Roman Engineering

Ey up my faithful blogworms, Simplicate .... strange word but when broken down it makes sense. Most things in life can be complicated, if you let them, but any project can be made simpler when you set your stall out right.

Take something complicated and simplify it .... Basically what I've said for a long time. Look to the Romans for inspiration, they created some stunning stuff with limited tools, knowledge and experience but a creative mind and an attitude that kept things simple but very effective ! .... Roman engineering .... simple and functionally spot on as the main aim, but always with an eye for design, the aesthetic followed and let's face it .... what they created lasted for centuries.

Here's some more concepts based on our 5 element 'Simplification' process showing how working with the 5 material palette can be so successful.
Wood grains can be used horizontal as well as vertical to contrast with pale / white plain colours.
It only start to look wrong if you over complicate things by using different colour woodgrain in different directions

Simplicate !


 However, same colour woodgrains work too if not overdone and balanced by single colour worktops and splashbacks. My only comment here is that I personally would have gone for a plainer floor and in this room set, I think the oven is too low !

Simplicate !

This one, I feel, is a classic where plain solid colour doors are brought to life by the framing effect of the wood grain, very simplicated, elegant standard which is still very much the main stay of the market at the moment.

A new kid on the block is the idea of reproducing a 'concrete' look into your worktops. Still keeping the natural materials feel about it, put with a white kitchen it just adds some character to the mix. 

Using a contrasting floor here, as dark as you like, provides a great platform to really show off a light coloured kitchen.


Using the ability within our 5 material simplification, to install matching, complementing or contrasting splashback / worktop combinations always makes for a cleaner, more contemporary feel to a kitchen project and is eminently more practical in terms of cleaning than using tiles.

Don't get me wrong, I still feel that tiles can play an important part in a kitchen project but it very much depends on the style you are trying to create.

Simplicating a process, I suppose, is nothing new as Roman engineering got there first, but for the modern age where life is complicated enough, anything that makes life simpler but still effective has surely got to be a good thing ???

Apart from this .... I've invented a new word .... how fab is that ??

Jules