An Alameda kitchen in white oak

Rift-sawn white oak throughout, appliances faced to match, and a stone island that turns the corner and runs to the floor.

A large kitchen island in pale gold-veined stone with a waterfall end running to the floor, a brass gooseneck tap and integrated sink, white oak cabinets beyond with a stainless fridge and stacked double ovens, and an opening through to a dining room. — The island end. The stone turns the corner and keeps going down — look at where the veining crosses the mitre.

The range wall: a stainless range under a stone slab panel with a wall-mounted pot filler, oak cabinets either side, three brass pendants, glazed cream tile, and stacked ovens to the right beside a tall oak cabinet. — Tall oak cabinets left and right of the range, and the fridge beyond faced in the same oak as the doors.

A corner of the counter with an oak cabinet door folded back to reveal a stand mixer sitting inside on the worktop, a bowl of pears in front, glazed cream tile behind and brass bar pulls. — The mixer lives on the counter inside a cabinet. The worktop runs through to the back of it rather than stopping at the door.

A white oak double vanity standing on a plinth under two arched brass mirrors with slim white sconces between them, a white stone top with two undermount basins, a freestanding tub to the left and a folded rust-coloured towel on each side. — The bathroom in the same house, in the same oak. Nine drawers and two doors, and the grain runs vertically across all eleven.

The grain runs the same way on every front

What to look at: Pick any photograph and follow the vertical lines in the timber from one door to the next along a run. They stay parallel and the spacing stays even, including across the drawer banks.

Rift-sawn oak is cut so the grain runs in straight parallel lines, and it only looks like this if every front is laid out from the same stock in the same direction. Mixing rift with plain-sawn, or turning a front ninety degrees to save material, shows immediately in a room this pale.

The appliances are faced, not hidden

What to look at: In the range-wall photograph, the fridge on the left is a flat oak front sitting in line with the cabinets beside it. The join lines are the same width as every other join in the run.

An integrated panel is cut to the appliance's own hinge and clearance requirements and still has to line through with cabinetry that has nothing to do with it. The tolerance is the cabinetmaker's problem, not the appliance's.

The island stone turns the corner

What to look at: Look at the end of the island where the top meets the vertical panel. The veining continues across the joint rather than restarting.

That is a mitred waterfall, and the two pieces have to be cut from the same slab in sequence and joined at 45 degrees. Getting the pattern to carry across is a stone fabricator's work; carrying the cabinet underneath it so the mitre lands square is ours.

The mixer stays on the worktop

What to look at: In the third photograph the door is folded back and the stone worktop runs on into the cabinet, with the mixer standing on it at counter height.

An appliance garage is a cabinet with no bottom, built around a worktop that passes through it, with a door that has to fold completely clear so nothing blocks the opening. It is more work than a cupboard and it is the difference between using the mixer and lifting it.

Not our work

The stone — island, worktops and the slab behind the range. We do not make or quote countertops and sinks at all.
The glazed tile, the brass pendants and the sconces.
The range, the ovens, the fridge and the taps. We faced the fridge; we did not supply it.
The floors, the paintwork and the styling in the photographs.

What this does not show

No dates. This job is not in our project system, so there are no documents to cite and we are not going to reconstruct any.
Two rooms of one house, chosen because the oak is the same in both. It is not a claim about every job.
We have not said how these boxes are built — framed, frameless or inset — because that is not something a photograph settles and we would rather say nothing than guess on our own work.

Customer name and address withheld. ← More kitchens