7 July

When we were designing the kitchen, we wanted something elegant, not something that was just a copying of a current trend. House design is a great example of imitative human life, if you look at what passes for great design, for example of a kitchen, it ends up being the same kitchen as 3 million other people have. People genuinely feel something looks amazing, because of the intrinsic design, but what they’re feeling is conformity with what everybody else likes. That’s the deepest human passion, to conform, and releases all the endorphins. Why rooms designed in that way end up looking like a magazine spread rather than lived-in room. It’s about show, a social game. It works pretty well, for the kitchen. Always start with functionality, all great style and elegance comes from functionality. If it works really well it has style. The bathroom is almost done now as well, where we wanted to reject the bland grey minimalism that is trending, and use colour and pattern in subtle ways to create a more timeless design. I suspect colour will come rushing back in the trends soon, we’ve had decades now of really bland minimalism. But as always the trend won’t be where to find true style or elegance.