Managing Director and Head Kitchen Designer of Jones Britain, Dan Stronge has been out of our Heathfield Showroom today and up in London at the Supernova embankment gardens for the Designer KB Awards 2016 (Kitchen Bathroom Awards). The Designer KB Awards is an annual award ceremony recognizing talented UK Designers in the Kitchen and Bathroom sectors of the design industry.
The Venue
The Supernova is the highest quality temporary structure availing 2,500sqm of designed event space with state-of-the-art sound and lighting to be the perfect venue to host the elaborate and significant Designer Awards event. Passion, attention to detail and creative flair ensure the Supernova’s theatrical setting has the atmosphere to surpass all others.
The Judges
This year’s panel of judges include Founder & Architect of Crawford Partnership Alan Crawford and KB network Editor Grahame Morrison.
Dan was privileged to have been invited to the awards ceremony by Du Pont as their guest of honour and found the event a brilliant evening for networking with other Kitchen designers. Among the design nominees were some fantastic bespoke kitchen designs. These have inspired Dan to enter the competition next year with one of his bespoke, handmade and innovative kitchen designs.
“Congratulations and thank you to all of those that took part and made the event so memorable and inspirational. Bring on KB Awards 2017!“
Dan Stronge
Blog post written by: Chloe Hartnup, Junior Kitchen Designer at Jones Britain
Richlite is a durable, versatile, and sustainable material made from resin-infused paper.
Originally developed over 70 years ago Richlite has expanded into a premium surface material used in many different areas. Handmade from many layers of high quality custom craft paper, Richlite’s surface texture comes from the natural variation in the way fibers lay within the paper. Composed of approximately 65% FSC®-certified or recycled paper content and 35% phenolic resin, Richlite’s color comes from a combination of the paper and the amber tone of the resin.
With many inherent advantages, Richlite continues to be utilized for its versatile range of features and benefits. Unlike stone or a solid surface, Richlite works similar to a dense hardwood and can be easily milled, sanded, routed, and joined. Richlite is water-resistant, sanitary, has low moisture absorption, heat and fire resistant, extraordinarily dense and durable, and has a natural appeal due to its paper construction.
HOW IT’S MADE
Made from many layers of high quality decorative paper, Richlite’s surface texture comes from the natural variation in the way fibres lay within the paper. These rolls of paper are saturated with a thermosetting resin before they are cut to length and laid up by hand. Each sheet is carefully stacked, alternating the direction of paper for the ultimate balance and stability. The stacks are pressed under even heat and pressure, which bonds the layers of paper together and cures the resin. The panels are then slowly cooled to produce a solid, stable sheet material.
Richlite’s colour comes from a combination of the colour of the paper and the deep amber tone of the resin. No dyes are added to the material, and all of the paper is either post consumer waste recycled or sustainably harvested FSC® Certified paper.
Unlike stone or solid surface, it works very similarly to an incredibly dense hardwood and can be milled, sanded, routed and joined. Richlite can be pressed to order from 3mm to 75mm in a range of sheet sizes up to 3660mm x 1525mm. It is shipped from the factory with a mill surface which can be used raw in some applications. Some applications need to be processed by a fabricator to create a leathered or honed surface for the best performance.
History
Founded in 1943 in the Pacific Northwest, Richlite was originally used for machine tooling by the aerospace industry. Eventually the paper-composite material was adopted by the commercial food industry due to its sanitary and durable qualities. Richlite was embraced by the marine industry due to its water-resistant construction, and the action sports industry for use in building skateparks. In the early 2000’s, the architecture and design community began to utilize Richlite for numerous interior and exterior applications. Today Richlite is widely used in consumer products and still in use as an industrial material.
We have Richlite on display in the Jones Britain showroom. It have to be the most tactile surface we have on display and the great thing about it is that its both really strong and extremely versatile which means that we can use it for almost any application in our bespoke kitchen designs.
Source of content from Richlite.com & surfacematter.co.uk
Blog Post written by: Dan Stronge, Head Kitchen Designer at Jones Britain Kitchens
This industrial palette of blue, copper/bronze and wood go really well together. Blue has been the no.1 kitchen design colour of 2016 and is in the frame for being the colour of 2017 too.
