Style: February 07, 2020

44 STYLE | home
HEART OF THE HOME
For interior designer Katy Husband, the kitchen is a busy hub full of life and
love. When redesigning, she says function and beauty need to work together.
Stirring bubbling casseroles, licking the bowl, patching up
bumps and bruises or offering a listening ear over steeping
cups of tea – our kitchens are the epicentre of our homes.
In my family, we show love through cooking and eating
together. My mother is an amazing self-taught cook who
seems to be able to turn her hand to a vast array of fusion
dishes and elaborate desserts while still keeping the extended
family pantries filled with jams, jellies, pickles and our annual
Christmas cakes.
Our kitchen seems to bookend our family life. We prepare
for the day ahead with breakfast and filling lunch boxes, and
in the afternoon it is the space where we download, digest
and recalibrate, over snacks and then dinner. The kitchen
island seems to work much like a train station, with little
bodies hopping on and off barstools to access platters of
food while parents have drinks, prepare, cook and catch up
on daily life.
It is far from perfect, and I often dream of my wellpositioned,
well-proportioned and thoroughly divine kitchen.
However, my desire for our kitchen space is for it to remain
the heart of our home, where we can congregate as family
and friends; and for my children, when they grow up and
leave home, I hope they look forward to their return to the
kitchen and they reconnect to love through cooking and
eating, as we while away the hours together.
This is why function and beauty need to cohabit in a
kitchen, and that’s what you need to consider if you are
refreshing or designing your space.