Mr Murphin

Creative Interiors designer Elie-Mai Tully-Brown talks us through one of her latest projects…

Tell us a bit about yourself!

My love for interior design began watching DIY shows growing up – my favourites were 60 Minute Makeover and Extreme Makeover. It was the process that attracted me – from the beginning, the development stage through to the finished result. Seeing the clients overwhelmed with emotion as their whole life has been transformed just through the work of design really resonated with me and I knew this was the career path that I wanted to pursue.

I went on to study Interior Design at De Montfort University in Leicester, where I learned many aspects of design that led me to my first job as a design assistant. There, I was involved with office design and learned the benefits of how to improve the well-being in the office, as well as how to stimulate creativity and focus. After that I moved onto exhibition design, working on large international museums to curating stories for exhibition cases to display and engage a larger audience.

Following that, I wanted to expand my knowledge and technical abilities, so I moved to Creed Design in Enderby, where my role mostly consisted of commercial and hospitality design. Working on big chain restaurants, my understanding of spatial design flourished, from working from plans to creating zonal plans and creating schemes to suit a wider audience.

What eventually led me to kitchen and home design is the fact that I’m able to be more personable – I get to know the client, their dreams and ambitions, where I can really help push their vision and improve their lifestyle and wellbeing.

What did the customer want to achieve with the kitchen renovation?

My client Mr Murphin wanted to create something bold and interesting that suited his property.

We started off by creating mood boards and visuals of the desired space, looking at character kitchens with an island, Double Belfast sinks, banquette seating with storage and a pantry. We instantly knew that our Creative Interiors bespoke in-frame painted kitchen would be the direction for this home. After we agreed on the initial concept, I created a 3D model of the design and asked the client to come back in to overview the proposed lay-out. Once that was agreed, we started looking at colours, materials and finishes. The kitchen was finished and painted in Little Greene’s Three Farm Green with Lissa oak internal cabinetry and bespoke on counter pantry.

How did you transform their ideas into reality?

With this kitchen, the client wanted many bespoke elements, such as an engraved canopy for the extractor, open plan pantry and banquette seating, so the kitchen could be the social hub of the home. We had to come up with clever ideas to balance the kitchen with the additional elements requested, so we really worked on layout, sizing of cabinets and how it would all fit together in the grand scheme of things. The Creative Interiors range gave us the flexibility within the design that we needed to create those bespoke desired pieces.

What details did the kitchen include?

The space was packed full of clever design features to create more storage and a sleek aesthetic. The focal point of the whole space was the range cooker, and the plans were based around this feature. We created an engraved canopy for the extractor above the range to make a real centrepiece. It also featured an on counter pantry to store items neatly away, with tall housing for fridge freezer and double Belfast sinks on the island. The worktops were white-quartz with marble veining, and we added tongue and groove end panels to the island, all of which were hand painted. While we didn’t build the pantry and banquette seat layout, we did create the spatial plan for the space to ensure the room worked as a whole.