Smarter Kitchens - A selection of some of our contemporary and minimalist style Kitchens

Once upon a time the only metal you'd find in kitchen design was a cast-iron range. Then it was promoted to doors and handles. But now it achieves star status in its own right in the cool, soft aluminium effect of Alustyle. This kitchen is sculpted, and subtly ribbed for added design interest and can be used as a feature area to enchance other door styles.

There's little in our collection that's as fuss-free as Avant Beige. Flat, flush-fitting high gloss surfaces allow your choice of handles to make as much or as little impact as you choose. And against this neutral backgound, it's the worktops and your decorating decisions that will really set the tone. So let the kitchen take a step back and your personality shine through.

Smooth is the key word for modern Kitchen design, and Avant Cappucccino is as streamlined as you can get. Inviting and inspiring with an impressive high gloss finish, the rich coffee tone oozes sophistication, feflection chic contemporary design. And for touch of individuality sweeping curved doors will add shape and stlyle to your interior.

If you want your kitchen to look cleanm, but you're worried about it looking clinical, take a slightly softer approach and opt for Avant Ivory. It's a shade that's perfectly suited to this uncluttered, modern gloss design, and it's neutral enough to allow you to make any colour chices you like for the rest of the room. Ivory is the ideal choice for individuality.

To the umcompromising modernist, the motto is 'any colour you like - as long as it's white.'And Avant White is the perfect feflection of that thought. it means brilliant facades of sweeping clarity, nothing getting in the way of the purity of the line. When you do choose a stand-out feature - worktop, curved or glazed door, the effect will be dramatic.

A combination of casual simplicity and cook sophistication. A look that can be achieved in fresh maaple, as in the picture, and also in warm beech. Bar handles on the bevelled doors complete the look.

Freeling is believing. The peach skin texture is pure velvet and the curved door edges complete the soft style. Rich alder adds a warm glow.

The simplicity of soft texture and curves work in harmony with linear stainless steel while the pinky tone of beech invite a mix of material.

Dramatic jet-black Blackjack with a sparkling higlight in brushed metal effect Steel. Ultra modern and very sophisticated.

Brio could hardy be any less elaborate, but it's the very essence of elegance and sophistication. That's partly dow to its warm cherry finish wher, if you look againg, you'll see a twist - the grain runs horizontally rather than straight up and down. Simple - but remember what we said about sophisticated?

Caprio convey the meaning of contemporary minimalism with a simple slab design and dramatic colouring. it makes a very confident statement, relying only on its just-so proportions and the boldness of its cherry veneer to make its impact. 'Less is more' is a much-abused concept, but if there's a better example of it than a Caprio kitchen, we've yet to find it.

Mouthwatering Chocolate together with cool blue Sky. Atruly inspiring and original colour combination, both contemporary and fun.

Chocolate also works well mixed with Vanilla, Ice or Steel.

Beech is the most recent addition to the Cologne range. Warm clean lines with complete flexibility of design and featured with aluframe doors, tambour unit and mide units.

Strikingly modern, that's Cologne. Finished in fashionable Maple with rolled edged relief which gently flows to the curved outer edges. Full size satin metal 'T' bar handles add a finishing touch that helps create a kitchen for the modernest.

We think of Columbus as an exercise in restraint: making the most of the beauty of the wood by allowing just the minimum of detail to add interest. The result is a kitchen that's neither ultra-modern nor old-style traditional - it just sits beaurifully between the two. So if bold statement are not your style, choos Columbus: the epitome of quiet good taste.

Cragside offers the perfect canvas on which to combine other material, colours and shapes. Not only does Cragside look great, it feels good too with its slightly textured surface adding a naturally tactile element. The modern tones of cream, caramel and brow create a stunning centrepeace in the granite worksurface, adding a natural feel to the kitchen.

The clean lines and attractive light maple combine o create the definitive minimalist look. The pale wood sets off the darkest of worktops.

To boldly go wher few of your contemporaries will ever tread, strike out for the kitchen that makes an unmistakable statement - fit Fresco. This is the look of confidence, for people who like to go to an extreme but stop before it gets outlandish. Because this isn't style for style's sake, it's a breath of fresh air that fulfils its function - real kitchen for real life.

In a world where 'contemporary design' can so often mean 'nine day wonder', its refreshing to see smoth, clean lines that simply don't date. This is no coutry or cottage kitchen, so choose Gulling Calvados and you're pinning your colours firmly to the modern mast.

Gullwing Maple capture the essence of contemporary chic with ists simple mix of clean design and blond maple colouring. This is a 21st century design that owes nothing to the distant past - wich is why it will still look good well into the future.

Fressh, light and natureal are words that aptly descibe Gullwing Oak. With its wide drawer, clian lines and chunky and panels, this modern, yet timeless design brings a confident and contemporary edge to any space - while it's simple, pared-down looks offer the perfect setting for entertaining.

