What Selling Sunset has taught us about Bespoke Kitchens

Bring aspects of L.A. lifestyles to your home in the UK from the Netflix sensation ‘Selling Sunset’. If there’s one positive to come out of lockdown, it’s the escapism this TV show gave to many across the country.

Selling Sunset is an American reality television series that’s available on Netflix created by Adam DiVello. The series revolves around the high-end real estate brokerage firm in Los Angeles – the Oppenheim Group. It follows a group of agents as they navigate their personal and professional lives in the United States. As we watched we couldn’t take our eyes off the stunning homes they went to, especially the grand kitchens within them!

Below we have put together a few points from the show that you could learn and bring to your bespoke kitchen design.

How the kitchen is the heart of the home

The kitchen has been the heart of the home for many years now due to it being the main room everyone spends their time in. Open-plan spaces are something that is favoured the most and you will see this in Selling Sunset. There are so many impressive kitchens you will see, with them being spectacularly spacious, and often the first room that is shown to prospective buyers and their agents. The rooms also have stunning views of the L.A. skyline and an infinity pool in the foreground. We aren’t jealous much!

We understand at Nicholas Bridger that a kitchen is an investment, and therefore the spend on it has to be appropriate for the value of the house, as this can ultimately make or break a house sale.

The design trends of 2021 in the UK are coming away from fully open-plan spaces with a broken layout being the future way of living, due to the effects of the pandemic COVID-19. A broken layout combines the spaciousness of an open plan but with more distinct zones and separate areas that accommodate the different activities such as working from home and homeschooling.

When designing the kitchen it is crucial to ensure that the positioning of the cabinetry and additional furniture is in the perfect layout for the space to maximise it, this is something that is important in the UK as it is in L.A. You want the kitchen layout to flow around your home and into your garden perfectly.

Potters Bar project

White kitchens

What you will notice throughout the programme is that white is the colour of choice in the majority of kitchens. You will also see splashes of colour being bought out in the kitchen design, but the main theme is a bright white. Recent current trends in the UK have been greys and darker blue hues which we have seen a lot, but new for 2021 is more natural earthy greens, connecting ourselves with nature.

Epping project

Size is important

In the multi-million dollar homes that the Oppenheim Group come across are kitchen islands that are something else – they don’t do things by halves. They give you a feel of exactly how big the rooms. Most of the islands will seat up to 6 or even 8 people, as opposed to the islands in the UK common for 3 to 4 bar stools.

Breakfast bar and island seating is still a highly sought after seating arrangement for casual dining. We are now noticing other seating arrangements becoming popular giving the kitchen a flexible solution and individuality to the kitchen – banquette seating. They can be designed into the L-shape of an island, a circular seating zone off from the furniture, or even in a separate area of the space.

Hadley Wood project

Professional chef kitchens

The homes will more than likely incorporate a complete ‘chef’s kitchen’, which is designed to meet the needs of a professional chef and create dream dinner parties. There will be a variety of top-end appliances including steam and convection ovens, a gas range cooker, a warming drawer as well as an additional sink, and sometimes a second dishwasher. Long gone are the days where homeowners will only ask for a dishwasher, fridge-freezer and cooker. Kitchens now have a wide range of appliances built-in which include wine fridges, coffee makers and hot water taps.

The appliances you will see in the properties are normally Sub-Zero Wolf and we are proud to be premier dealers of these amazing robust products. We have designed them into many of our handmade kitchens and created our client with a professional cooking space just like a chef. They are favoured and loved by celebrities and chefs around the globe and provide you with the finest cooking and cooling appliances in the world.

Contact us for more info on these wonderful appliances.

Stock project

Add an industrial twist

White is the primary colour on the show but you will see touches of wood, granite, concrete and marble adding an industrial twist to the different style kitchens. You will notice some common additions that include bar stools with dark metal legs, chunky open-shelving, urban-style pendants, and lots of chrome and brushed stainless steel.

In the UK an industrial style is very popular with many of our clients opting for this design. It is such a versatile style that you don’t have to add so much, that when it comes to refreshing the room in years to come the style can be easily updated.

Hutton project

We are excited for Season 4 of Selling Sunset so we can get lost in the glamorous L.A. lifestyle again and have a peek into the beautiful homes that await us. Are you looking to design your dream bespoke kitchen? Contact us today – we look forward to hearing from you.