White Santos kitchens created by the designer Natalia Zubizarreta

24/03/2023

The designer Natalia Zubizarreta is particularly fond of white kitchens because – aside from being timeless – they boost brightness, spaciousness and the sense of cleanliness. In this article, she shares with us the keys to consider when designing this type of kitchens, and illustrates them using a series of white Santos kitchens designed by her studio.

Natalia Zubizarreta’s keys to designing white kitchens

Natalia Zubizarreta believes it’s essential to add warmth to white kitchens, which encourages people to get together and enjoy moments in them. Her first suggestion in this regard is to go for cabinets finished in off-white, which is warmer than cool white. Likewise, she recommends combining shades of white and touches of wood or natural stone, which can be used in flooring, worktops, splashbacks or auxiliary furniture, and adding natural fibres such as baskets or plants to set them off. Lighting always plays a crucial role, as its colour temperature will determine whether the kitchen will be warm or cool to a large extent.

Another aspect that the interior designer pays particular attention to when designing white kitchens is mixing up styles, which contributes towards giving them their own personality. Thus, the combination of grooved and plain fronts, of cabinets with or without handle, or of different finishes for the worktop and splashback are some solutions that – aside from making the kitchen look even better – help to achieve a wonderful balance between classic and contemporary.

Last but not the least, Natalia emphasises that styling in general must be meticulously planned out to create rooms that tell stories and embrace its users. Here, small accessories such as paintings or photographs, furnishings such as decorative lamps, shelves, curtains and wallpaper, and auxiliary furniture all play a vital role. With regard to the latter, the designer recommended including furniture with its own personality, whether by customising it using upholstery in different fabrics, or choosing antique, classic or distressed pieces for a kitchen featuring a modern design.

White kitchen with glazed enclosure

Kitchen design: Natalia Zubizarreta
Santos dealer: Santos Estudio Getxo
Santos furniture: Innsbruck White FINE
Kitchen layout: L-shaped with island
Photography: Felipe Scheffel Bell

After the home’s complete renovation, this white kitchen with island is found very near the area that leads to the garden, enabling plenty of natural light to stream in. What’s more, it’s fully integrated into the daytime living area, which is separated by glazed doors that let users open and close it off whenever they wish. The white finish of the units makes the room look even brighter, and the touches of stone found in the worktop and splashback bring warmth, contributing towards balancing the whole.

White kitchen with island in a holiday home

Kitchen design: Natalia Zubizarreta
Santos dealer: Chiqui Sarón
Santos furniture: Silk Pearl White FINE (Base units) / Silk Pearl White Matt ÉPOCA (Wall units)
Kitchen layout: L-shaped with island
Photography: Felipe Scheffel Bell

The white kitchen in this renovated holiday home looks striking thanks to the combination of wall units with mouldings and base units without mouldings. The centre island increases the workspace and also serves as a breakfast counter for breakfast and quick meals at the same time. The predominance of white and light colours helps to achieve a pleasant sense of spaciousness.

Long, narrow, white kitchen with dining room

Kitchen design: Natalia Zubizarreta
Santos dealer: Santos Estudio Getxo
Santos furniture: White Seff FINE
Kitchen layout: Parallel
Photography: Felipe Scheffel Bell

The complete renovation of this flat transformed a few gloomy and extremely compartmentalised spaces into bright and comfortable ones, from where spectacular views of the sea can be enjoyed. This kitchen – with its long and narrow layout – did away with wall units, instead going for a combination of large drawer units and tall units laid out in parallel. This created a lighter and airier atmosphere, without losing storage and organisation capacity. The room is demarcated by a glass and lacquered aluminium enclosure with a sliding door, which lets natural light stream in from the ends of the house. At the back of the kitchen, showcasing an outstanding use of space, there’s a dining room where up to eight diners can comfortably sit together.

White kitchen open to the garden

Kitchen design: Natalia Zubizarreta
Santos dealer: Santos Estudio Getxo
Santos furniture: Innsbruck White FINE
Kitchen layout: U-shaped
Photography: Felipe Scheffel Bell

The renovation of this house has opened the house out to the garden, creating a large space where the interior merges with the exterior. The white kitchen is the heart of the home and, thanks to the U-shaped layout of the furniture, it offers multiple work and storage options in a compact and organised space. The peninsula serves as an element of visual transition between the kitchen and dining room – two rooms that are separated from the rest of the daytime living area through a discreet glass partition wall with sliding doors. This, together with the presence of large windows, brings more natural light to all the rooms, contributing towards creating a very bright and serene atmosphere.

White kitchen with eat-in area

Kitchen design: Natalia Zubizarreta
Santos dealer: Santos Estudio Getxo
Santos furniture: White Seff FINE
Kitchen layout: Single-wall
Photography: Felipe Scheffel Bell

This spectacular work brought together two flats, creating a dream home where the crown jewel is a white kitchen with an eat-in area for six diners. For the furniture, laid out along a single wall, plain base units were chosen, while the wall units feature mouldings that lend the room a very distinctive character.