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www.thedesignermagazine.com
“I WAnT To Do The KITChen In 10 DoWnInG
STreeT... I’ve WrITTen To TheM SAYInG I ThInK
TheY neeDeD A CABIneT reShuffLe”
But it is the use of colour that makes “I’ve never been obsessed with solving design
many of his designs so distinctive. “Colour through high-tech solutions. We’re going
gives you the chance to balance a design,” back to clients’ kitchens we did 10 or 15
he explains. “You can’t just use one material years ago and the only things they want
in a space. It looks like you can’t be to change are the appliances. I also think
bothered to make it look like a furnished it’s interesting that at Smallbone we had a
room. It’s like an operating theatre or a policy of installing raised height dishwashers,
machine shop. Colour gives a lot of subtle which the industry hated. But they’re
messages to the brain. To have different everywhere now, and once you’ve had one
intensities is good, to emphasise shape. It’s a you never go back.”
great tool to have.” Despite a long and distinguished track
And yet Grey is somewhat uncomfortable record in the industry, Grey has no shortage
with the idea that it is possible to tell his of hunger for the next challenge or two.
kitchens from a thousand paces. “People “There seems so much more to do,” he says.
tell me they can spot a Johnny Grey kitchen “I would like to work with a big manufacturer,
easily and that makes me squirm a little. a little like I did with Smallbone all those
But inevitably one has design principals years ago, but we now have more experience.
you apply to whatever you do. I’d say they “I also want to do the kitchen in 10
include a sense of ease about the space. Downing Street. I’ve got a newspaper picture
It’s not about slick minimalism, it’s about of Gordon Brown in front of me, standing in
comfort. They should be fantastically the same kitchen Margaret Thatcher had. It’s
efficient, even if they don’t look like kitchens. terrible – there’s so much cabinetry there’s
“I feel sad the way people want everything barely room for two people. I’ve written to
to look new all the time. Let materials age a them saying I think they needed a cabinet
bit. Kitchens should be used. In Japan, they reshuffle.” designer
have the idea of the art of imperfection:
things that look handmade are precious.” Johnny Grey
And does this extend to the technology
www.johnnygrey.co.uk
we all seem to like to fill our kitchens with?
Jonny Grey.indd 36 27/8/08 15:35:30
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