The Sunday Times May 22, 2022 13Farmhouse Table Company clients
are ordering tables with extensions.
And there are gorgeous kitchen table
designs available to buy — including
Dulwich by Heal’s, Churchgate by
Dunelm and Jigsaw by Loaf — that
cost a fraction of the price of
installing a breakfast bar or an island.
The catch is that a table does not
contribute storage space or an extra
cook top/sink.
The dream kitchen probably
includes a kitchen table (marriage
material) and an island (the one to
snog). If money is no object, hybrid
solutions by the specialist designers
are ideal: islands with one side
designed for seating; peninsula
breakfast bars with storage at one
end. Blakes London has created an
island-cum-dining area for one client
by integrating a banquette seat on
one side of the island, with drawers
under the seat for storage and a table
with dark smoked oak top.
The most ingenious of the
bespoke options is a small round table
by the interior designer Beata
Heuman, with an extra high tabletop
and four drawers — offering a prep
surface and storage as well as
somewhere to eat. Put that on your
Pinterest board.Farmhouse Table Company, which
creates custom kitchen islands and
breakfast bars, dressers and
sideboards as well as tables. “When
we make something new we design to
the millimetre,” he says. A breakfast
bar that doesn’t fit like a tailored suit
makes for an irksome perch.
Inconveniently, users often come in
several sizes, which is why a kitchen
table can be a better option.
Charlie Marshall, founder of the
furniture company Loaf, is another
survivor of a bad breakfast bar
experience. “I once foolishly
decided to move our kitchen to the
centre of the house and stick a
breakfast bar in the middle. I thought
it would make our kitchen more
sociable but it just became a place for
rushing through midweek suppers
and dumping keys or school bags.
The best decision was to switch back
to an old-school extending table
where you can take time out to
properly sit down with the kids,
spread out the weekend newspapers
and share big Sunday roasts.”
Kitchen tables are aesthetically
pleasing, comfortable, convivial and
practical. The only thing that can
improve a kitchen table, according to
buying trends, is more of it. At theW A quirky kitchen
by Beata Heuman
featuring a
counter-height
breakfast table
with four storage
drawers
beataheuman.
comX This custom
worktop has an
overhang wide
enough to offer
comfortable
legroom. British
Standard by Plain
English cupboards
start at £590
britishstandard
cupboards.co.ukX Islands are a
key element of
most Blakes
London kitchens.
Banquette seating
can be integrated
into the island,
with drawers in the
seating. Kitchens
from £45,000
blakeslondon.
comX Loaf’s Jigsaw
kitchen table,
with a soaped oak
finish, has a
bandsawn parquet
top. Extends to
seat ten, £1,395
loaf.com
W Kitchen in the
home of Natasha
Bauer. Joinery
from the DIY
Kitchens Helmsley
kitchen range (diy-
kitchens.com).
The whole,
including the 2.6m
island, cost about
£16,000