An Award-Winning Kitchen, Designed for Real Life

Naked’s Kate Stroude won Kitchen Designer of the Year at the KBB Awards for the Camden kitchen. Here she explains why it works so well, and why it’s a project that perfectly captures what we mean by truly bespoke design...

We were delighted that our Camden kitchen won Kitchen Designer of the Year (project cost £30,000–£50,000) at this year’s KBB Awards – not least because this kitchen encapsulates exactly what Naked is all about.

It’s a kitchen built for real life: for a young family, in a Victorian terrace, shaped around what they love and how they live day to day. It’s truly bespoke, yet delivered within an achievable budget.

As a project it involved a huge amount of care and collaboration, from first conversations through to the final details. It was designed by Kate Stroude, Senior Designer and London Showroom Lead, and in this post she talks through what went into the project, how the design evolved, and why it works so brilliantly…

A kitchen shaped around its owners

From the outset, this was a collaborative project. The clients are a young, design-led family, who came to us as part of a full renovation of their home. They wanted something calm and beautiful, rooted in natural materials, but also practical enough for everyday family life.

“They didn’t want it to feel like a typical family kitchen,” says Kate. “They wanted something really beautiful – but it still had to work practically.”

As with many of our projects, the starting point was conversation: how they use their space, what matters to them, and how we can bring that together in a way that feels personal – and will last them for years to come.

Letting the design evolve

One of the most interesting things about this project is how much it evolved.

The initial ideas leaned towards a lighter, more Scandinavian feel, with pale timbers and soft, minimal finishes. But as we worked through options together, the design became something richer and more distinctive.

“I think when you start a project, people bring lots of other people’s ideas from Pinterest or Instagram,” Kate says. “But as you talk it through, you start to create something that’s actually their own.”

The result is a kitchen that retains the calm modernism of Scandi design, but with a far more personal and characterful expression – brought out in the dark stained oak cabinetry and the beautifully expressive quartz splashback. Brass details elevate the space and give the whole kitchen a timeless feel.

Finding the materials you love

Materials were central to the whole design.

The oak cabinetry went through multiple iterations to find exactly the right depth of tone – something warm and tactile, with real presence in the room.

The quartz worktop and splashback are striking central features, but actually came later in the process. “It was really not meant to start off like that,” Kate says. “But once we were looking at what would work with the darker timber, they absolutely fell in love with this stone.”

Even the layout was adjusted to make sure the most beautiful sections of the slab remained uninterrupted.

A practical layout

The space itself presented its own challenges: long and relatively narrow, with a chimney breast and limited options for reconfiguring the layout.

Rather than forcing in an island, the design is carefully zoned.

On one side is a working run for cooking and prep; on the other, a more relaxed, social area, with a coffee station and built-in bench seating tucked into the chimney breast.

The Camden kitchen strikes a careful balance between visual appeal and everyday practicality – between hidden storage and open display (which, in many ways, is what good kitchen design is all about).

A long open shelf runs along one wall, designed for displaying collections of ceramics and vintage objects. This gives the space real personality and a sense of life.

“That was really driven by the client,” Kate explains. “She had all these beautiful pieces and wanted somewhere to display them.”

Behind the scenes, the cabinetry is working hard to allow for that clarity and openness. A full-height pantry and clever solutions like internal drawers, pegboards and pull-out storage ensure everything has its place.

As Kate puts it, “all of the base units are doing the heavy lifting”, allowing the upper part of the kitchen to feel open and uncluttered.

Truly bespoke

What we love about the Camden kitchen is that it doesn’t rely on extravagance to feel unique and special.

In fact, much of the cabinetry is based on our standard ranges, carefully configured and combined to suit the space perfectly.

There are only a few wholly custom-made touches. One is the timber finish, and another is the clients’ favourite part of the kitchen: the curved coffee area, which echoes the architecture of the space, with its arched entrance, and softens the linearity of the space.

That mix of standard and custom means the kitchen is completely unique – shaped around the clients, their home and their way of living – while still sitting comfortably within a realistic budget.

As Kate says, “you don’t have to go fully custom in every element to get something that feels completely personal and truly bespoke to you. You just need to be clever about how you balance things.”

Thinking about your own project?

If you’re planning a kitchen and want something that’s genuinely tailored to you – your space, your style, your life – we’d love to help.

Get in touch, or visit one of our showrooms, and let’s start the conversation.