The blue used here is RAL 5009 Azure Blue. Mixed with bronze mirror, poured and troweled concrete, end grain oak butchers block, Richlite Black Diamond, stainless steel and scaffold floor planks.
This palette was used to great effect when designing our bespoke handmade kitchen from Crowborough.
Blog Post written by: Dan Stronge, Head Kitchen Designer at Jones Britain Kitchens
The Handleless kitchen is ever present in the average kitchen showroom across the UK but as there are several different options to choose from we will explain the differences between the widely available ‘J’ Profile right through to the true Handleless ‘Grip Ledge Profile’.
The ‘J’ Profile Handleless Door
The ‘J’ profile is the detailed scallop cut from the top of a slab door leaving a recess groove and somewhere for you to grab with your fingers to open the door.
There are a couple of different types of ‘J’ profile handleless styled kitchens on the market. There’s the lower quality vinyl wrapped types and the higher quality lacquered type.
We wouldn’t entertain the vinyl wrapped style of ‘J’ profile as the doors are just too hard to get any form of purchase on with your fingers making integrated appliances even harder to open.
All our ‘J’ profile handle-less kitchens are lacquered and the groove for your fingers is far deeper than the vinyl style.
Because the handle is integrated into the door the style is actually not truly handle-less and is sometimes known as ‘Handle-less effect’
The Metal Grip Ledge handle-less Door
The second type of handleless effect kitchen is one with a metal grip ledge that’s attached to the top of the door to give the look of a true handleless kitchen. This is very similar to the styles widely used in the 60’s and 70’s. The advantage of this style of door is that the metal profile can be attached to any type of material where as the ‘J’ profile above is only really available on a lacquered door.
The True Handle-less Door
The next type of handleless is what we class as true handleless. This where a ‘Grip Ledge Profile’ is fitted behind the door as a continuous rail allowing you to pull the door from the back edge. The grip ledge profile can either match the door finish or in a contrasting finish like brushed steel or aluminium. Generally the grip ledge is horizontal on base and wall units and is vertical on the tall unit run.
The ‘No handles’ Door
Finally the the last type of handleless is what looks like a standard kitchen before the handles are attached. The doors are operated with a push to open mechanism or push latch. There is no soft close system for the doors as they need to be manually closed. The drawers are either on a similar push latch system or a Servo drive electronic opening system. Servo Drive is where you actually push the drawer and an arm then pushes the drawer back towards you. This type of handleless system is by far the more expensive option.
Blog Post written by: Dan Stronge, Head Kitchen Designer at Jones Britain Kitchens
It’s out now! One of our stunning kitchen designs is featured in the latest issue of Beautiful kitchens magazine.
Grey Matters
Beautiful Kitchens creation From the very first day Colin Blake moved into his picturesque Victorian cottage with partner Nick Parker, he knew the kitchen had to change.
Everything changed when they asked Dan, owner of Jones Britain, to visit their home to discuss knocking the kitchen and dining spaces into one. Their main priorities were to make the space brighter, and to find a modern yet traditional design that didn’t feel out of place with the rest of the house.
Colin and Nick were delighted with the end result of their new open plan kitchen dining room. Instead of being dark and closed off the kitchen is now open, light and inviting. Read the article out now in most news agencies.
Blog Post written by: Dan Stronge, Head Kitchen Designer at Jones Britain Kitchens
At the end of last year our designer Dan Stronge was nominated as a finalist for one of the top industry awards the KBB Review Awards 2014.
The Awards Dinner 4th March 2014
Last night Dan went to the awards ceremony as a finalist. The night was great fun with Al Murray hosting the event. Unfortunately Dan was pipped to the post by another very accomplished designer who had actually won several times before but Dan said himself that the competition was very stiff and he was delighted to have been nominated. Dan Stronge was nominated in the Kitchen Designer of the Year – project costing over £50,000 category, for his project featured on pages 58 – 61 in Volume Three of our Book of Furniture.
“I am very proud of the kitchen design in question and working with our client to create it has been a joy. To be recognised for something we worked hard to produce, especially as virtually every element is bespoke, is a credit to all our team including Charles Yorke.”
