,\u201d specifies Lena. \u201cWe really like simplicity in the kitchen: we don\u2019t have a microwave or many mod cons.\u201d <\/p>\n

The counter is quartz, supplied by H\u00f8lte, and the overhead shelves are the quartz leftovers supported on Kilburn Shelf Brackets from Corston.<\/p>\n


Above: In addition to an accommodating table, Lena wanted a presentable and accessible pantry: \u201cI\u2019ve always found high cupboards annoying because I\u2019m really small, so we decided to put in a larder instead. I have fond memories of my grandparent\u2019s larder and it\u2019s such a great space for all our food.\u201d,

Above: The fridge is enclosed in the same Fenix with cherry edging as the cabinets\u2014\u201dto tie in the freestanding appliance with the rest of the kitchen,\u201d says Dan. Note the handy extra storage on top.
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Above: H\u00f8lte\u2019s integrated handles come in a range of combinations. This one is Fenix\u2014which is partly composed of paper\u2014and cherry.
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Above: The utensil drawers are fitted with Ikea Uppdatera bamboo divided trays
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Above: To close off the pantry, H\u00f8lte designed and fabricated a sliding door inset with reeded glass.,

Above: Tiling the pantry in affordable, standard-issue white tiles set off with black grout was, Lena tells us, \u201cmainly for practicality\u2014we wanted to keep it clean. We used dark grout a lot in the house and like the impact.\u201d
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Above: \u201cNo part of the kitchen was unnecessarily wasted: the cherry larder shelves are offcuts from the cabinet fronts,\u201d says Dan.
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Above:  The middle space between the kitchen\/dining area and the living room is where the family plays music and the daughters put on shows\u2014the vintage teak sideboard, Lena notes, is \u201cFILLED with toys: it allows us to not have kids\u2019 stuff out on view.\u201d Lena chose the \u201cfive-finger parquet\u201d floor of reclaimed oak for its midcentury warmth and echoes of the house she grew up in: \u201cI loved it when I was a kid. It was a pain to install but feels great underfoot.\u201d <\/p>\n

For more companies that customize Ikea kitchen components, see Ikea Kitchen Upgrade: 11 Custom Cabinet Companies for the Ultimate Kitchen Hack.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Il tempo stringeva. Lena de Casparis e Scott O'Donnell avevano sei mesi per ristrutturare la loro casa a schiera nell'East London. \u201cPotevamo permetterci di affittare un posto solo per quel periodo e abbiamo due figlie piccole, quindi vivere in un cantiere non era pratico; dovevamo realizzare il progetto\u201d, racconta Lena. [...]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diy-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}