Fitted Kitchens · Bedford, Bedfordshire
A bronze handleless kitchen under a roof lantern, in Elstow
A large open-plan kitchen in Elstow, on the southern edge of Bedford, lit from above by a roof lantern. Matt bronze handleless units, a long island with waterfall ends, a walk-in pantry, and strip lighting built into the furniture itself.
- Where
- Bedford, Bedfordshire
- Completed
- September 2026
- Cost
- Around £30,000
- Work
- Fitted Kitchens
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Photographed before the pendant lights over the island were hung -
The worktop runs down both ends of the island to the floor
The job
What the room asked for, and what went in.
The awkward part
The room is big, open plan and lit from above, which leaves very little wall to hang cabinets on. Anything at eye level would sit between the lantern and the worktop and shade it. So the storage had to go into a tall run, the island and a pantry, and the lighting had to come out of the furniture.
What we did
One wall of full-height doors, a single recess above the hob with the veined slab carried up as the splashback, and an island long enough to take the storage a wall run would normally hold. Strip lights run along the top of the tall units, under the worktop line and around the pantry opening, so the room lights itself after dark.
Elstow sits on the southern edge of Bedford, an old village green and Moot Hall at its centre with newer housing around it. This kitchen is in a room big enough to take a large roof lantern, and the lantern decides everything. It is the brightest thing in the room by day and a dark mirror at night, so the furniture has to hold its own against it both ways.
The palette is three materials doing all the work. Matt bronze doors, handleless, on every unit including the island. One veined white slab, used flat for the worktops, carried up behind the hob as the splashback, and run down both ends of the island to the floor. And a polished floor tile with amber veining that picks up the bronze rather than fighting it. Brass on the tap and the sink, and the same tone on the frame around the pantry opening.
The photographs were taken before the pendants over the island went up, which is why three cables are still hanging from the ceiling. Everything else is finished. Bedford is a good way north of our Hayes base, and Arshdeep does not charge for travel. For a job of this size the drive is not the question.
If you are in Bedford or one of the villages around it and want something along these lines, the first step is the same as it is everywhere: a home visit, a drawing and one price, none of which cost anything.
The next step