Kitchen of the Week: A Sensuous Collection for Reform by French Designer Inga Sempé
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This just in—literally, as of yesterday: a new collection of cabinets by the French designer Inga Sempé for Reform. Called Column, the designs are elegant and sophisticated—with some “original details that break with the conventions of the kitchen,” according to Reform.
“Industrial kitchens often look the same as home kitchens these days. Like a sum of cubes,” Sempé told Reform. “We are obliged to live surrounded by these cubes, and I’m fed up with it. I just wanted to do something warm and different. Beautiful and rich, but not antipathetic.”
Behold, the clean yet curvilinear results:
Above: The Column kitchen plays with roundedness and curves, adding dimension to cabinet fronts with long handles that span the full length. “The main characteristic of a kitchen is the handle,” Sempé explained. “That is what I chose to focus on. To make something without it becoming a gadget, fake or aggressive. I think it is easy to do an aggressive kitchen that looks different and to justify it by calling it design. I wanted to make something smooth, but with a very strong personality.”
Shown is the kitchen in one of many color and material combinations: natural oak handles and painted veneer cabinets in the color Fresh Cream.
Above: A tone-on-tone approach, with cabinets and handles all in Fresh Cream.Above: The handle looks semicircular from the front but is actually mushroom-shaped: “Easy to grab, and feels good to the touch,” according to Reform.Above: Taller cabinets with drawers for efficient storage.
Above: A closeup of the handles—and of the storage within—all in white ash. When we first featured it back in 2018, Copenhagen-based Reform offered cabinet fronts designed to kit out Ikea cabinet boxes (see Ikea Kitchen Upgrade: 11 Custom Cabinet Companies for the Ultimate Kitchen Hack)—but they’ve since grown to offer all their own cabinet interiors instead.
Above: The Column kitchen—and island—in natural oak. The handles bisect the cabinet fronts and give the collection its name.Above: The kitchen is available in six finishes: natural oak, white ash, and painted veneer in hues (Fresh Cream, Pistachio, Concrete, and Dark Umbra, shown here on the back cabinets).Above: For more info—and to watch a charming video of Sempé in her Paris studio—head to Reform.
