SUBDUED TONES…
recessed storage spaces and a smooth wood façade define this contemporary kitchen designed by French interior architect and designer Grégoire de Lafforest in collaboration with bespoke kitchen design company Obumex. Known for their craftsmanship and attention to detail, Obumex has been collaborating with top international designers for over two-decades to produce unique limited edition kitchens that challenge the tropes of traditional kitchen design. A notable designer in his own right, de Lafforest has previously worked on projects for New York’s Baccarat Hotel, Cartier, and Veuve Clicquot, and today is a furniture and interior designer for French fashion house Hermès.
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INSPIRED BY…the styles and functions of libraries, de Lafforest’s contemporary kitchen highlights the homeowner’s personal objects to give color and ambience to their culinary spaces. In effect, the kitchen is designed with a muted palette of wood tones and prominently features recessed spaces to draw focus to the cookbooks, decorative objects, and personal effects that fill them. Like a meticulously crafted window display, the unit’s central recess showcases the sink and prep area that acts as the literal and figurative heart of any kitchen space. To minimize distracting visual clutter, meanwhile, de Lafforest worked with Obumex craftsman to create invisible handles that hide beneath the kitchen’s drawers and closet doors. The result is a kitchen that proudly exhibits a catalogue of the homeowner’s unique tastes and sensibilities, much as the best bookshelves and libraries do. |
Design by Grégoire de Lafforest for Obumex
Photography by Annick Vernimmen
Words by Mateo Tate
