A PANS’ LABYRINTH

More important things happen here than just cooking, so show this part of your home some love, says Adam Bray

Unless you have a marble-lined bathroom of oligarchical proportions or a drawing room lined in vintage Chinese wallpaper, it is likely that the room that will consume most of your financial and emotional budget is the kitchen. Planning this space is an exercise in pure logic; decorating it is an exercise of pure heart. And it’s worth apportioning the time to do it properly as it’s highly likely you will have some of your best fights and consequently best making-up across the kitchen table.

There are many elements to think about, lighting being probably the most important — if I’m trying to pin bone a salmon or wipe a small child’s mouth or pick broken glass out of the gaps in the floorboards, I like Swiss-clinic levels of light. The kitchen is one of the only rooms I like to use recessed spots and a few (just a few) of these placed thoughtfully (always on a dimmer switch) do the job.

Once the ‘kitchen as machine’ part of the day is over, and the ceiling and task lighting is retired, I switch on the table lamps that sit at the end of the work surface — and yes, I know it’s awful but almost always some kind of candle on the table, even if it’s just for me. I use quite big church candles and sit them in chipped old saucers from the junk shop. Everything looks and weirdly sounds better by candlelight.

There are several kitchens that sit restlessly in my clippings file — here are some of my favourites and why:

India Mahdavi’s kitchen for Maja Hoffman; bold, graphic, very cosy and approachable. Almost anything by Billy Cotton, who manages to de-kitchen and make the space feel like a room every time. Jasper Conran’s kitchen on Rhodes with its basic oven and glorious floor. And, of course, Julia Child’s with its wall of pots, Venetian blinds and soft blue cupboards — a kitchen so good it’s been decanted to the Smithsonian.

But perhaps the best kitchen of all time is Rick Owens’ in Venice — some mirror, some marble, an espresso machine and a small fridge.

Feeling pot pot pot: Julia Child’s kitchen at the Smithsonian Institution