Where the kitchens in these features come from
A kitchen written up by a magazine or interiors website has been photographed, styled and captioned by that publication. Each card names the publication, carries the headline it ran under and the date, and gives a short summary of what the piece actually shows.
The summary stays close to the linked article. A claim about the units, the worktop or the layout comes from the piece itself, and the link takes you to it so you can read the original and see the photographs the publication holds.
Publications covering fitted kitchens this way include titles such as Ideal Home, Livingetc, Homes & Gardens, House & Garden, House Beautiful and Architectural Digest, alongside trade titles like kbbreview and Kitchens & Bathrooms News. The drawing next to each card is produced to show the layout or detail the article describes.
What a designer kitchen shows you, beyond the photograph
A photograph of a well-known kitchen carries the same construction choices as any kitchen in a showroom: a door style, a worktop material, a layout that answers to the shape of the room. Looking at these choices before reading the interview around them tells you what to look for when you visit a showroom yourself.
Doors and how they meet the carcass
The gap between one door and the next, and how far a door extends over the carcass (the structural box the door hangs on), is called the overlay. A full overlay hides the carcass almost completely and gives the flat, seamless-looking run seen in many handleless kitchens; a smaller overlay leaves more of the frame visible and suits a more traditional door. Neither is better on its own. It is a choice that changes the look of a run of units without changing what is inside them.
Worktop material
Stone, timber, laminate and solid surface all read differently in a photograph, and each carries its own care, weight and fitting requirements. A stone worktop needs a fabricator to template the finished carcass run before it is cut, which adds time to any project; a laminate worktop does not.
Layout
A galley kitchen, an L-shape and a kitchen built around an island each solve a different problem: how much floor space is available, where the existing plumbing and drainage already run, and how many people need to move through the room at once. A layout that works in a large open-plan room will not necessarily work in a smaller one, whatever the finish.
The terms that come up across these choices are explained in full in the kitchen glossary, and the order in which they get decided is set out in the step-by-step buying guide.
Seen a kitchen you like here? Plan your own the same way.
The finishes and layouts you see in these kitchens come down to choices you'll make too: cabinet style, worktop material, and how the room is laid out.