Baz Ashmawy shares his recipe for a kitchen revamp
We have never had more kitchen inspiration at our fingertips. Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube — an endless scroll of beautiful, spotless kitchens with pristine countertops and shelves holding artful bowls of lemons and 12 decorative clay pots. It is a rabbit hole — and if you’re planning your kitchen, it’s a great way to gather ideas for what you might like. It is also, if you’re not careful, a great way to get totally derailed and end up with a kitchen that just doesn’t work for your home or your life.New research from The Panelling Centre bears this out. Nine out of ten tradespeople say social media is influencing kitchen design decisions — and not always for the better. The most common mistake they see (33%) is prioritising style over practicality. In a seeming contradiction, however, 77% of homeowners say storage is their top priority and that they would choose it over style.So we know what we need, but we seem to forget it somewhere in the design process. The desire to impress may be driving the issue — 56% of young homeowners feel pressure to host and may avoid it if their kitchen isn’t “good enough”, in comparison to 20% of over-62s. That gap between what we pin to impress and designing for how we actually live is where kitchens tend to go wrong.Start with how you live, not how it looks When I was planning my own kitchen, I arrived at my first appointment armed with a carefully curated Pinterest board, central to which was a baby blue Smeg fridge (spoiler: I didn’t end up getting one). Dawn, the fabulous kitchen designer in Savvy Kitchens, who had seen this many times before, gently guided my phone back into my handbag and replaced it with a questionnaire. Jennifer Sheahan started her own kitchen design with a questionnaire. Picture: Moya NolanWe worked through in detail how I would actually use the space — how I move around it, what I cook, what gadgets, utensils, and crockery I have, what I liked and disliked in my previous kitchens, who else uses it, and what time of day it gets the most traffic. It transformed the planning experience. It looks great, but that came much later — crucially, it works perfectly for me.Baz Ashmawy had a similar experience. The TV presenter is currently renovating his home with The Panelling Centre, and when I spoke to him, he described going in with a clear visual idea of what he wanted — and then having the whole thing productively dismantled by a series of practical questions. “They started asking us questions about the functionality of it,” he told me. “And it’s then that we were like, ‘God yeah, you’re right.’”Tanja Evans and Baz Ashmawy. Picture: Brian McEvoy His fiancée, Tanja, had already done some of this thinking herself. In a stunningly pragmatic and ergonomic move, she planned to put the dishwasher on the same side of the sink as her dominant hand — so when she loads it, she’s not reaching across herself. It sounds obvious when you see it in black and white, but most people (like me) get so distracted by what they see in other people’s kitchens that they never think to focus on the minutiae of their own daily needs.This is the work that a good kitchen designer does. It’s great to gather inspiration and get a sense of what you like, but in my experience, there’s no substitute for a designer who works with kitchens every day.Trends come and go Baz is good company on this subject, partly because he is completely honest about finding things beautiful and then talking himself out of them. He went through a list with me that will be familiar to anyone who has spent time down the magical online kitchen rabbit hole.Ope shelving can work but can also be cluttered and messy, says Jennifer Sheahan. Open shelving first. “You think that looks great, that’s so stylish and so cool,” he says. “And then — in my house, there’s just no way on earth that could be in any way practical.” With a busy household and teenagers coming and going, open shelving would mean either constant tidying or permanent chaos. I will admit I have open shelving in my kitchen, but only for glassware, the uniformity of which keeps things looking neat. (I was once asked how I keep my wine glasses from getting dusty, but they’ve never been left on my shelf long enough to find out.)Dark glossy cabinets were next on Baz’s list. He loves the look of them, as do I. Then he thought, “Hold on… I’ve got a black car, and it’s just filled with grubby fingerprints all the time every time my kids get in it,” he says. “That would never work in our house.” I went with a matte finish for my own dark kitchen, with a low sheen, which I have found mostly excellent for hiding smudges and prints.Marble countertops came up too — gorgeous, but famously high-maintenance, unforgiving of coffee rings, lemon juice, or cooking oil. “I’d be running around on rollerblades with coasters,” laughed Baz. I wouldn’t rule out marble countertops personally. I don’t mind the odd stain that comes with the territory, but you have to know what you’re getting yourself into with natural stone. There are excellent engineered alternatives that give you a similar aesthetic without the anxiety.The Panelling Centre Design, C1 Cascada Verde, Nero & Bianco on island.Statement pendant lighting over the island is another one. Baz loves the look. He also learned that long pendant features can interrupt your eyeline and create uneven light across the worktop. “They just make some of the prepping areas really unsafe, and the worktop that you’re working on is in shadow half the time," he says. Pendants have their place, but whether that place is above a kitchen island or peninsula is a topic of great debate.Handle-less presses round out the list. Sleek, minimal, very popular. Also, in a busy household with a long row of presses, they are a reliable source of confusion. When myriad teenagers and visiting friends need to find a glass or a snack, not being able to tell which side of the door to open is not what you want. I do have handle-less presses in my own kitchen, but I only have four, and the layout of my kitchen makes it obvious which way they open. If I had a longer row, I would have chosen handles.The questions worth asking before you design None of this means you should stop scrolling for inspiration or that your kitchen has to be boring and traditional. You just have to be realistic about your own needs. Contrary to what’s hot on socials right now, Baz and Tanja went for a white kitchen — not because it was the safe choice, but because they thought carefully about longevity and decided they wanted a canvas they wouldn’t tire of. Art, plants, and lighting will do the heavy design lifting in their home, against that calm backdrop. That is a considered design decision that I feel will last them many years.The Panelling Centre's C1 Cascada Verde.The questions that will serve you best before you get anywhere near a showroom are the unglamorous ones. Does the flow work for everyone who will be using this kitchen? Is this primarily a cooking kitchen, an entertaining kitchen, or both? Which way should the fridge open, and does that block any of the access areas? Where do the bins go — and is that convenient to where you prep food? Do you need closed storage, open storage, or both, and are you being honest about which one suits how you actually live?If you’re working with a designer or a kitchen company, the good ones will ask you these things. If they don’t, ask yourself (or shop around). Write the answers down before your first appointment. It will save you from choosing form over function and living to regret it.
