We had the opportunity to see the best in European kitchen design when we visited with designers from the Marchi Group (note this link has music on their website) in Germany at IMM Cologne Living Kitchen. The Marchi Group’s master craftsmen work with wood, forged metals, and stone when designing a kitchen or kitchen island. The design possibilities with this cabinetry excite us as they embrace concepts that move between the past and the future. The cabinet designs feature iron, exposed bolts, rivets, and gentle shades of solid wood that come together like a sophisticated piece of artwork.
The kitchen you see here is the Nolita Kitchen. This is quite simply good design. We love the bar rail detail where the upper cabinets split and what’s really interesting is that their talls don’t come all the way up. The tall cabinets only come up about 3/4 of the way; then, the cabinets are stepped back to a narrower section going through the middle.
The cabinet door detail is very interesting and quite unique. We haven’t seen this door style before. What you see here is actually a raised panel on a raised panel. It is a standard 5 piece cabinet door with a raised center panel but the raised center panel is a series of panels. You have the standard inside cove molding, then you have another unique, almost provincial, raised panel detail with a wooden peg. This unique center raised panel gives the kitchen a sophisticated country feel.
We take notice of kitchen design details like this. Good design is what makes a kitchen exciting. This look is right in line with the trends we saw in Europe at Living Kitchen. This one combined very textured rustic barn boards with a cement backsplash and countertop with a zink metal edge and exposed screws. Incorporating a towel bar into the sink front gives it a great country flair.
Photo Credits: The Marchi Group
I particularly like the way they didn’t overpower the space with heavy tall cabinets. Their deeper tall pantries are only about 65-66 tall. The rest of the upper cabinets are recessed for a lighter feeling within the space that includes a combination of some open shelving and a secondary stacked set of cabinets.
What we saw is a company being very creative with the rustic, country, barn-like kitchen style theme we saw trending at Living Kitchen in Germany. They had a unique take on the look with styling similar to what we design with Wood-Mode or Bentwood cabinetry. Do you like it?
Related Reading from IMM Cologne Living Kitchen:
Kitchen Trends from IMM Cologne Living Kitchen in Germany
Design Trends: 10 of the Best Ideas for Adding Color to Your Kitchen
Blanco Makes Ken Kelly a Fan of The Micro Edge Sink at IMM Cologne Living Kitchen 2013
Unique Modern Kitchen Combination Alternating High Gloss and Matt Finish
