Starting From Scratch: What
Makes a Centerpiece Kitchen?

The kitchen has always been the center of activity. Ready to make it the centerpiece?

We asked three of Europe's top design firms -- Universal Design Studio in London, Matteo Thun & Partners in Milan and Svenskt Tenn in Stockholm -- to spend €100,000 to create a stylish, functional and unique kitchen.

"Today's kitchen is more expensive than the living room," says Christian Witt-Dörring, the Viennese decorative-arts curator and cultural historian. "You used to sit and work in the kitchen. Today, you put the kitchen in the living room so you can be with your guests."

Although luxurious designer kitchens can be had for less -- at Bulthaup, one of Europe's leading high-end retail design firms, a customer spends an average €30,000-€f40,000 to redo a kitchen -- we wanted something special, from which you can take elements, or the full design, for your own kitchen.

We asked our designers to work within a few parameters. We provided a simple layout for a five-by-five-meter room, with two adjacent sets of windows overlooking a courtyard, and we asked that the firms combine in-house product designs with those by outside designers. Typical consulting fees -- around €5,000 in Svenskt Tenn's case, as much as about €15,000 for a project this size at Universal -- were excluded from the working budget.

Matteo Thun

"I often aim to create an archetypal form," says Milan-based designer Matteo Thun. "A form we will all remember, [that is] classic and modern at the same time."

Mr. Thun's plan for what he calls a Mediterranean kitchen is marked by extensive use of traditional handpainted tiles from southern Italy, combined with the very latest in high-end Italian design.

Mr. Thun was born in Bolzano, Italy, in 1952, and likes to describes himself as the "baby" of Ettore Sottsass, the legendary Italian architect and designer. The men were among the co-founders in 1981 of the Memphis Group, the Milan cooperative whose bright colors and unusual shapes were hallmarks of the postmodern design wave. Mr. Thun set up his own studio in Milan in 1984, which now employs more than 50 architects and designers. He is responsible for a number of iconic products, from Illy's white-and-red espresso cups to a range of Swatch watches. His studio designs everything -- buildings, furniture, lighting and bathroom fixtures -- and recent well-regarded projects include the Vigilius resort near Merano, Italy, and the SIDE Hotel in Hamburg, Germany.

Mr. Thun has strong opinions, especially about kitchens. A kitchen "has to warm my heart and soul," he says. "And technology can't warm things up." Mr. Thun's design for our kitchen is a love letter to Italy, as symbolized by the whimsical SMEG Italian flag refrigerator (€1,610), and the extravagant use of traditional tiles. "I am from a family of ceramicists," he says, "which is why I love using hand-painted tiles." He likes two small firms: Giovanni De Maio, near Salerno, on the Amalfi coast (www.giovannidemaio.com); and Stingo, a family-owned business in Naples, who have been involved in making ceramics since the 18th century (www.ceramicastingo.com). Mr. Thun suggests covering the floors, cabinet surfaces and even the walls with a mixture of tile patterns.

Handmade products are the hallmark of his kitchen design, and the cost takes up a significant part of our budget. The De Maio tiles are €160 per square meter, and we can expect to pay up to €5,000 to cover the floor and counters. The kitchen unit and shelving are white-oiled oak, custom-made by the Bavaria-based master carpenter Markus Schober (www.markus-schober.de). Mr. Schober estimates the cost for our woodwork at more than €10,000. Oak is "natural and unpretentious," says Mr. Thun, and the white finish emphasizes the wood's natural grain.

The kitchen's single-greatest expense is the double-oven La Cornue Chateau 120 cast-iron stove in black enamel with brass and stainless-steel trim (about €24,000), which Mr. Thun calls "the hearth." Other distinctive elements include two of Mr. Thun's designs: the elegant plank table called Celerina, produced by Riva 1920, which had its premiere at last year's Milan Furniture Fair (€3,210); and a minimalist white basin called Barcelona, produced by Rapsel.

In spite of the lavishness of the kitchen's major elements, Mr. Thun believes modesty is a design value in itself, and he conspicuously adds inexpensive Italian cookware to the La Cornue stove. It's like "mixing Zara and Hermes."

Svenskt Tenn

Svenskt Tenn is one of the torchbearers of the Scandinavian design tradition, which seeks a balance between old-fashioned craftsmanship and modernist functionality. Founded in 1924 by pewter designer Estrid Ericson ("Svenskt Tenn" translates as Swedish pewter), the firm is closely associated with Josef Frank, the Viennese architect and designer who fled to Sweden in the 1930s after the rise of the Nazis. Known in particular for his textile and furniture designs, Frank oversaw the establishment of a joyful, but never frivolous, eclecticism.

