LONDON LIFE
ANNE ASHWORTH
T
he autumn and winter domestic refurbishments, sketched out during the summer on Cornish or Balearic beaches – are now in advanced planning. But anyone embarking on a project, inspired by much scrolling through such websites as Soho Home and Architectural Digest, faces an array of challenges. The new London interior zeitgeist may be softer and less assertive, but achieving this look will be challenging, thanks to the pandemic. A combination of inflation and supply chain issues, arising from Covid dislocation, is making materials, like plaster and wood, more expensive and harder to obtain. Also eco-consciousness has been raised, in the wake of last month’s COP26 summit. Can you profess to love the planet if you are unaware of the carbon emissions produced by the installation of a new highend kitchen? Strolling past a Notting Hill property in mid-renovation, surrounded by skips laden with torn out kitchen units, I heard a couple comment on their neighbour’s failure to upcycle or recycle: “Not very sustainable,” he said. She nodded in agreement.The expression of such sentiments no longer smacks of ER (Extinction Rebellion) sympathies, but more of a recognition that concern for ESG (environment, sustainability, governance) is fast becoming mainstream. A kitchen sold to a recycling specialist, such as the Used Kitchen Exchange, saves on average 5,000kg of carbon. Which is equivalent to a year of being carbon neutral for a family of four, as any child 94 The London Magazine
places for quiet contemplation and home office with doors, rather than nooks with Recycling a kitchen saves desks. Now it seems that any conversion does not take account of these 5,000kg of carbon, as any that requirements could appear outdated before child who reveres Greta it is even completed. The budgets for kitchens seem set to be Thunberg will tell you devoted more to comfort than the shock and awe of monstrous-sized ranges and who reveres Greta Thunberg will tell you. fridges.Wouldn’t the deVol Haberdasher’s While the couple examined the other kitchen, with its glass-fronted doors, contents of the skip, I wondered about the similar to the shelving in an early 20th rest of the remodelling of the house. century haberdashery, be more soothing Would it conform to the new preferences than a surfeit of steel? for a London family dwelling formed This kitchen starts at about £30,000, in lockdowns? This period exposed the but some households will spend closer downside of vast open plan spaces. Privacy to £200,000, opting for accessories like can be lacking and the noise of family a 19th century scullery table from the members socialising can interrupt others IstDibs site, or an antique Persian rug trying to work. from Anboise, a site that offers a blend In the early summer, tenants in the luxe of the contemporary and the pre-loved. rental market were seeking homes with Many will be opting for redecoration only. But a need for ease and reassurance will be influencing these makeovers. Martin Waller of Andrew Martin, the design empire, senses that the sharpedged, slightly intimidating look that has ruled for more than a decade is being displaced. “Homes have become an even higher priority than before in people’s lives, especially as they have discovered that they can actually get quite a lot done there, rather than rushing from pillar to post. Since the home is now their sanctuary, they are making it the focus of their spending.” Whatever happens, London interior taste will evolve in the same way that it has done over past centuries – the urge for renewal COMFORTING deVol’s Haberdasher’s kitchen is more soothing than a surfeit of steel being part of the city’s DNA. L
PHOTOGRAPH: DEVOL
A £200,000 kitchen? With our homes becoming ‘the focus of our spending’, Londoners are not holding back on interior design
