Kenley worktops
The kitchens we meet in Kenley
Two kitchens a street apart in Kenley can turn stone worktop supply and fitting into two quite different pieces of work, which is why nothing is priced from the doorstep. Houses built into the sides of the Caterham valley, so kitchens often sit at the rear looking out at treetop level with a raised deck beyond. Chalet bungalows have wide shallow kitchens with limited wall-cupboard height; the detached houses take an L plus peninsula rather than a big island. The survey is the part where guessing stops. Everything after it is worked from real measurements taken in your own Kenley kitchen.
The old larder leaves behind a thick cold shelf and a vent brick through the outer wall, and both have to go before that wall reads flat. A colour name is a label attached to a consignment rather than a property of the rock, which is why the reference number on the paperwork outlives the name printed beside it. What sings in a bright room can go dead in a dark one.
These were built with generous circulation, so an island or a peninsula fits in a room that would be too tight in a house of the same floor area. These rooms take good side light from the garden, which flatters a stone with movement in it and is largely wasted on a flat single colour. Hard-working kitchens suit surfaces that ask for nothing.
What the street keeps repeating is 1930s detached, chalet bungalow, 1960s detached on sloping plot and post-war infill. The template reads them differently even where the layout looks identical.
