“If I can’t make it, I will buy vintage or reclaimed,” designer Francesca Gaskin told The Modern House, where we first spotted her personality-filled home in Bristol, England. True to her word, her kitchen is an artful amalgam of DIY, secondhand, and re-use.
Sustainability was the motivating force behind her design decisions. “The only way to ensure the longevity of the space and the objects you bring into it is to invest in timeless design, and products that have been manufactured in a sustainable way,” she said. “More than ever, when you are designing a house you need to consider its impact on the environment.”
Another inspiration? The Burning Man festival. “The kitchen is based on a photograph I took at Burning Man festival, which I’ve been going to for 10 years,” she said. “I matched the color of the floorboards to the color of the white playa dust that I brought back from the desert. The kitchen units are made from steel and are the same pinky-orange as a shipping container in the photograph. I left the walls as bare plaster to represents the mountains that surround the playa, but the corners of the room and the cornicing I painted blue to evoke the sky.”
We recently asked Francesca, who not long ago launched environmentally conscious interior design company Jetsam Made, to share the other secrets behind her striking kitchen remodel.
Photography courtesy of The Modern House.
![\2\20;i designed and did the joinery and had the steel frame fabricated, 17](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/francesca-gaskin-kitchen-modern-house-2-733x489.jpeg)
![the cabinet fronts are made of birch plywood; the handles are from ikea. &# 18](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/francesca-gaskin-kitchen-modern-house-3-733x1099.jpeg)
![there are three rice paper pendant lights by hay, in various sizes, in the spac 19](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/francesca-gaskin-kitchen-modern-house-4-733x489.jpeg)
![the plastered walls were painted with limewash. the blue is little green paint 20](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/francesca-gaskin-kitchen-modern-house-5-733x489.jpeg)
![francesca lived in the house for six months before she committed to a remodel, 21](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/francesca-gaskin-kitchen-modern-house-1-733x489.jpeg)
![\2\20;i built the banquette myself,\2\2\1; she tells us. \ 22](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/francesca-gaskin-kitchen-modern-house-6-733x1099.jpeg)
![the palette in the kitchen is inspired by the drive through the desert to burni 23](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/francesca-gaskin-kitchen-modern-house-7-733x1099.jpeg)
For more colorful kitchens, see:
- Kitchen of the Week: A Mexico City Makeover in Apple Green
- Steal This Look: A Deep Yellow Shaker Kitchen in London
- Kitchen of the Week: Base Cabinets by Ikea, Chic and Colorful Doors by Reform
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