Kitchen Confidential | Hamish Guthrie

Kitchen Confidential

We step inside five unique kitchens and into the minds of designers to see how they conceptualise and create their own functioning spaces.

HAMISH GUTHRIE | Hecker Guthrie

calm | communal | linear

AFTER WORKING IN A SPACE OF YOUR OWN DESIGN, WHAT ELEMENT WOULD YOU REPEAT IN YOUR NEXT KITCHEN?

The dining table. Designing this kitchen, in the confines of a new and relatively small space, I had to reimage the table as more than just a dining space. The table was reconsidered as an island to the kitchen, workspace, meeting space and craft space.

WHAT WOULD YOU DESIGN DIFFERENTLY IN YOUR NEXT KITCHEN?

Probably most things! Not because this one doesn’t work, but because this kitchen was a crafted and intimate response to that particular house, at that time in my family’s life.

Photography © Shannon McGrath

WHAT INSPIRED THE COLOUR PALETTE?

The palette was driven by two ideas. Firstly, to create a freshness and warm neutrality in a space that supported the idea of de-tuning the kitchen as a feature of the home and secondly, to maintain warmth in a space that is south facing in orientation and is deprived of any direct sunlight.

IS THERE A COMMON DESIGN ELEMENT YOU INSIST ON INCLUDING WHEN WORKING WITH CLIENTS?

I would never insist on anything that wasn’t wholeheartedly embraced by the client as our clients are living in these spaces every day. My job as the designer is to work through our clients’ belief system of how they cook and live and give form to this brief in a unique and appropriate way.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR KITCHEN IN THREE WORDS?

Linear — Calm — Communal

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE COOKBOOK?

I’m less cookbook and more a collection of photos of recipes on my phone. I’m still not sure what it is that makes friends’ cookbooks much more appealing… and achievable.