A little bit of sunlight can make a big difference, as is clearly proven by this wonderfully welcoming kitchen and dining area by KatieMalik Interiors, appropriately located in the beautifully historic city of Cambridge, England. With a conservatory at one side of the open-plan space and a patio with broad glass doors at the other, this interior makes the most out of the natural light available to it. The lovely brightness that floods the entire area is the perfect complement to the pale, low-key pastel blue colour scheme that has been selected for the kitchen. This interior offers a very useful lesson in making colour and light work together in harmony.
This image of the cooking area provides a great sense of what the feel of the space as a whole will be. The look is gentle, domestic, and has more than just a hint of the country kitchen about it. At the same time, though, the gentle traditionalism of those carved wooden units is offset by the modern shade of grey-blue in which they are painted, their marble work surfaces, and the bright, clean steel of the cooker itself and the inset microwave above.
At the breakfast bar, there is more attention paid to colour, with the chairs carefully matched to the grey-blue shades we’ve already seen. Visible in the background are glass-fronted cabinets in a reassuringly classic style; but in the foreground, edgy glass lampshades framed in black bring things bang up to date.
The geometric, Chinese-inspired wooden structure seen in the foreground is a custom-designed dog door, meaning the dog(s) in this household can make their entrance in style.
This image gives a better sense of the layout of the space, with those big, beautiful French doors opening onto the patio at the far end of the room, and the dining table set off slightly from the kitchen area. There is such careful attention to detail here that even the bowls and placemats on the table make use of the main blue colour that has already featured heavily elsewhere.
Now we get a chance to take a look at this pretty near-conservatory area that allows so much additional light to enter the kitchen and dining space. We say “near” because it doesn’t actually have a glass roof; instead it has large windows situated very close to each other all the way around its walls, and a cheerful little skylight that provides an extra boost of sunlight.
It’s actually fairly hard to imagine feeling anything but enormously contented when lounging on the comfy conservatory sofa.
Here we see the lovely view of the patio provided by those big, broad glass doors.
And finally, the patio itself – complete with curious chicken.