What does “bespoke” really mean?
It sometimes seems that "bespoke kitchens" are everywhere you look. The word gets used a lot in the kitchen industry and it can mean different things to different people. So we thought it worth explaining exactly what it means to us.
At Chisholm Design, bespoke means the ability to design every individual cabinet to your precise requirements. But even though every cabinet can be bespoke, doesn't mean it needs to be.
Our solid wood cabinets are based on a range of standard units and there are (quite literally) thousands of variations. Widths come in 50mm increments, tall units at 2000, 2100, 2200 or 2300mm heights as standard, and the range of internal configurations is extensive. In many cases a standard unit fits a space and our client's requirements perfectly well, and our designers know how to use them to minimise fillers and create a truly special kitchen.
A bespoke drawer with 3 internal drawers, all hidden behind a single front to keep the design clean and to match a cupboard opposite.
Where bespoke cabinetry really comes into its own is in the details that a standard unit simply can't accommodate. This could be in a period property with low ceilings or angled walls or skeilings, an architectural feature that needs working around, such as pipes or steels, or an internal layout that needs to accommodate a particular model of microwave or coffee machine. Or it could be the width of a Shaker frame, or a particular wood stained finish you're after.
A butler's pantry designed to accommodate a steel post
The range of what we can adapt is considerable: width, height and depth, internal configurations, cut outs for services or structural details, door and drawer combinations - pretty much anything, within the constraints of what's structurally sensible.
What this all means is that we can design exactly what you need, to fit almost any space - here's a wine room room that's being fitted in a period property, designed and specified to meet our client's requirements.
A truly bespoke wine room in a recent project, towards the end of fitting.
Finally - colour. We can supply painted cabinets in any Farrow and Ball or Little Greene paint colour but if you have a specific colour in mind e.g. from another company, something you picked up on holiday etc, we can colour match to it, provided you give us a sample.
For complete transparency, a bespoke unit does cost more (typically around 20%) reflecting the additional design work, materials and manufacturing time involved. Bespoke colour matching costs a one-off fee of £250 per colour.
So our approach is to use standard units wherever they do the job well, and specify bespoke cabinets and colours only where necessary.
The result is a kitchen or any other cabinetry designed for exactly what you need, that looks fabulous, without completely blowing your budget