Sorry, the title sounds as if I'm fed up with traditional painted kitchens, whereas in fact I love them. Off white or cream painted furniture brightens up a room to such a huge degree, especially compared to the pine or oak finishes that are often thought to be more in keeping for traditional kitchens.

In this large, square kitchen the existing hand made clay floor tiles, whilst beautiful, did make the room look quite dark ... in spite of the original furniture already being cream. It was hand made furniture too ... but not all hand made furniture looks good. Some of it looks as if you knocked it up yourself .. in the garage ... in your spare time. Good quality hand made furniture shouldn't look hand made!

In my sketches I showed the furniture painted pale green - as a possible change - but the owners of the kitchen decided on just a different shade of cream. I don't blame them; after all, Farrow & Ball used to have a separate colour card showing 15 different shades of off white and cream. It goes beautifully with the terracotta colour of the floor ... and if they feel the need of more colour, they can always paint the walls.

The choice of beautiful smooth maple, for the worktops, was much less traditional in terms of timber variety although, in general, timber worktops do look warm and traditional. Great choice ... as long as you're prepared to give them a little bit of care and attention.

The layout of the room is fairly simple, in that the units are situated mainly along two of the walls. The centre of the room was reserved for a large table for entertaining. The sink area is brought out in a "break front" arrangement, to give more interest, whilst the range cooker has been moved around the corner (it was initially in line with the sink). It's good to have the hob near the sink ... but it's even better if you can put a decent amount of worktop between them ... you'll find that you use this area more than any other.