Handcrafted since 1973
Inside the Project · St James's, London
Location
St James’s, Central London
Room
Kitchen, one of four rooms we designed
Programme
Part of a 12-month penthouse refurbishment
Signature
Backlit bookmatched onyx wall
Build Partner
R&K Bathrooms (structural build)
Ampika wanted a “Personal Palace”: a private retreat that ignored passing trends in favour of high-glamour statement design.
The direction was clear from our first meeting: gold, chocolate and leather. The kitchen had to feel bold, unapologetic and entirely hers.
In Her Words
“When you’re able to showcase what’s inside my head and put it all together, where I go ‘wow’, that’s when you’ve got real customer satisfaction.”Ampika
Ampika walks through the finished kitchen and talks about the brief, the materials and what it is like to live with.
The Kitchen · Film · 4 min
We plan every room in full CGI before anything is made. Every fixing point and service run was set out from these renders, so the cabinetry, the Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances and the 150cm Lofra Dolcevita range fitted exactly as drawn.
The kitchen started as a stripped-back shell, moments from St James’s Park. Walls were opened up and new mechanical and electrical layouts put in.
R&K Bathrooms led the structural build while we designed and handmade the furniture, timing every delivery of stone and cabinetry around a working central London site.
The cabinetry is finished in a bespoke deep chocolate paint, then buffed and hand-polished over several stages until it has an almost liquid, mirror-like depth.
It shifts in tone with the light and movement in the room, while gold trim and leather detailing add warmth to the darker palette.
The anchor of the room is a wall of bookmatched semi-precious onyx, chosen for its dramatic veining.
Lit from behind, it works as a splashback by day and a glowing piece of natural art at night, set against Quicksand Brown granite worktops.
The penthouse has a separate bar and lounge for guests, so the kitchen was designed to run quietly in the background.
Professional-grade appliances handle catered dinners for a crowd, yet the room still feels personal for a quick breakfast.
Cabinetry
Hand-polished mirror-finish lacquer in deep chocolate, gold trim
Feature Wall
Backlit bookmatched semi-precious onyx
Worktops
Quicksand Brown granite
Cooking
Lofra Dolcevita 150cm range cooker, Wolf combi oven and warming drawer
Cooling & Coffee
Sub-Zero refrigeration and wine storage, Wolf coffee system
Details
Leather panelling, gold ceiling, feature pendants over the island
Backlit stone, high-gloss lacquer and gold, photographed on the final shoot.
★★★★★ 5.0 from 21 Google reviews
Talk to the design team behind this kitchen, or start with our Look Book of recent projects. Kitchen cabinetry starts from £40,000, designed and made to order in our own workshop.
The final photo and film shoot was led by photographers Paul Craig and Arthur Siuksta.
Ampika’s confidence carried through to the shoot itself and gave the day its own energy.
The Full Penthouse
Film · 2 min
Inside the Project
Inside the Project
The 2026 Look Book
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