‘WE TOOK OUR TIME TO GET IT JUST RIGHT’

Husband and wife Lloyd and Leila Touwen make up two of the trio behind Pluck. They live in Brixton in South London, close to the company’s workshop,

with their son

The trend for kitchens is that they are more like living rooms – it’s not about having blank walls and shiny lights. We’ve layered this space to make it feel rich with things we’re constantly collecting, such as old paintings and ceramics, which also give flashes of colour. Including art helps it flow with the rest of the house, and we never worry about mixing eras. Our goal was that nothing would stand out too much. We wanted to make a statement without it being in your face, and although Pluck cabinetry is made from plywood, there’s definitely a soft edge to the palette, which means the units get absorbed by the surroundings. The blue and pink colour scheme is quite classic; all over the walls and ceiling is Farrow & Ball Setting Plaster, which is echoed in the handles and plinths in a shade we call Ruskin Blossom. We chose a London Plane veneer for the cabinet fronts contrasted with Atlantic Blue and a Juniper Corian worktop.

We lived here for years before embarking on the kitchen, so we knew exactly how we wanted it. We have a taller butcher’s block section, which faces out to the dining area and which has revolutionised how we use the kitchen – before, we’d have our backs to people when prepping food. The flooring is encaustic Moroccan tiles and we deliberated over something more contemporary, but as the house is Victorian and Pluck cabinetry is quite modern, we wanted to juxtapose that with something that felt older.

We searched hard for wall tiles that worked; these are Tratti by Inga Sempé from Domus (domusgroup.com) and no two are the same. A great move was putting the washing machine in a utility cupboard in the bathroom – they take up so much space.

Pluck kitchens start from £15,000 (pluck.kitchen)