Gullwing Vanilla blends a simple style with a soft cream finish to create the essential contemporary elements of light and space. The classic cream finish is given a modern design twist and is the key to easy-living elegance. Soft and subtle like the rest of the Gullwing family, Gullwing Vanilla allows you to mix and match doors between the ranges, or use contrasting accessories to create an altogether different feel.

Cool white gloss Ice and contrasting warm velvet brown Chocolate, not too cold, not too warm.

Create a show-stopping look with this unique reppled walnut drawer front. Mix with luxurious caramel gloss for a real visual treat.

Create true sophistication with this blend of cream and caramel, in pure ice cool gloss. The flavour of elegance.

Crisp gloss white borderd by rich, dark matt wood. Opposites attract and this stunning combination is sure to attract attention.

Create a professional kitchen with stainless steel - cool and functional. A masculine look which is enriched by the freshness of pure gloss white.

The rich warmth of alder with woodgrain complements theis flat, modern style and works well with stainless steel appliances and accessories.

Modernise a classic Maple kitchen with a shiny gloss finish and top it off with feature doors in Blackjack gloss black.

This is your chance to indulge yourself. The rich gloss finish of Metropolitan really brins out the tones of the maple beneath. Match it up with dark colours to make a bold, dramatic statement, or stay with lighter, cooler shades for something more welcoming.

The smooth, high gloss fronted doors are complemented by contrasting beech edges and units. A fresh, yet warm ambience is created. See Whitfield on the next page for matt cream option.

This unique design, with its soft sloping corners and light beech effect, introduces a distinctive feel. Simple and unadorned, the beech graing gives life to the door while creating adaptability with the other material in the kitchen. Features include screen glazed and pearced doors.

Contemporary chic: easy to say, difficult to achieve. But personified effortlessly by the simple good looks of Rivea. This modern style still managed to be warm and welcoming and what more could you ask of a kitchen? There's an attraction to in its light birch colouring, allowing you to create a sense of light and space whether you walls and floor go dark or light.

If you're after something flashy, something with real wow, then this lively combination is perfect for you. Radiant red Ruby together with brushed metal effect Steel as a finishing touch.

Proof that white isn't just the colour that you go for when you're stuck for ideas. Because in Saponetta, it's a bold design statement in its own right. With a high gloss finish, this is a kitchen that demands to be seen - and the neatly chamfered edges make the most of the shine with highlights that keep things lookign interesting. Is white right for you?

Tasteful and stunning, fresh and fashionable. Pale bue Sky with feature element in deep blue maple Neptune.

It take a great leap of imagination to take a material as tough as stainless steel out of the industrial and commercial worlds and put it into a domestic context - but our designers have managed it. You get all the pristine and practical beauty of the metal with sleek lines and a sheen that take it out of the canteen and into a sheen that take it out of the canteen and into your own kitchen.

A professional look for the home chef, maintenance free with bushed metal effect Steel. Mix with eye-catching red maple Venus for a real statement.

Ther have been enough cameras in enough celebrity chef kitchens for us all to know htat stainless stiil is the professional's choice - and it's also the inspiration behind Stellar. It's a chic, contemporary design that gives you a unique mix and match opportunity whilst still having the versatility of vinyl: you can choose similarly- styled doors from Metropolitan, Riva, Saponetta or Strata.

You've seen the birch, now enjoy the beech. Strata gives you a darker hue, but not a sombre one, to make your modernist mark. And the's still the same chamfering detail that gives a softer look to doors and drawers. It almos t looks curved - but it isn't. If anyone tells you that contemporary means cold, show them Strat - and see how quickly they change their mind.

Contemporary with a touch of continental chic, this easy to to live with colour co-ordinates with Beech or Cream accessories and sits comfortably with a hint of steel

No understated appeal here, Tempo Gloss is highly distinctive and destined to become a kitchen classic. Geltle gloss enriched by a bold handle to make a statement about your lifestyle.

The strikign clean look of the Mple effect kitchen is worthy of creative design and thoughful accessorisation.

Titanium n. strong, light, metallic element used to make alloys, Create your own mix.

A clean and functional feel. Undestated modernity. Pearl white with a texture finish and curved edge doors.

A robust and streamlined look. Light doors with tapered edges, together with a truly captativating horizontal woodgrain, create a really spacious kitchen. The very lates in contemporary styling.

Ice cream yellow Vanilla with soft bue Sky. A true Art Deco style combination evoking Miame beach life or even fifities retro.

The epitome of urban class. A chunky flat fronted door that exude quality and sophistication. The silky smooth maple wood and square edges say it all - a sleek and seamless kitchen.

White Gloss Kitchens have always given huge pleasure to those who enjoy clean lines. Smplicity or striking decor, both routes are handles but left clean, unclutterd and functional. A workhorse with style.

A calming, contemporary atmoshere created with smoth matt cream fronted doors complemented by contrastin striped beech edges and beech units. See Milton on the previous picture for a gloss cream option.

The fresh look of fashionable maple coupled with softly rounded door edges and peach skin texture. A modern masterpiece

Alustyle