A kitchen that shows off 'a fresh country house look... yet with a nod to contemporary style'

Amelia Thorpe takes a look at Max Rollitt's design for a kitchen in a beautiful Georgian rectory.

Asked to design a kitchen in an addition to a Georgian rectory, designer and antique dealer Max Rollitt focused on creating an eminently practical room, well suited to family life in the country, with a sense of character and warmth.

‘My brief was to create a fresh country-house look, as if layered over time, yet with a nod to contemporary style,’ says Mr Rollitt, who worked with Plain English on the room. ‘When I’m restoring a piece of furniture, it often helps when I work with someone else, and so it was with this project — something additional is created when more than one hand is involved.’

Antiqued French-oak shelves and glazed cupboards with backs painted in Farrow & Ball India Yellow, one of a number of Farrow & Ball colours used. They are teamed with Plain English cupboards, including a tall larder cabinet painted in Dead Salmon, a colour chosen for the soft warmth it creates in the south-facing room. The Spitalfield island has a pippy oak worktop with cupboards painted in Stiffkey Blue, finished with a specialist glaze to add depth. ‘To strike a contemporary note, the colour is punchier than you might see in a traditional home,’ explains Mr Rollitt.

‘I treat interior design as if I were creating a painting, layering colours to build up a palette for a subtle balance,’ he adds. The dark tone of the island is tempered by worktops in Bianco Eclipsia quartzite, a large white Everhot. A bespoke light with bone-china shades is suspended from the bars of the roof lantern as an elegant and practical finishing touch.

See more about Max Rollitt at www.maxrollitt.com