There's no denying that the kitchen is one of the most important hubs in your home. So why not make it everything you want it to be? At RB12 we are home to a stunning example of a Minacciolo kitchen and a variety of their kitchen units, finishes and kitchen accessories to inspire you. Other key kitchen suppliers available from our London showroom are Binova and Miton, who both believe in contemporary living with high quality kitchens.
We can help you transform your kitchen into your own personal space by offering maximum freedom with kitchen composition and customisation - all designed to help improve human interaction with kitchens, and make cooking and your lifestyle easier than ever before!
Kitchen appliances and accessories you can expect to discover in our contemporary design space are as unique as flexible extractor hoods to elegant and practical kitchenware from KN industrie. To add an element of fun and personality to your kitchen you could consider wooden wall paneling, that gives you free rein to select steel fittings that fit your style best: utensil hanging rails, bottle racks and supports for jars, books and objects of all kinds.
So, whether you are planning an entirely new kitchen design or simply reviving your existing one, in this article we are offering our advice on what to think about when redesigning your kitchen or refreshing your current space.
The planning stage should be the first step before making any changes to your kitchen's design. This is your opportunity to think about how you actually use the space currently and how you would like to use the new one. It's important to think about how you move around the space and what elements you use most.
For example, usually, the fridge will be located close to the worktops so that you don't have to keep walking around to get your produce. In turn, the worktops should be in a well-lit part of the kitchen with easy access to the hob, making it easy to transfer your prepared food to your cookware. It's important to remember to keep your water together, so place the dishwasher near the sink and for extra ease, put your bin area near your sink too so it's easier to reach.
Understanding how much storage space you need is very important. Do you need more than you currently have, do you want open shelving or deep cupboards to hide away your appliances and utensils? If you are going to use the space for entertaining, you may want to consider a breakfast bar, kitchen island or introduce technology to connect your music devices to play in your kitchen.
Phew! That's a lot to think about, so let us do the work for you.
At RB12, along with our trusted kitchen suppliers Minacciolo, Binova and Miton, we can provide a full kitchen design and fit-out for your home. We have recently added our very own 'RB12 Mini Kitchens' to our portfolio which we developed for smaller spaces such as studios, bedsits, self-catering holiday lets and student accommodation.
A design will carefully be put together from your brief and once agreed, the kitchen is built from scratch. It will then leave the manufacturing facilities, go through strict quality control and finally carefully packaged for dispatch. We can then organise expert fitters to ensure a perfect fit, followed by installation of any kitchen appliances and additional features adhering to appropriate safety standards.
If you aren't in your forever home, you may not want to invest in building a new kitchen from scratch. However, there's no doubt you'll still want to inject your own style into it, so refreshing your kitchen with some more cost-effective updates might be a better option for you.
Take a look at some of our top tips for transforming your existing kitchen...
Repainting your kitchen unit doors and the walls is a less expensive way of giving your kitchen a refreshing new look and feel. Make sure to use paints that are suitable for kitchen environments and are moisture-resistant and washable.
This gives the impression of an entirely new kitchen without the full cost of redesigning the whole layout. Pictured above are some of the kitchen worktops and unit options you can choose from at RB12. Even just changing your kitchen door knobs which can transform the space and can give an kitchen a real lift.
Adding a new light fixture to your kitchen can change the entire feel of your room, especially if you are short on space. Spotlights or under-counter lights add a modern touch, but for a bit more character you could think about a statement pendant light, like the ones from Brokis pictured below.
Whilst vinyl flooring is generally the cheapest option, natural materials such as stone and wood are a great option for a more modern, elegant kitchen space. Both stone & wood have long been used in kitchen areas and can be beautiful, durable and long-lasting. These are a sound investment as long as you choose a robust and practical product.
Installing a stylish tiled backsplash behind your cooker or along the back of the worktops is a wonderful way to transform your kitchen. Tiles are easy to clean and water-resistant making them perfect for cooking environments. At RB12, we have a huge range of contemporary tile suppliers for you to choose from including Botteganove, Fornace Brioni, Gypsum, Huguet, Made a Mano and Ornamenta.
