Affordable Luxuries didn’t just design and build a kitchen for the Ronnie & Carol's family home; they created a blank canvas for their artist client to infuse with lots of vibrant colours and personal pieces of art which resulted in one of the company’s most unique kitchens.
Ronnie & Carol’s beautiful home at Inverkip Marina has been one of the most intriguing and enjoyable projects for the team at Affordable Luxuries.
Ronnie is an artist of international renown, with his paintings attracting commissions throughout Europe and the Far East. His career began as a teacher in Gourock and his work is now in demand around the globe, featuring in many leading contemporary art collections.
Designing the perfect blank canvas.
The brief for the Affordable Luxuries team was to design a modern contemporary kitchen dining space along with the utility room which would provide practical storage solutions with modern, functional appliances and accessories.
“They listened to everything we said, they came up with a great design, provided us with a beautifully made kitchen which was then expertly installed by fantastic tradesmen,’ said Ronnie.”
When the couple moved into their new home it already had a kitchen installed by a well-established company that specialised in bespoke hand-crafted kitchens but it was not the right kitchen for Ronnie and Carol.
‘It was very traditional in style with an over mantle and range-style cooker; it was beautifully made but it wasn’t us,’ said Ronnie. Carol found herself frustrated by the lack of actual working space in the poorly designed kitchen.
We prefer a more modern and functional space, full of light, so we decided to move on and contact the team at Affordable Luxuries. ‘The kitchen was designed by David, an ex-student of mine from Gourock High School with Tom project managing the entire installation. They really did design and install our ideal kitchen,’ said Ronnie.
Carol’s love of porcelain and cookery books meant that the kitchen design had to include plenty of storage space, while the overall look was to be one of openness and light which Ronnie and Carol could fill with their favourite pieces.
‘Every weekend in Hong Kong I would come back from the market with something different. One time I even brought home a 100-piece dinner service,’ she said.
Ronnie & Carol chose the Pronorm Y-Line range in gloss super white with glass wall panels in gloss super white with light grey wood. For the worktops Affordable Luxuries recommended the Consentino Silestone 30mm quartz range in Alumino Nube, for its aluminium/silver tones with the most subtle mirror sparkle through it.
The sink is a Blanco Andano one-and-a-half bowl in stainless steel which has been paired with a Blanco Menu rinse tap with an integrated pull out hand spray.
A porcelain 600mm x 300mm tiled floor in mid grey completed the look along with a lighting scheme which was zoned with LED light fixtures throughout.
The appliances for the kitchen come from Siemens consisting of a single oven, combination oven with microwave and a separate warming drawer. The 70/30 fridge freezer and dishwasher were both integrated and there was a wall-mounted extractor hood with a stainless-steel finish over the 90 cm gas hob, which had a built-in wok attachment for Carol’s love of Asian cookery.
‘You need a big cooker hood when cooking with a wok!’ she said, ‘and I also love the pull-out larder with shelving in the door as well, it’s fantastic,’ she said.
Once Affordable Luxuries’ work was finished, Ronnie used the light, white and grey background of the kitchen as a blank canvas for some of his own art and objects the couple had collected during their travels.
Often his work contains messages which his Asian collectors especially enjoy; one painting has within it the score of a piece of music written for him; another painting in the kitchen is a scaled version of a large piece of work commissioned by an Asian collector. Other pieces were created especially for the kitchen dining space.
Ronnie & Carol are delighted with a kitchen that is such a pleasure to work in and one which has created a perfect back drop to help them celebrate their work and interests.
“Even now I still smile when I walk into the kitchen every morning. We both enjoy our new kitchen so much.”