When Liz Yule and her husband Will renovated the kitchen in their forever home in Puttenham in Surrey, they wanted to create a space that was in keeping with the feel of the Grade II-listed Jacobean house while also offering everything a modern family kitchen should.
The kitchen – housed in a sympathetically designed extension – is by Higham Furniture. The company has been creating high-end, beautifully designed kitchens for 20 years and each is custom-built, hand-painted and hand-finished by skilled craftspeople at its workshop in Hampshire.
The main house has many beautiful architectural features, including exposed brickwork and wooden beams, and the extension was created to continue these themes with a vaulted roof, ceiling lanterns and oak beams chosen to offer a traditional feel. The floor is tiled in Brewhouse Porcelain from the National Trust range by Ca’ Pietra.
This is a kitchen designed to stand the test of time, with each detail meticulously considered. The traditional Shaker kitchen has doors, drawers and a frame made from tulipwood. The island unit is painted in Little Greene’s Pompeian Ash and the cabinetry in the brand’s Portland Stone. Both colours are part of the company’s National Trust collection. The antique mirror splashback behind the AGA reflects light from the ceiling lanterns and adds depth to the clean, uncluttered space.
In true Shaker style, the kitchen is both beautiful and usable. With a cleverly designed coffee station and separate stunningly designed utility room, this really is a space designed to be a joy to spend time in.
Liz and Will were keen to have an AGA cooker. Liz says: “Will and I both grew up with AGAs in our family home and we always wanted one for our forever kitchen. We chose an Aga eR7 150i because of its versatility and its energy efficiency. In the winter we tend to keep it on slumber mode as we love the warmth it provides. Then the rest of the year we just switch it on as when we need it. The hotplates can be heated up independently from the rest of the cooker too, which is very useful. The induction hob is great if you just want to heat up something instantly, especially useful when the AGA is switched off. Also, it’s very easy to clean.”
The AGA eR7 150i comes with three cast-iron heat-storage ovens for roasting, baking and simmering and two additional independently controllable ovens for slow cooking and warming, making it really useful for those who love to cook. The roasting oven has five cooking settings and the baking oven has four, ensuring there’s a temperature perfect for every dish. This model also comes with an incredibly useful induction hob.
Cookers in the eR7 range can be left on all the time, which is brilliant during the colder winter months as the useful background heat can make a kitchen really cosy. These models are much more flexible than older AGA cookers, where every part of the cooker was on all the time, as they allow individual heat-storage ovens to be left on while others may be switched off to save energy.
The eR7 cookers come with a programmer that can be used to save energy overnight, when you’re away from home or on holiday, meaning you can benefit from reduced running costs.
Tim Higham of Higham Furniture creates many kitchens that feature an AGA. He says: “It’s an iconic, aspirational and functional piece of kit that brings a timeless aesthetic to a kitchen design. Many of our out-of-London kitchens feature a range cooker and often it will be an AGA. An AGA brings a warmth in both a physical and homely sense. Its versatility, durability and status as a culinary icon make it more than an appliance – it's an integral part of the home that celebrates the art of cooking and gathering.”
The kitchen Higham Furniture designed for Liz and Will has a serene feel and mixes perfectly that feeling of elegant practicality and classic good looks. It’s a space that works perfectly for both family life and more upscale entertaining. Much of this is down to the clever layout.
Tim Higham says: “The cooker, sink and fridge positioning is often the starting point to any kitchen design. The cooker is often the prettiest of the three and deserves pride of place in the kitchen design. We will find a wall to put the AGA on and make it the central feature of that wall and often of the whole kitchen.”
The colour palette for the kitchen is calm and cohesive and the Slate AGA works perfectly with the paint shade chosen for the island unit.
Liz and Will considered a few AGA colours before settling on their favourite.
Liz says: “We chose Slate as we thought it looked modern yet still had the classic AGA feel to it. Plus, it complemented the dark green island colour and the terracotta-coloured floor tiles. We also considered Cream or Black colourways too.”
Like most AGA cookers, Liz and Will’s 150cm eR7 is a workhorse in the kitchen and its flexibility makes it the perfect choice for their busy lives.
“We cook big family meals from scratch at the weekends,” Liz says, “usually a roast of some sort. The AGA makes the best roast dinners! We do a lot of entertaining with friends and the wider family. During the week we tend to cook quick and easy suppers, such as chilli and rice, casseroles, jacket potatoes, all of which can be prepared earlier in the day and popped into the simmering, baking or roasting ovens to heat up.”
Images by Alison Hammond
Higham Furniture: www.higham.co.uk
