Candid, honest, useful advice on all things kitchens, furniture, design, and wood, from the younger brother at H. Miller Bros.
August
2025
The origins of our Set Menu kitchen
When we were conceiving the idea of our Set Menu kitchen, we wanted to create a design that brought together all the best bits of our genuinely original designs. A curated set of elements, features and details that we know our client love, and which new people getting in touch always ask about.
Here are five of our favourite details, where they came from, and how we’ve evolved them over the years….
Pull Handles - from our Furniture Maker’s kitchen
The pull handle in our Set Menu kitchen was first designed for our Furniture Maker’s Kitchen in 2020. It’s a simple bar of solid hardwood, attached to the top of our flush front doors and drawer fronts, with an ergonomic finger groove machined into the underside.
The original design created a grid of protruding handles and fins, which added articulation, and depth-and-reveal to the cabinetry. Over the years we've made small refinements and amendments to make the groove even more comfortable. We now make a version of this pull for hinged cabinet doors too, where we include a clever notch machined into the hinged edge so the pull avoids conflicting with the cabinetry.
Postcard shelf - from Saitama kitchen
The Saitama kitchen is one of our personal favourite projects, partly because it’s a special design in beautiful British Elm, and partly because the clients, Joe and Rejina, were so much fun to work with. There are loads of details which evolved from this project that we now incorporate into our work, but one of the best is the small postcard shelf above the sink. It’s great for displaying keepsakes, storing small essentials like salt and pepper, and comes in particularly handy for invitations, school notes and, of course, postcards!
We love this detail so much that our postcard shelf is now included in every Set Menu Kitchen.
Cabinet Fins - from our Photographer’s Kitchen
The Photographer’s Kitchen remains a firm favourite amongst those of you who get in touch, and it’s where we started to experiment with the fins that divide one cabinet from the next.
In the Photographer’s Kitchen, the fins are accompanied by horizontal bars above and below each cabinet, but we decided to refine this detail as we had feedback that the horizontal parts collected dust and detritus from the workshop. In the Set Menu, we’ve kept the fins to vertical only, and we stop them at the top of the plinth, so it's easier to run a vacuum or brush along the plinth.
The fins in our Set menu are maybe one of the most recognisable features, and we think they add a sophistication to the design that’s hard to achieve with flush, off-the-shelf cabinetry.
Pantry cabinet – from our Seaside Kitchen
Many years ago we made a lovely kitchen for our friend Catherine in New Brighton. There are some super bespoke features in this project, including a cork backsplash for pinning up her children’s pictures.
But the feature from this kitchen that we’re most proud of is the pantry cabinet. It’s a TARDIS of storage, especially for those difficult to house items like wine glasses and tall bottles.
The back of door storage really increases the usable space of this cabinet, and plug sockets in the back panel mean that smaller appliances can be hidden away rather than taking up prep space on worktops. The half-depth shelves in this cabinet allow for jars and cans to be stored without things getting lost, and the stone lining means it’s easy to keep clean.
We think that a good pantry cabinet is so essential to a delightful kitchen that it’s included as standard in every Set Menu.
Lined drawers - from Kitchen with a view
Finally, our lined drawers. We’ve always made specially lined drawers for our kitchens, and clients often comment that these are their favourite parts. Having iterated our cutlery and utensil drawers over dozens of genuinely original projects, we think we’ve come up with the perfect mix of specificity and flexibility. And we can even add knife blocks and other special details to match your kitchen.
We’ve also perfected our bin drawers so that now you can include a food waste caddy alongside general and recycling bins. We've also improved our self-sealing bin shelf, which is now made from a specially folded section of stainless steel that we designed just for the Set Menu, so it’s bomb-proof and easy to clean.
Every Set Menu kitchen includes a drawer lined for cutlery, another for utensils, and our signature bin drawer with self-sealing stainless shelf. And if you want other linings, there are endless options you can add for everything from spices, to table ware, to pots pans and lids, to baking.
‘So, what do I do now??’
Are you intrigued to see how a Set Menu kitchen might work in your space? The best way to see if we'd be a good fit for you is for us to have a quick chat on Zoom. It’s a chance for us to find out a bit more about you and your wants and desires for the project, and we can tell you how we work and answer any questions. And the best part is you can pick a time that's convenient for you...
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