When the kitchen portfolio project began we knew we wanted certain things; custom cooker hoods, exposed ductwork, handleless cabinetry and domino hobs. We also wanted to specifically avoid a frustration we have with many kitchen designs we see. It's a small but significant thing, something that, despite it's diminutive size, has a disproportionate affect on the aesthetics and finally, something that's required making "opting-out" a non-starter. We're talking about sockets and switches...
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| Punching above their weight aesthetically |
First lets deal with numbers; a visit to a customer site recently to discuss some work revealed a kitchen featuring no less than 20 sockets. This is a kitchen of modest proportions for a customer who lives on their own, has integrated appliances and only a passing interest in cooking. Now this is nothing extraordinary, we've seen kitchens with more. There seems to be a surfeit of sockets effect in kitchens, an assumption that you can never have too many but consider for a moment whether that's in fact correct. Integrated appliances, built-in appliances, hot taps - all these reduce the number you need. The modern predilection for clean/clutter free/minimalist influenced look means that increasingly our worktop appliances are hidden away when not in use.
Ask your self when was the last time you boiled a kettle, whilst making toast, toasting a sandwich, grinding coffee, mixing egg whites to make a meringue and running a bread-maker all at the same time?
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| Got sockets? |
Now lets move on to a question of aesthetics; all those glossy kitchens you see in Elle Decoration or World of Interior adverts for example - notice anything? No sockets, no switches... Yes, they're staged that way because they simply look better sans-socketswitchery. How often have you seen an otherwise elegantly specified and installed kitchen brought down to earth with a clunk by a bank of tasteful sockets and switches with large red rockers and a handy label saying "Cooker"?
The typical double pole, 20A switch required to switch on and off your cooker doesn't actually have to be on-display. When was the last time you actually turned your cooker off? Can you even remember how to set the clock on it? In our case the challenge was that we had 4 of these to "play" with; 1 for the cooker and 3 for the domino hobs - even with the best will in the world it would have looked ridiculous to have these presented in the standard way; this is a kitchen, after all, and not a faux NASA control panel.
The solution was simple, almost ridiculously so, and actually (ironically) easier than the "normal" option; hiding them, in our case we leveraged the spare room under the built-in oven to locate all switching and then hid it behind a bespoke cover made of the same Wenge used for the worktops and secured with magnetic catches. The end effect is very neat, no exposed switches but still "easy" to access should the need arise. There is nothing wrong with this approach - assuming your cabinetry is fixed and not free-standing you can use this method.
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| Nice kitchen, something's missing though - ah yes publicity shot! |
Now we get to the "meat'n'potatoes" of this article and get to the subject of sockets. There are, broadly speaking, 3 primary options available:
- Standard double/single sockets mounted vertically on the wall (through the splashback(s) if required)
- Wedge sockets sitting underneath the wall cabinetry
- Pop-up "man-cave" sockets - lots of options here some just pop-up, some revolve, some have blue lighting, some have USB sockets, some have all of these
The most common option is number 1; typically a stainless or brushed-steel finish is chosen, sometimes an adventurous option such as pink glass is chosen BUT without fail the common factor is that whatever your material choice it will be accompanied by a plastic 3 pin, 13A socket insert in either black or white. You can spend thousands on Ostrich skin face plates, face plates hand knitted from carbon fibre, hard-annodised titanium face plates but you'll still end up with that chunk of plastic on display
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| Bead blasted by hand by an artisan who only makes one a year and will only sell to you if the socket speaks to you = priceless. Plastic inserts in contrasting shiny black = disappointment |
Wedge sockets can work well; they sit underneath your wall cabinetry and despite still being based on those plastic inserts can effectively be invisible
Pop-up sockets are relatively new, they require a substantial cut out in your work-surfacing with a fair amount of room required below the work-surface when in the pop-down position. We've yet to see a design that offers a single socket available with the sockets in the pop-down position which means to use one socket the entire gang of three (typically) needs to be on show. There's a second type of pop-up socket which is a motorised design that rotates the sockets round and when not in the rotated position has a stainless steel plate or similar on display. Whilst the concept is appealing (of either type) they do seem to be designed primarily to offer a hint of manly man type coolness to a kitchen.
As the technology matures we'd like to see more interesting material choices and exploitation of the closed position to surface a single socket for those times you just want to plug in the bluetooth wi-fi streaming enabled smoothie maker with LED colour wash technology.
