old-basing
Parkers Piece is a family home in Old Basing, Hampshire. We were commissioned to create a new kitchen and an adjoining snug at the rear of the house, with the brief that the two rooms should work as a single relaxed living space while each holding its own character. The kitchen needed to be properly functional, generous in storage, and easy to host from. The snug needed to feel architectural in its own right, a room to sit in rather than a passage between others. Our role was to design and make all of the cabinetry, set the materials, and tie the two rooms together so the whole rear of the house reads as one considered piece of work.
The rear of the house was opened up to give the kitchen a long working wall, a centred island for both cooking and seating, and a clear line of sight through to the vaulted snug beyond. We placed the range on the main back wall under a tailored shaker canopy, with tall larder and storage cupboards either side to frame it. The island took on the work that usually clutters perimeter cabinetry, an integrated wine fridge at one end, stool seating at the other, and the daily run of drawers in between. In the snug, we left the timber roof structure exposed and let the reclaimed-brick fireplace surround do the heavy lifting, with the same limestone flagstones running through from the kitchen to anchor both rooms in one surface.
The result is a rear of the house that does not feel like a kitchen plus a separate sitting room, it feels like one long, calm volume that changes character as you move through it. Daylight from the garden doors, the snug skylights, and the window over the butler sink carries across the flagstones and reflects softly off the off-white shaker cabinetry and white quartz tops. The sage island gives the kitchen its quiet anchor of colour. The log burner gives the snug its centre. Whether someone is cooking, reading, or sitting with a drink at the island, the space holds them without effort, and the cabinetry, the stone, and the timber settle together into a home that feels considered and unhurried.
THE Kitchen
We were commissioned to create a kitchen for Parkers Piece that would be both an everyday working room and a generous space for entertaining. The room is anchored by a long sage-painted island, topped in white quartz and detailed with brushed brass cup handles. At one end the island carries an integrated wine fridge, at the other it provides seating for three oak cross-back stools, so the cook stays in conversation with anyone gathered. Off-white shaker cabinetry runs to the surrounding walls and tall larder cupboards frame the room. The stainless steel range sits centred under a tailored shaker canopy, with a butler sink set beneath a window beyond. Two clear glass cut-bottle pendants hang over the island in line, and full-height glazed doors open the room to the garden. Underfoot, large-format limestone flagstones in warm sandy tones carry the eye through the whole ground floor.
THE Snug
Off the Kitchen, the room opens into a vaulted snug that lifts the whole rear of the house. We let the architecture lead. Exposed timber beams cross under a white plaster vault, two skylights set into the slope of the roof bring daylight down onto the flagstones, with the glass pendant hanging from one of the beams. The focal point is a reclaimed-brick fireplace surround, capped with a heavy timber lintel and finishing in a clean white-rendered chimney breast above. A black freestanding log burner sits within, with a wicker log basket to one side. The same oak cross-back seating that gathers at the island carries through into the snug, and the limestone floor runs unbroken between the two rooms, so the kitchen and the snug read as one connected space without losing their character as separate rooms.
More DETAIL
Storage is held in the tall cabinetry that frames the working end of the kitchen. We designed a generous larder cupboard alongside a paired full-height unit, both finished in the same off-white shaker style as the surrounding cabinetry, so they read as architecture rather than furniture. The quartz worktop is uninterrupted across the run, and a deep ledge is set over the range canopy to soften the proportions of the back wall. The stainless steel range sits centred between the tall units, and the butler sink under the window beyond keeps the working triangle short, with the island the third point of it. Brushed brass cup handles, paired across each drawer, are the only metal note in the room.
At the island, the seating side is detailed for everyday use. Four oak cross-back stools with their woven rattan seats sit comfortably under the overhang, and the run of drawers along the working face holds the things that need to be near to hand. The wine fridge is integrated at the doorway end, faced in the same sage panel as the rest of the island, so it reads as cabinetry rather than as an appliance. The white quartz top runs uninterrupted across the length of the island. Cut flowers in a stoneware jug, a small line of bottles, and the warm tone of the oak keep the working face of the island informal even when the rest of the kitchen is set for company.
Final DETAILS
The choice of floor sets the tone of the whole ground floor. We specified large-format antique-finish limestone flagstones, laid in a random-bond pattern, in a mix of cream, sand and warm grey. Each tile carries its own pitting, fossil flecks and varied surface, so the floor reads as a quietly characterful field rather than a uniform finish. Against this, the precision of the cabinetry shows clearly. Off-white shaker base units run in a continuous line under the white quartz worktop, brushed brass cup handles paired across each drawer, and skirting and door frames carried in the same off-white tone so the joinery sits cleanly into the architecture.
In the snug, the same stone runs through without break, and the materials shift register rather than change. Reclaimed brick lifts up to a heavy timber lintel and finishes in a clean white-rendered chimney breast, the vault rises away from it in white plaster crossed by exposed timber beams, and the two skylights set high in the slope of the roof keep daylight on the floor late into the day. The black freestanding log burner sits quietly within the brick, the wicker log basket to one side, and the same oak cross-back family of seating gathers near it. The kitchen, the seating area and the snug read as one considered surface from one end of the house to the other, and the joinery, the stone and the timber settle together into a rear of the house that holds the family without effort.