Today, Svenskt Tenn is Stockholm's most prestigious home-furnishings store, as well as the creator of highly regarded public and private interiors.

In their design for our kitchen, Svenskt Tenn architect Martin Edvardsson and interior decorator Katerina Abrahamsson started by dividing the square room into a dining area and working area. "Square rooms are difficult," says Mr. Edvardsson. "There is nothing to get hold of, and you have to center the furniture."

A significant portion of the budget -- €64,500 -- is spent on the basics: a set of Svenskt custom-designed kitchen cabinets, made of white-lacquered mahogany, with brass fittings and a stained mahogany top; a hearth-like island built around an Aga stove; and a Josef Frank sideboard.

"What we want is to make a room rather than a kitchen," says Mr. Edvardsson, who conceals the other kitchen appliances behind cabinet doors. The designers chose mahogany because they said it holds up well over time and "works well with water." The sideboard counter and island unit are each topped with Swedish Kolmarden marble, whose distinctive, ethereal green was first used at Drottningholm, the baroque residence of the Swedish royal family. Mr. Edvardsson says the marble is as easy to clean as it is luxurious.

A highlight of the kitchen is the black three-oven cast-iron stove by Aga (€13,000), originally a Swedish product, now made in Britain. "It's very special," says Mr. Edvardsson. "It's never turned off, and it heats up very quickly, so you really don't need a microwave."

Other details in the kitchen are modestly priced. "It's very Svenskt Tenn to mix high-range items with cheaper ones," he says. The lighting above the workspace consists of two office lamps, designed by Morsing and Nord for the Swedish firm Orsjo (around €377 for two). And the sleek, metallic table, by the young Catalan designer Francesc Rifé, while not inexpensive at €987, has a quality different from other elements in the room. "We wanted it to clash," says Mr. Edvardsson, who admired the table's contemporary, minimalist look, in dramatic contrast to the Josef Frank chairs upholstered in one of the designer's famously vibrant botanical prints (about €845 per chair with upholstery).

Universal Design Studio

Jonathan Clarke, director of London's Universal Design Studio and trained as both a designer and an architect, says designing an interior is about "creating space" that takes into account volumes as well as textures. He joined Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby -- the shooting stars of British furniture and industrial design -- in 2002 at Universal. Messrs. Barber and Osgerby, the founders and co-directors, focus on product design, leaving Mr. Clarke to concentrate on the larger projects, which often end up featuring items designed by his partners.

Universal has created memorable interiors, including fashion designer Stella McCartney's flagship store in New York, with polished black granite surfaces, smoked ash floors and a wall of three-dimensional tiles, and several projects for Space NK, the British apothecary chain.

In remaking our kitchen, Mr. Clarke suggested radical structural changes, starting with tearing down two walls. "The kitchen is the heart of the house," he says. "We want it to become more than just a box." The room now opens to an outside terrace through sliding glass doors, and opens again behind the cooking area, giving direct, unobstructed access to the rest of the house. "I live in my kitchen," says Mr. Clarke, who says he often does his reading at the kitchen table. He says he "wouldn't feel comfortable" if the kitchen were cut off by doors or walls. Universal estimates the structural changes could cost €30,000.

Mr. Clarke's starting point for the project was "to go through all the things you actually have in your kitchen" and ask, "What would be the coolest kettle, the best coffee pot," and so on. Consequently, he says, our kitchen contains a "curated selection of the best and most amazing products," like a Stelton thermos, designed by Erik Magnussen (about €60); a coffee grinder from La Pavoni (about €330); and discontinued pieces designed by Dieter Rams for Braun, including a highly distinctive citrus press, which can often be found on eBay. All of these favorite things are then displayed along one wall in classic ceiling-high, open Vitsoe shelving -- also designed by Rams.

The dining area is dominated by a two-meter long BarberOsgerby "Home" table produced by Isokon Plus in oak, with a white Corian top (about €2,864); and a dramatic, crane-like lamp from Vitra, designed by Jean Prouve (about €1,130). Universal integrates stove burners from Gaggenau directly into the marble countertop (about €4,760).

As a contrast to the kitchen's inherent sophistication, Mr. Clarke suggests a reclaimed herringbone parquet floor. The "battered" quality is the "right one to play off the other elements," he says.

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