Best kitchen design ideas UK: Evening Standard Home Design Awards 2019 winning kitchen projects revealed

Entries flooded in for the first Evening Standard Home Design Awards, given in five categories of Living room, Bedroom, Kitchen, Bathroom and Garden, for the best designs of the past 12 months.

There are two winners in each category: a reader homeowner and a professional, whether architect, interior designer or key influencer.

The expert judges set about their task at Sketch London restaurant in Conduit Street, Mayfair. Here are the two kitchens they chose.

Lucy Main, non-professional category winner

Lucy Main and her jeweller husband Richard bought a house in Kentish Town in 2016 but ran out of money for kitchen improvements. They now have a toddler and a baby. Lucy, a self-taught furniture maker and handywoman, kitted out the kitchen, making units in her workshop from plywood: “This is cheap with a lovely grain, shown off by my black stain.” The table is reclaimed scaffolding boards.

Lucy fitted the floor-to-ceiling metal-framed windows and the roof lights: “Expensive but worth it for the light.” She calls the kitchen “a calm, relaxing, informal live/work space” — where daughter Bo, two, rides her bike around an island that’s faced with brass sheet.

Sourcing: kitchen fascias are standard 12mm-thick plywood; table legs from wickedhairpins.co.uk; brass sheet, metals4u.co.uk; tap, eBay; quartz worktops from MKW Surfaces; furniture, Sunbury Antiques Fair.

What the judges said: “Such clever use of budget”; “Love the original touches like the black stain and the metal panels”; “Nice big table for family life.”

Lucy's tips: “Be brave, be original. Make it yourself — buy carcasses and drawer runners cheaply online, and be creative with the fronts. Any paint shop can spray doors.”

Max de Rosee, professional category winner

Based at Notting Hill Gate, award-winning architectural and interior design company De Rosee Sa, founded in 2007, now has a team of 12. Architect and co-director Max de Rosee designed a rear kitchen/living extension to a south London home for a young family. “This is the heart of the home,” he says, “one space for cooking, eating, socialising and study.”

The room is double height, and this, together with exposed beams and varying roof pitches adds drama and admits light. An island unit painted black has a grey marble top and an inward-facing hob for sociable cooking. Large glass doors open on to the garden, and a bay window has a window seat looking out to a bed of wildflowers. Timber flooring and window frames add softness and warmth.

Sourcing: contractor Avo Construction fitted the kitchen units and joinery designed by De Rosee Sa; grey marble worktop by London Marble; table and and bench from Another Country; lights, Workstead.

Max’s tips: “Get as much light into your kitchen as possible. Have plenty of room to move around an island unit, with hob and sink within easy reach. Doors into the garden are a link to outdoors — especially fun in summer.

“Use natural materials where possible. They age better than man-mades.”

What they've won

The prizes were luxury hotel-style bed linen from Tielle Love Luxury, worth £550; a sleek Bose Home Speaker 500, worth £400, and a £50 voucher to spend in the Lecture Room and Library, Sketch London’s luxurious two Michelin-star dining room.

On the panel

Janice Morley, editor of Homes & Property; Dan Hopwood, past president of the British Institute of Interior Design; and design writer Barbara Chandler.

Then there was design journalist and author of Mad About The House, Kate Watson-Smyth and interior designer and TV presenter Sophie Robinson, both with an impressive number of Instagram followers.

Also on the team were style-savvy Marianne Shillingford, creative director of Dulux, Kristy Gray, digital editor of Homes & Property, and Laura O’Connell, product manager at Thomas Sanderson.