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| Pop-up! Spot the issue(s)? Big hole, only accessible when popped up. Marketing photo as well - that socket would either be stopping your cutlery drawer opening, sitting in the middle of your pan cupboard or need one of those unusual ovens with a sunroof |
Needless to say we didn't really like the idea of any of those options and after time spent searching for an "out-of-the-box" solution we gave up and went for bespoke. We had some specific initial criteria which drove the design process:
- The design should use a standard, commercially available and regulatory approved 13A 3pin module
- The design should use standard solid wall or dry-lining pattresses
- The design should be recognisably bespoke
- The design should allow an appliance to be plugged in BUT to have the plug concealed (yes this is where it gets tricky)
Fortunately MK Electric helped us to meet the requirement for using a standard 13A 3pin module. They manufacture a circular socket which is fully approved and whilst designed primarily for panel mounting is ideally suited for integration into a custom fixture.
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| MK 735 WHI - or a circular 13A 3pin, side entry, chassis mounting socket |
To use a standard pattress really meant that the design should allow for attaching to 60mm spaced (for single gang boxes) M3.5mm mounting holes - just drill holes in the right place and all should be ok!
Recognisably bespoke was easy - due to requirement number 4 there was no way the final design would not look bespoke. We did, however, go further with this by deliberately varying one design aspect to introduce a distinct sense of individuality to each fixture.
The last requirement then, that's where the "work" was. To allow an appliance to be plugged in but to conceal the plug meant some kind of lid/opening. We didn't want to have to mandate some kind of installation process with each appliance - in other words a solution needing the plug to be cut-off and replaced with something special or for the cable to be threaded would not be acceptable.
We made some quick decisions from the start which helped to clarify our design thoughts;
- We decided on 5 total sockets needed - this would allow for current and future expansion of worktop appliances
- We decided to use single gang sockets - this was driven by some aesthetic considerations of installation spacing as well as the inherently square form factor of the single gang design
- We decided to use a circular lid/cap to contrast with the square form factor discussed above and to control the visual weight of the design
We modeled the base design in Autodesk's superb
Fusion360 software (which we discussed here
Seven Days: Six Twelve Fifteen). We don't always produce a CAD drawing or 3D model but for the more complex projects which will involve considerable time and need to integrate with off the shelf parts it's a very useful tool. Whilst we're confident in our ability to visualize designs in our minds sometimes nothing beats being able to spin a model around, look at it from different angles and confirm measurements.
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| Initial model, finished result is very close to this with the omission of the steel band (the dark strip in the image above on the cap) due to moving to a custom fit rather than magnetic |
As you can see from the model each socket is comprised of 3 parts; the MK module, the socket body/frame and the cap. The body/frame and cap were machined in our workshop from aluminium. The original thinking was to use neodymium magnets to secure the cap to the body but ultimately we decided on the more time consuming but more "satisfying" approach of custom fitting each cap. In the linked album you'll see where we stamped each cap and body/frame as we custom fitted them together.
The machining process for both components was relatively simple, if not time consuming due to the care required. There was, however, another vital aspect of this part of the project; surface finishing. There were 2 aspects to this; the components need to look (and feel) "nice" and they must not pose any risk to the plug or cable of an appliance plugged in.
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| Nearly done. The socket bodies and caps prior to final, final finishing |
Surface finishing of the body/frame component was largely a by hand process. We used various grades of abrasive to achieve a subtle, brushed type finish that, for a metallic component, is surprisingly tactile. Edges were "blurred" to remove any potential sharp points and the corners were subtley pillowed. Surface finishing of the caps was carried out in a similar way but on a machine, permitted by their circular nature. The final finishing operation is a bokoshoko trade secret which renders a very clean finish and completes the soft, tactile appearance.
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| Hand finished socket bodies before final "family secret" process |
Installation was by far the easiest part of the overall process. Care was taken to not bruise the wall finish or the socket body/frame itself and to ensure each socket was level. It was this last aspect where we would refine the design next time; The individual pattresses are not level and the adjustment afforded by our 4.5mm holes in the socket bodies insufficient to fully level across paired sockets. We'd look to incorporate either a slotted mounting or potentially an intermediate plate.
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| All the same but all different. Each cap is subtly different but the key dimensions are consistent across all 5 as is the feature making it easy to grasp the cap when removing or replacing |
We're very pleased with the end result which has delivered a unique solution to a common challenge. The decision to vary, subtly, the design of each cap has fully delivered on the promise of a fully bespoke design. Using the circular cap with square body worked well as a way to reduce the visual heft of each component (earlier design iterations used a square cap which simply became too big). We did entertain the idea of using a stainless steel lanyard between the socket body and cap but felt that this would detract from the very clean lines of the finished design.
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| Proof it all hangs together! Testing the principle and thankfully we met all the requirements |
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| Per normal - very difficult to photograph nicely but here's one pair in their closed state |
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- Warning!
- Any electrical work in the kitchen potentially falls under Part-P regulations. Consult a qualified electrician before starting any electrical work. You may need local council approval for work you intend to carry out. In this specific project the 13A 3pin module comes from an approved manufacturer. The socket body and cap (when in place) are both connected to a proper earth
To see the complete album associated with this article click here!
