If you’re planning on a DIY project during those long winter nights, you could think about creating a bachelor pad kitchen. When you’re redesigning your home, bedrooms and living rooms often come first, but you can spend a lot of time in your kitchen, too. You need the staples – a big table to eat from and replacement kitchen doors – once you've decided on the style of these, you can add the rest of your décor.

Which door?

The ultimate bachelor pad is a great mixture of the sleek and the rugged, of simple natural colours in both dark and light, and great design pieces. We suggest centring your kitchen around your kitchen doors – gloss anthracite, black, or metallic black in one of our bold and simple designs like the Slab or Bevelled Edges will look sleek and striking. They have the advantage of being practical, too – easy to clean and hardwearing, and they won’t lose their deep shine. Stripped floorboards look simple and practical too. Choose a wood or laminate in a medium dark wood, or try polished concrete for an industrial effect.

A table?

Now add your statement table. Something chunky and rugged, in a natural material will look great against the smooth kitchen cabinets in the background. A natural wood with a distinct grain, or slate topped surface would be perfect. It doesn't have to be big to be striking. Add some lighting over it – a pendant light that you can pull down to cast a pool of light when you’re eating in a modern design and a stripped back metal would be good. Tin or aluminium is a good contrast to the natural materials. Don’t forget some accent lights in the corners of the room too. Again, you want functional, modern design. Perch some angled lamps around. And don’t forget your work light – practical, bright lights on your kitchen surfaces so that you can see exactly what you’re doing when you create your gastronomic masterpieces.

Kitchen decoration for a bachelor pad

Talking of masterpieces, now you need some art on your walls. Choose a bold, striking piece, preferably monochrome or in just a few colours. A moody black and white photograph, enlarged and framed, fits this scheme well. Make sure you do frame your artworks, whatever you choose. A curling and tattered poster secured with blu tack just isn't going to cut it. Besides, frames will protect your precious pieces, especially important in the working environment of a kitchen. In fact, if you have an especially steamy kitchen or you like to cook with flair and verve (i.e. messily) you might want to skip the “Art” step.

Accessorise

Instead, say it with accessories. You can keep your kitchen cupboard’s sleek look with matching sleek handles; we have chrome wave handles which are like mini art works in their own right. Or, have a look at a contrasting handle in bronze or brass. It will add to the deliberately disjointed effect of having a lot of textures and finishes together in one place. Handles are a small detail, but an essential one. You can also add a design statement in the form of your toaster, or coffee-maker. A big, 50’s chrome toaster will be really eye catching, or a pop of scarlet on your cafetiere or good old fashioned teapot will be a good foil for the natural colours all around.

Remember not to overdo it. The best bachelor pad looks stripped back, with a few good design features in solid, masculine colours and finishes. We hope that this gives you some inspiration as a starting point for your own impressive designer kitchen.