It stocks a range by Perrin & Rowe, from £420.Īdrian Bergman, design manager at kitchen company British Standard, agrees. “It’s such a great old-fashioned gadget that we couldn’t help but introduce it to our collection of aged brass taps,” says Helen Parker, creative director at deVOL Kitchens, whose delectable cabinetry is high on many a renovator’s wish list. The pot filler – a tap with an articulated arm located on the backsplash over your cooktop enabling you to fill large pots where they will be heated – is a staple in grand kitchens across the pond and gaining momentum here, too.

While the appetite for do-it-all water taps shows no sign of abating (at Quooker, 70 per cent of orders are for its “cube” model, which dispenses H2O in hot, cold, boiling, chilled, filtered and sparkling formats), the incoming must-have is lower tech and highly nostalgic. Here, the experts share what you need in the heart of the home now. Specifically: clinical and brochure-like is out warm and eclectic is in. A sensible statement kitchen does not shout – it murmurs reassurance. The wise know that true status symbols in a kitchen are rarely flashy, but instead are quietly tasteful, useful and reliable. There may be something in this criticism, even if it comes from such an unwelcome source.

Is nothing sacred? Apparently not: having an Aga and a water-dispensing American-style fridge makes you one big Tory cliché. As Rachel Johnson revealed in this newspaper last month, the young have taken to ridiculing their parents’ kitchen styles on TikTok. A safe space in which to relax with a cup of tea and take a break from the pressures of life and the relentless scrutiny of social media. The kitchen has traditionally been a place of refuge for the middle-class parent.

Being flat chested is a status symbol