IH.564
The kitchen through a different lens
There’s a certain magic to a kitchen. A patch of worn rug beneath your feet, a quiet witness to years of life, laughter, and togetherness. Words by our friend and photographer Leigh Simpson.
Leigh was moved to pen the story for this project after noticing a small patch of worn carpet by the Everhot during the photoshoot. A carpet that has been a loyal travelling companion from house to house to home by its owners. Full of surprises, the very next day, this delightful story arrived in our inbox.
Clients: Sarah and David
Location: Lindfield
Property: A prominent quintessential English village tea house set in the heart of historic Lindfield
Architect: Gould Baxter
Project scope: Kitchen, Pantry, Utility, Parlour Light
Material palette: Blackened Band-Sawn Oak, Mid Century Oak, Fenix Giallo Evora and Bianco Malé, Antique Brass, Soapstone, Rugged Concrete
For me the word carpet should be preceded by either flying, Persian or magic.
Either way it was comfortable, right between the slate flagstones and the deep granite top of the island.
Sporting a worn, or more politely perhaps, characterful patch exactly where I stood. Next to the island, perpendicular to the soft light from the garden, within easy reach of the Everhot.
A COLOURFUL TANGIBLE WOVEN REFERENCE TO THE MOST FREQUENTED PART OF THE KITCHEN.
A rug, a reassurance perhaps, something of simple beauty and function that has followed its owner as they travelled through the years from town to country to village to home.
A witness to countless preparations, family traditions; the ritual of chopping onions, celery and carrots for the soffritto, sorting baskets of field mushrooms, children, rolling pins and icing sugar everywhere.
There is a reassurance in the familiar, it comforts us through life.
IN THIS KITCHEN IT SOOTHES A TRANSITION, BRIDGING THE RESPECT FOR VERNACULAR OF THE VILLAGE WHILST EMBRACING THE EXCITEMENT OF THE NEW.
From the giant slate flagstones to rich honey coloured cor-ten steel, structural English Woodland oak beams, revealed through plaster, blackened over time.
This kitchens contemporary rough sawn black frames, with time ahead of them still. Even an ancient fresh water well, just a few feet from the instantaneous boil of the new tap.
We even introduce the familiar reassurance of patina into the new.
Witness the slim geometry of the Crittall windows, a homage to our industrial past looking as contemporary now as you could possibly imagine.
Anything bespoke and unique, whether it be hand dyed colours knotted between weft and warp or the familiar reassurance of the kitchen, is an excuse to stop and admire, to wonder, and I know exactly which patch of carpet I’ll be standing on whilst doing so.
As part of our IH.564 project launch, we are celebrating our friend and photographer Leigh Simpson. His three-decade career has captured everything from lampposts and pink flamingos to timeless kitchens, transforming everyday spaces into art through his lens. After spending the latter half of his career photographing – amongst other things - Inglis Hall kitchens, we thought it was time to flip the focus and hear his side of the story.