Kitchens Gunthorpe
Gunthorpe is a riverside village at the Trent bridge, and the kitchens here fall into two groups: those in the older cottages and riverside properties, and those in the postwar and modern housing beyond the village core.
We design and fit across Gunthorpe and the Trent-side villages either side from our showroom on Derby Road in Stapleford, about fourteen miles west on the A52 and A6097.
Cottage kitchens
Thick walls, ceilings that change height from room to room, and floors that have moved over a couple of centuries.
That means everything is scribed to the wall rather than pushed against it, and a standard wall-unit run at standard height can foul a lower ceiling. Both are survey questions rather than showroom ones, and both are considerably cheaper found before anything is ordered.
Traditional Kitchens Gunthorpe
Traditional Kitchens
Gunthorpe Nottingham
A low ceiling is also an opportunity. Wall units taken right up to it give a full extra shelf and remove the dust gap on top — in a smaller kitchen that storage is worth more than a cornice.
The period cottages around the Trent bridge are small-roomed and low-ceilinged, and most have been altered more than once. Floor levels rarely match between the original house and whatever was added behind it.
We set out from the highest point and lose the difference in the plinth line, so the worktop stays level even where the floor does not. In a small room that one decision is the difference between a fitted kitchen and a fitted-looking kitchen.
Where the room is genuinely tight, the useful moves are vertical. Full-height larder in place of two wall cupboards, drawers instead of base cupboards, and a shallow dresser on the wall that cannot take full-depth units.
Wall cupboards on every wall make a small room smaller. We would rather use one wall properly and leave the other clear.
Brecon Marine Blue and Chiltern Hunter Green both suit these buildings, and both hold depth in rooms where the light is limited for most of the day.
Modern Kitchens Gunthorpe
Services are usually the real constraint
In older riverside property the limiting factor is rarely the design, it is where the services already run. Waste is fixed, gas is often surface-mounted, and moving a sink any distance means achieving a fall to the existing waste.
On a solid floor that is a bigger job than it looks — not impossible, but it needs to be in the plan and the price from the start rather than discovered in week two.
Where a property is close to the Trent and in a flood risk area, it is worth choosing moisture-resistant carcass board for anything at floor level rather than standard chipboard. It costs little extra at the point of ordering and matters enormously if water ever reaches it.
Away from the bridge, the postwar and modern detached housing is a completely different job, regular rooms, decent ceiling height, and in many cases a rear aspect worth designing towards.
Where a house looks at the river, we keep the window wall low. Tall units and wall cupboards go on the internal walls, and the view stays the thing you notice.
Low-lying ground argues for engineered board or LVT rather than solid timber. Both cope with the humidity swings a riverside property sees through the year.
Flooring goes down after the cabinets, so an appliance can always come out later without lifting a floor that runs under it.
We fit Neff. In a modern open room a venting hob keeps the sightline clear; in a smaller kitchen the slide-and-hide oven door is the more useful feature, because a dropped door blocks a narrow walkway.
In Frame Kitchens Gunthorpe
The newer housing
Regular rooms, straight walls, often already open to a dining area. These take an island where there is room — about a metre of clear floor all round, more like 1.2 metres on the working side if two people cook at once.
Where the hob goes on an island, a vented cooktop keeps the sightline clear across an open-plan room. We fit Neff appliances including the venting hobs.
Doors and colour
Painted shaker suits both groups.
The cottage kitchens tend to have small original windows, and in that light a pale finish goes flat — Colbeck Heritage Green and Georgian Thicket hold their depth. Warwick is the in-frame range, with the door set inside the cabinet frame, and it is the right look in older village property.
For the brighter modern rooms, Denton Porcelain Cashmere and Clarkwell Light Grey Graphite, with Zagen and Cameo at the handleless end.
Across to Stapleford and Derby Road, with parking on site.
Sixteen ranges across kitchens and bathrooms, doors hung, drawers working, and the Aqualisa showers live on the wall.
On altered cottages the survey is where the real dimensions appear. Nothing is ordered before it.
Gunthorpe sits close to the boundary between Newark and Sherwood and Rushcliffe, so it is worth confirming which authority covers your address before assuming whose building control you are dealing with.
Kitchens Gallery
Half an hour out
Derby Road, Stapleford, NG9 7AD. Parking on site.
Call 0115 877 7595 or come and look — painted doors are unreliable in photographs and worth seeing under real light.