Lavastone worktop by Made a Mano - These amazing natural lava stone tiles are sourced from active volcano, Mount Etna in Sicily. They are extremely durable making them perfect for the kitchen and provide long-lasting beauty in many different styles and variations.
Mina Kitchen Units by Minacciolo - This kitchen collection is a successful blend of highly innovative technology and sleek Italian beauty. So full of character, this kitchen is delicately crafted and has exciting details, like the bright red temperature knobs that contrast beautifully with the range's contemporary dark grey finish.
Metal worktops – At RB12 we love the professional and stylish look of a metal worktop but we've also seen a rise in distressed metals as well as the more traditional polished steel.
Natural Skin Kitchen Units by Minacciolo - Natural Skin is a practical kitchen range, intended to allow versatile use of any living space and is now available in a stunning copper finish.
Fenix worktops – This is an innovative and hygienic man-made material that is durable, anti-stain and also heat-resistant. In fact, should the surface have any superficial scratches, heat actually helps to repair it. The surface composed of a dense grid of crosspolymers with their own memory, which can be reactivated by the application of heat. Pretty amazing if you ask us!
We hope we have inspired you to think about some of the simpler ways to update your kitchen but also to see that your perfect bespoke kitchen is totally achievable too. Get in touch today to discuss how we can help you accomplish this.
Come by the RB12 Design Space & Shop, give us a call on +44 (0) 207 1352246 or drop us an email contact@rbtwelve.com for more information.
The kitchen is perhaps the most multifaceted room of the modern home. Long gone are the days when it was a room relegated to the back of the house for cooking, food prep and cleaning. Today's kitchens are a hub of technology, and a space for socialising, working and eating, and when it comes to the traditional kitchen tasks these are often shared amongst many hands.
Modern kitchen islands are the backdrop of daily domestic family life, as well as where the party's at, but even more than this, Tim Hayward suggests in his book The Modern Kitchen, 'the kitchen is a constantly mutating expression of self'. It comes as no surprise then that the kitchen is often the room we spend most money on and the room we feel most at home in.
Of all the rooms in the house, the kitchen has seen the most transformation in the past 100 years. One of the most iconic kitchen designs of the 20th Century – so much so that it's celebrated in museums around the world, including London's own Design Museum – is the Frankfurt Kitchen, designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky in 1926
In the pursuit of ultimate kitchen efficiency, Schutte-Lihotzky and her team carried out extensive time-and-motion studies to understand how a user moves around the kitchen, with the goal of reconfiguring the layout and design of appliances to reduce the number of steps required between each task, in turn, decreasing stress and increasing time for other interests. The finished result was the first ever fitted-kitchen and measured a mere 1.9 x 3.4 metres. It's design was so efficient that the Frankfurt Kitchen is often referred to as being designed like a factory.
In stark contrast, the post-war years welcomed the open-plan kitchen into the home. A concept often attributed to Frank Lloyd-Wright, this kitchen turned the notion of 'kitchen as factory' on its head, with a design that was as adept for entertaining as it was for preparing food. The pièce-de-résistance of the open-plan kitchen was of course the kitchen-island from which we've never looked back!
Today many would argue that the open-plan kitchen has overtaken the role of the living room as the primary social space of the home. Certainly, the Minà kitchen island by Minacciolo is the hub in the RB12 Design Shop Minà's industrial aesthetic is paired beautifully with delicately crafted worktops, and details, like the bright red temperature knobs reminiscent of antique boilers, that lovingly hark-back to tradition as well as look great against the range's contemporary dark grey finish. Full of character and the latest in kitchen technology, the Minà is at total ease being centre of attention – and that's just as well, as we love putting it through its paces with cooking demonstrations for those customers looking for flexible, innovative kitchen solutions.
