The Pantone® Colour of the Year tends to inspire trends in fashion and interior design and of course, colours in the kitchen; working its way through to clients’ homes a season or so following its launch. But, maybe not quite this year, because for 2018 year the Pantone® Colour of the Year is ultra violet; not a subtle soft mauve but a full neon-lit powerhouse of purple, which might be a bit much for anyone without the most daring of interior tastes.

At Searle & Taylor, we recommend the use of paler mauves and violets as ‘accent colours’ in the kitchen as they are wonderfully relaxing shades that look good both day and night. They work very well with on-trend neutral taupes, textured wood and flat matt whites when complementing more contemporary kitchen styles. We have a two kitchen displays in our Ropley showroom that highlight how well these can work – one with a glass splashback in a single mauve colourway, and the other is a custom-created splashback using stripes that were originally taken from a wallpaper design that features a hint of lilac with natural greens and yellows.

To find out more about how you can have a custom-created splashback in any colour, or design, please contact us and we will tell you more.

Sunday 20th May 2018
Stand 29 – Station Road

Our Searle & Taylor flagship kitchen showroom is based in Ropley, near Alresford and our second luxury boutique showroom is in Winchester city centre. As a long-standing business in the area, we like to get involved with a number of local events and attractions during the year and to lend our support to the community.

On Sunday 20th May 2018, Searle & Taylor will have a stand at the Alresford Watercress Festival where we will be serving drinks and showcasing the latest must-have appliance for the kitchen: the Kaelo iceless ice bucket; great for keeping Champagne, Prosecco and wine chilled at the perfect ambient temperature. This will be installed in a specially designed island unit designed by Searle & Taylor, which will be on sale on the day. With a stylish industrial aesthetic and hand-painted cabinetry, it features a stainless steel worktop with a seamless integrated flush gas hob.

Please come and say hello, and if you want to have a chat about ideas for your kitchen then we will be on hand to give friendly advice and to let you know more about our complimentary design service.

The nationally acclaimed annual Alresford Watercress Festival attracts thousands of visitors to New Alresford who come to celebrate watercress - the superb locally grown, delicious and versatile crop. On the third Sunday of May each year, this beautiful market town becomes the site of a huge street festival. Over 80 stalls showcase the very best local food and drink producers. Others sell arts, crafts, jewellery and clothing, items for house, garden and much else besides.

At 10.30am a large cavalcade of musicians, dancers and children accompany the Watercress King and Queen up Broad Street as they distribute freshly cut bunches of watercress to festival goers. Throughout the day, musicians and street performers entertain on the main stage, in St. John’s Church and on the streets. For the young, there are circus skills workshops, face painting, Punch & Judy shows, petting farm and much more.

Well-known chefs will demonstrate delicious watercress-inspired dishes. And more adventurous visitors can take up the challenge of the World Watercress Eating Championships - now in the Guinness Book of World Records.

For more information about the Alresford Watercress Festival please visit:
www.watercressfestival.org

As a client, you want to be confident that your kitchen designer is up to date with the latest trends and can translate those ideas into your own beautiful new kitchen. At Searle & Taylor we regularly visit trade shows and design exhibitions, we avidly read our sophisticated trade press publications (I actually write for one of them) and we also attend events by our supplier partners to find out about the latest new launches. In the UK, the biggest kitchens trade event is called KBB and this takes place every other year, while internationally, Eurocucina comprises the annual Salone del Mobile in Milan.
Because I did not have an opportunity to get to Milan this year, I decided to seek some Italian influences in London’s Brompton Cross instead. Together with a visit to B&B Italia, which is just worth visiting for its sheer size and beauty, let alone for the array of stunning furniture on offer, I also took a walk around the beautiful Boffi showroom, which was a revelation in many ways. I saw kitchen designs that make use of fantastic engineering, and I was blown away by the extraordinary architect-designed Cove Kitchen by the late Zaha Hadid, which makes incredible use of a single piece of Corian fitted over a stone island. This kitchen is exhibited around the world as a work of art, and it is a perfect combination of form and function.

The Cove Kitchen by Zaha Hadid at Boffi

Boffi’s Italian kitchens are state of the art, and very beautiful if you love ultra-contemporary design. One of the design influences in the Knightsbridge showroom was the use of decorative opaque glass that looks black when unlit, but is almost transparent when illuminated. This is a design that we feature at our luxury boutique Searle & Taylor showroom in Winchester. It is part of a geometric wall in the showcase Oxydo contemporary kitchen, which also has a stunning oxydised copper island and Silestone worksurface. The glass cabinetry is multifunctional and looks beautiful day or night, and stands out perfectly against a natural timber back wall with irregular shelves, especially alongside the bank of Gaggenau cooking appliances we have installed next to it.

The contemporary Oxydo kitchen display at our luxury boutique showroom in Winchester