A kitchen design needs careful and very detailed planning. Deciding on the main items such as cookers, fridges, freezers etc is mind-boggling enough, but when it comes to the cabinet door colours, designs and finishes it can all become a little overwhelming.  It's quite scary, the thought of potentially making a very expensive mistake.

Image by:  https://www.instagram.com/park_view_palace/

Research, Research, Research...

Choosing samples of door fronts, worktop finishes and flooring can provide you with a good quality colour visual and is so important.  Kitchen colour trends have changed significantly over recent years and although natural timber is still in vogue it is now often enhanced with striking coloured units to create a stunning two-toned arrangement in some areas of the kitchen, as demonstrated so perfectly on the image below by @park_view_palace

I've been obsessed with Pinterest, it's a fabulous resource for design ideas.  You can even search for kitchen floor-plans which can really help you visualise the best ways to use your space.  I'm a HUGE fan of mood boards; I use them to help me plan everything - new design collection, my product photoshoots, new colour schemes, and have always used them to plan my own rooms at home.  I even used a mood board to plan my kids play house.  Being a designer, I'm pretty good at visualising what I want, but a mood board really helps confirm whether something works.

Current kitchen trends...

Dark or bright blues and greens for cabinet doors has been a popular trend for a couple of years.  Brass or Gold taps with coordinating door handle designs look stunning when used with midnight blue, navy and dark green units and are now readily available in both contemporary and traditional shaker styles.  It's also becoming increasingly easy to paint your own kitchen units, with more and more exciting paint choices, it's possible to revamp a dated kitchen on a relatively small budget.

Image by: https://www.instagram.com/the_girl_with_the_green_sofa/

Adding a splash of colour with the right accessories...

At Bean and Bemble we aim to create unique designs with a nod to current trends. You will find that our chopping boards, placemats and tea towels complement many of these popular kitchen colours. Our Cherry Blossom and Vivid Garden Bloom ranges are ideal companions to dark blues and greens with hot splashes of colour.  The Tranquillity Range combines sage, mint, pale pink, lemon yellow with black for a fresh look to compliment both modern and traditional kitchen designs.

Our Tranquillity Black Tea Towel

Chopping boards are typically considered utilitarian items, often made of simple oiled wood, plastic or glass and used in the kitchen for food preparation and not decoration.  However, our stunning chopping boards are both beautiful and practical with their strong eucalyptus core and robust melamine finish.  Melamine is naturally scratch resistant, heat proof to 160 degrees centigrade and even stain resistant too!

Our Chica Camellia Round Chopping Board

Our unusual, yet functional designer chopping boards can be attractively displayed and take pride of place on your worktops and dining table or positioned in a convenient place ready to use when making your G&T.  They make a gorgeous table centrepiece, wow guests with a cheese board like this!  We absolutely LOVE how @park_view_palace has displayed our leopard chopping board here, it looks like a work of art!

Image by:  https://www.instagram.com/park_view_palace/

Not only are our kitchen boards super pretty, but they are Handmade in the UK.  Our manufacturers use a sustainably forested Eucalyptus Board which is 100% PEFC certified and 100% formaldehyde free.  This ensures we provide the needs of the present, without compromising the needs of the future.  The cork used on the back of our placemats and coasters is also sustainably farmed in Portugal. All of our materials are sourced as close to the UK as possible, aiming to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible.

Rejects and off cuts are used to fuel a local power station, instead of using coal power.  Wood dust goes towards compost.  The backing paper on the cork is used in packing goods for despatch.

Our kitchen textiles...

Our range of tea towels, oven gloves and aprons are handmade in the UK but a family business.  They are made with beautiful 100% Cotton panama fabric to the highest standards.  Our manufacturers take their environmental responsibility very seriously and do everything they can to reduce waste and keep production clean.  The reactive inks used not only allow us to achieve vibrant colours that jump off the shelf, they also boast superior rub and wash fastness and conform to Oeko-Tex standard 100, meaning they contain no harmful chemicals.  Additionally, we are certain that all of the materials used in the production of these inks are synthetic; they do not contain any animal products and have not been tested on animals.