Karine Köng’s Minimalist Kitchen

Karine Köng

French-born Karine Candice Köng is a photographer, stylist and creative director. Three years ago, after 23 years of living in London, Karine relocated to the Bay of Arcachon on the south west coast of France.

Karine’s own kitchen in her new French home was the fourth kitchen project she took on. Drawing on her personal and professional experience and her own sense of the aesthetic, the space had to reflect her most intimate desires and requirements. Karine and her family wanted to grow in a unique place, with a kitchen that encourages well-being and a sense of holiday all year round.

Karine’s Kitchen Inspirations

Inspired by the natural materials of wood, linen, marble and cotton,Karine Köng wanted a light and minimalist Scandinavian inspired kitchen. With the house located close to the beach, Karine desired the space to have a coastal feel. Most of all, it was important that the kitchen met her family’s needs.

Karine’s kitchen has an open plan design, combining the kitchen, living room and dining room in one. Offering benefits in terms of design, storage and ease of use, the kitchen is now the perfect hub for entertaining and gathering as a family. Karine, her family and her guests can use the space to talk and enjoy each other’s company whilst cooking or eating.

The Worktops

Central to the design are the spacious worktops. The breakfast counter and large workspaces, one of 120 cm, the other of 114 cm, can be used from the kitchen and sitting room. This flexibility reflects the family’s wishes to grow, cook and live in one airy and spacious room.

In addition to beautiful aesthetics, Karine Köng wanted a functional kitchen. A big element of this was choosing surfaces that were solid, easy to maintain and hard wearing. After some research, she chose Silestone quartz surfaces, sourced from her local marble workshop HM Deco. To maintain a sense of flow between her work surfaces and the grey, concrete style floor, Karine chose the Silestone Eternal Statuario design by Cosentino.

The Benefits

With a high resistance to stains and scratches, Silestone also boasts an impressive 25 -year guarantee. This combined with the surface’s beauty was of great appeal to Karine Köng and perfectly met her brief for elegant practicality. What’s more, the Silestone Eternal collection surfaces, which includes Statuario, are further enhanced by clever N-Boost technology to further improve its brilliant depth of colour and makes it easier than ever to maintain. Karine opted for the soft and tactile suede finish for the worktops, whilst a large piece of Eternal Statuario was also used for the splashback.

Karine says, «I am still impressed when I see the point to which these quartz counters have enhanced our kitchen, which is on an Ikea base. It is a hugely pleasing kitchen, since it is convivial, aesthetic and minimalist all at once. It is a joy to see it and to grow with it every day.”