A Reed Green shaker kitchen in a narrow galley

The brief

A galley kitchen with a back door at one end and a window at the other, and no sensible way to make it any wider. Two things had to be true of the design. The room needed enough storage that nothing was left living on the worktop, and it had to take a green without closing in on itself.

What we did

• Fitted Kensington shaker doors with a v-groove in Reed Green by Uform, on Reed Green carcasses, so the interiors and the exposed edges match the doors rather than showing a paler carcass at every opening
• Put the tall storage down one wall — larder cupboards and the appliance housing in one unbroken run — and kept the opposite wall as working worktop
• Fitted 38mm Carrara Marble laminate by Duropal, post-formed, running the length of the sink wall and on to the breakfast bar
• Set the Abode Conneck 1.5 bowl stainless steel sink under the window, with the Althia tap in chrome
• Installed the Neff appliances: single oven with a combination microwave above it, induction hob and a stainless chimney extractor
• Tiled in Country Mist Green 6.5 x 200 metro, brick bond, taken up the wall behind the hob and carried round the room as a band at worktop height
• Laid Treverk Faggio 900 x 150 porcelain plank down the length of the room, which is what makes the galley read as long rather than narrow
• Carried the worktop round to the window end, on base units and a single chrome leg, so the far end of the room works as a breakfast bar rather than losing the floor to a table

The result

The proportions do the work here. Tall units on one side and worktop on the other means the room never has cupboards closing in from both directions, and the plank floor running end to end pulls the eye down the length of it. The Carrara Marble laminate and the pale green metro tile keep enough light in the room that the Reed Green sits as a colour rather than a shadow, and the brushed nickel handles are warm enough not to fight it.

Specification

• Carcasses — Reed Green
• Doors — Kensington shaker with v-groove in Reed Green, by Uform
• Worktops — 38mm Carrara Marble laminate, by Duropal
• Sink — Conneck 1.5 bowl stainless steel, by Abode
• Tap — Althia in chrome, by Abode
• Handles — K1-266 rounded D in brushed nickel, by Uform
• Appliances — Neff
• Wall tiles — Country Mist Green 6.5 x 200, by Homematas
• Floor tiles — Treverk Faggio 900 x 150 porcelain wood effect plank, by Homematas