Bespoke kitchens & wardrobes in Kensington and Chelsea.

Kensington and Chelsea is one of the most densely populated areas in the United Kingdom, and most of that density is carried by period buildings rather than towers. The result is a borough of flats inside old houses, mews behind grand terraces, and a smaller number of large post-war estates – each with its own kind of kitchen and bedroom.

Notting Hill, Holland Park and the Ladbroke area

The Ladbroke estate was built up from the 1820s over some forty years: terraces, villas and pairs of villas in a classical style, finished in stucco to look like stone, many backing onto communal gardens. After the First World War many of these houses were divided into flats or bedsits, so a typical home here today is a single floor of a tall house – a generous front room with high ceilings and a smaller back room that often becomes the kitchen.

Earl’s Court and West Brompton

Earl’s Court was largely built from the late 1860s to the 1880s: Italianate terraces, semi-detached houses and late-Victorian mansion flats around garden squares such as Earl’s Court Square and Nevern Square. Over time many of the large houses were converted to flats or run as boarding houses, which is why so many Earl’s Court homes are conversions with rooms of very different sizes on one floor.

Chelsea, Brompton and South Kensington

Chelsea mixes Georgian terraced houses – Hans Town was built as a planned new town of them – with the red-brick ‘Pont Street Dutch’ houses and blocks of the later Victorian rebuilding, and a large stock of flats. South Kensington was developed from the 1860s around garden squares such as Onslow Square and Thurloe Square, with mews tucked behind the main streets.

Mews houses

The borough holds a large share of London’s surviving mews – originally built for horses and servants behind the big houses. Mews homes tend to have a compact ground floor, steep stairs and low first-floor rooms, which suits fitted furniture planned to the centimetre.

North Kensington and World’s End

The north of the borough, around Ladbroke Grove and Kensal Town, includes post-war council housing such as the Cheltenham Estate and Ernő Goldfinger’s Trellick Tower, completed in 1972. In Chelsea, the World’s End Estate at the western end of the King’s Road dates from the early 1970s. The council owns more than 9,000 homes in the borough, so ex-council flats bought under right to buy are part of the mix too.

Period flats in the borough often have beautiful rooms and very little built-in storage. Fitted wardrobes turn alcoves, high ceilings, eaves and odd corners into storage that looks as if it belongs to the building.

Alcoves beside chimney breasts

Bedrooms in Victorian and Georgian houses commonly have a chimney breast with an alcove either side. Alcove wardrobes are built to the real shape of each recess – rarely the same width, rarely square – and can run to the ceiling with a top cupboard for cases and seasonal things.

Full-height wardrobes for tall rooms

Where ceilings are high, a standard wardrobe looks short and wastes the space above. A fitted wardrobe can reach the ceiling, scribed around cornices and skirting, with hinged doors in painted MDF or a framed profile to suit the room. In a narrower bedroom, sliding wardrobes save the space a door would need to swing.

Mews houses, top floors and eaves

Mews homes and top-floor flats often have sloping ceilings or low eaves. Loft and eaves wardrobes follow the slope, with drawers or short hanging where the height drops and full hanging where it does not.

Hallways, understairs and dressing rooms

In a split-level flat or a mews house, the space under the stairs can take pull-out storage for coats, shoes and a vacuum cleaner. A long hallway can take a shallow run of cupboards. Where a spare room is available, a walk-in wardrobe or dressing room can be fitted out with hanging, drawers and lighting.

Most of the work in a project like this happens before anything arrives at your door. In this borough, access and building rules matter as much as the design.

Stairs, lifts and access

Upper-floor flats in converted houses usually have no lift, and the stairs can be narrow with tight turns at the landings. Mansion blocks may have small or old lifts. At the measure we check the route into the building and the room as well as the room itself, so that every cabinet and panel is sized to get through the door and up the stairs.

Parking and unloading

On-street parking in the borough is in high demand, and the council’s residents’ parking guide notes that residents’ bays operate at different times in different parts of the borough. If a bay needs to be suspended for a delivery, the council asks for ten working days’ notice for a residents’ bay, so this is something to plan early. Always check the current rules on the council’s parking pages for your street.

Leasehold flats and building management

If you own a leasehold flat, your lease may require consent from the freeholder or managing agent before a kitchen is replaced, and many blocks set working hours for noisy work and rules for using lifts and common parts. It is worth asking about these early so the installation date fits the building’s rules.

Working alongside your builder

We do not do building work, plastering, electrics, gas or decorating. If your project involves those, we work alongside your builder and trades so that walls, sockets and lighting are ready for the installation; any gas work must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer.

Timing

The measure and design stage usually takes 1–2 weeks. Once you approve the design and price, manufacture, delivery and installation typically take 4–6 weeks.

The process is the same wherever you are in the borough, and you are not committed to anything until you have seen and approved the design and price.

1. Send an enquiry. Use the online form with a few details and photos if you have them. We reply within one working day.
2. Free measure. Our London fitter measures the room at your home, including the access route, walls, ceilings and services.
3. Free first 3D design. You receive a 3D design and one fixed, itemised price covering manufacture, delivery to London and fitting.
4. Approve when ready. No deposit and no obligation until you approve the design and price. Measure and design usually take 1–2 weeks.
5. Made in our workshop. Your furniture is made in our own workshop in Bulgaria and travels to London by dedicated transport.
6. Installation. The same fitter who measured the room installs it, typically 4–6 weeks from approved design to finished installation.

As a guide for budgeting, bespoke kitchens typically come to around £1,000–£1,200 per linear metre – a guide, not a quote; your fixed price comes with the design. See kitchen prices and our process for more detail.