Stucco townhouses
Tall rooms with original cornice and panelling. Cabinetry proportioned to the architecture, usually in-frame.
Central London
Handmade kitchens in Chelsea & Kensington
Stucco townhouses, mansion blocks and a great deal of listed fabric. Rooms where the cabinetry has to hold its own against the architecture.
Chelsea & Kensington · Central London
Bespoke kitchens for Chelsea & Kensington homes
Kitchens in SW3, SW10 and W8 are held to a different standard, and not only because of budget. The rooms themselves are usually exceptional — high ceilings, original cornice, tall sash windows, sometimes panelling — and cabinetry that is merely competent looks obviously wrong in them.
Proportion does most of the work. A face frame that reads correctly in a 2.4m room looks mean under a 3.5m ceiling. Cornice has to be scaled up. Tall runs need to be genuinely tall rather than stopping arbitrarily. Door stile widths, plinth heights and drawer rail positions all get set to the room rather than to a default. This is the natural home of in-frame construction, where a 3mm shadow gap around every door is the point of the exercise.
The practical constraints are real too. A great many properties are listed or in a conservation area, which affects anything touching historic fabric. Mansion blocks typically have a porter, a goods lift with fixed dimensions, restricted working hours and rules about deliveries. Estate management companies frequently require notice and sometimes insurance documentation before work begins — Ollie carries £1m public liability cover and can supply certificates on request.
All of it is straightforward when it is known at survey stage, which is why the survey here takes longer than the room alone would suggest.
Local housing
What we typically work on in Chelsea & Kensington
Mansion flats
Goods lifts, porters, restricted hours and delivery rules. Planned into the programme before the fit.
Listed & conservation-area property
Historic fabric worked around rather than through; consents confirmed before anything is fixed.
Mews & garden flats
Compact, often below ground, needing careful lighting and moisture-resistant construction.
Why local matters
The person who makes it fits it
Every kitchen is cut and assembled on one bench in Worthing and installed by the same pair of hands. No subcontracted fitters, no franchise, no handover between a designer who sold it and a fitter who has never seen the drawings.
- 01
One point of contact
Ollie surveys, quotes, makes, fits and paints. If something needs adjusting in two years, you ring him directly.
- 02
One kitchen at a time
Yours is not queued behind three others, and nobody disappears halfway through to start somebody else's job.
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A fixed written quote
Itemised cabinet by cabinet before anything is ordered, so you can see exactly what each element costs.
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Two-year guarantee
Plus £1m public liability cover for the whole time work is happening at your property.
Kitchen styles available in Chelsea & Kensington
Other joinery we do here
Also covering, near Chelsea & Kensington
South KensingtonKnightsbridgeBromptonEarl's CourtWest BromptonNotting HillHolland ParkBelgraviaPimlicoWorld's EndSloane Square
Local answers
Questions from Chelsea & Kensington clients
Yes. Ollie carries £1m public liability cover and can provide the certificate to a managing agent or estate management company before work starts. Most Chelsea and Kensington blocks ask for it, so it is worth requesting early to avoid delaying the start date.
Routinely. Restricted working hours, goods-lift dimensions, protected communal areas and notice periods for deliveries are all recorded at survey and built into the programme. Cabinet sizes are set so that everything fits the lift.
The kitchen is designed to sit within the historic fabric rather than alter it — freestanding-style cabinetry, fixings into non-original surfaces where possible, and no interference with cornice, panelling or original joinery. Anything that does affect listed fabric needs consent from the borough before it happens.
Usually. In-frame construction gives the run structure and rhythm that suits a tall, formal room, and the shadow gaps read beautifully in the kind of natural light a big sash window provides. See in-frame kitchens for how it is built.
Next step
Kitchens in Chelsea & Kensington start with a visit
Ollie will come to you, measure the room properly and tell you honestly what it can take. Free, no obligation, and a written quote within the week.