Julie: The philosophy behind your studio is this minimal, magical, mindful, is where those where those three meet, is that magical somehow?

Rikke: Yes, I think that's maybe magical isn't the word, but it's something where you will discover with your hands, something that will store in your mind. And I think maybe not everybody will be aware that they're thinking, oh, wood. Oh, something else. Something third. But I think it will store and it will be a nice memory.

Julie: Yes.. And maybe it will speak to some like humanity in us that we're not even aware of. You just think about these natural materials. If you chose a stone countertop and yeah, then it's  the kind of coldness of that and the warmth of the wood.

Rikke: Yes. That's what I hope and that's what I believe in. Yeah. And the minimal is of course, the whole overall look of the kitchen is still minimal. It's even with the curves and with the lines that are put into the kitchen it's still minimal. 

Julie: it's still Danish design. 

Rikke: Yes. And then of course, the mindful thing is about this, that it's all about human beings and that we work with it and we've worked cleverly with long lasting materials and also I know Kvik is working with recyclable doors or fronts. So this is minimal, magical and mindful in my opinion and the way I work with them.  

Julie: We hope so. We hope everyone thinks so.

Julie: I want to back up again to when you started thinking about the design, do you sketch on paper? How do you work? 

Rikke: Yes. I sketch on paper in the beginning and I do some research on kitchens, and I was in Milan for the furniture fair. I of course made myself a mood board with a lot of images. And also to explain my ideas to Kvik.

Yeah. And then so sketching by hand on paper and then doing some cardboard small mockups, tests. So I did actually with, you can have some foam cardboard and then I cut out lines and put in  little wooden pieces to show myself these lines and then in that test, I also did fewer lines. And then I go to do some drawings in 3D on the computer. And then sometimes I go back to drawing by hand because the rail with the handle in it had to be drawn several times. And we did several tests to make sure that you have a good grip that you can actually open the doors no matter what size your hand is.

So this is going forth and back between drawing and testing and drawing and testing in one-to-one. 

Julie: So the mood board, did it have kitchens on it or do you have something from somewhere completely different or? 

Rikke: I think the mood board didn't have real kitchens. It had more cupboards or, something from the furniture industry. I think maybe there were a few kitchens, but they were. Yeah, it's a mixture between colours as well. There were quite a lot of dark wood as we've chosen to launch as well. And there were these curved edges. But mostly from furniture, not so much from kitchens 

Julie: Does this kitchen tell a story?  Or what story would it tell if it could? 

Rikke: I think Kvik has been brave to actually work very hard on the craftsmanship and to also be brave to put these lines into the kitchen because it is a bit different to what is out there and also different to what Kvik has in its range at the moment.

So it tells the story about us wanting to put craftsmanship and really cherish and how do you say...we've made an effort. We really put effort into this kitchen, and I hope that people will see this. And the story is that hopefully, I cross my fingers, that if you put effort into it, and if you put craftsmanship into it, it's worth it.

Julie: People will see that. Instinctively, yes. Whether they say it out loud. It will instinctively come through for people. Kvik came up with the idea of the SamtaleKøkken® - The Sociable Kitchen® back in 1998. Now every kitchen is a sociable kitchen. Everyone has that. And I think people don't necessarily know that Kvik invented that term in Danish — samtalekøkken and it's in the Danish dictionary and everything. It was so revolutionary but it became this thing that everyone has. And so maybe all the kitchens will have rounded corners and beautiful lines going forward.  We want to lead the way again.

Rikke: Yes.. But what I hope is really that we will put forward about craftmanship and about the having human beings in focus, not just for the sake just making products, just because we can, but really thinking about the functionality in it and really thinking about who's gonna use this and... 

Julie: And how are they gonna use it. Are the kids are going to gather around and do their homework at that island while you're finishing dinner.?

Rikke: And so I hope this will be in focus again. This is really important actually. 

Julie: Yes, it seems like the world could use some focus on humanity at the moment. So let's do that. Yes, for sure.!

Rikke:  To me it's always magical when I see people actually use the products I've designed. It's just such a great pleasure for me to see it work in real life and not just something I thought in my mind. That's magic to me. So hopefully this will come out to a lot of people's homes and it will work the way they hoped it would work and the way I hope it will work. That will be magic to me. 

Julie:  We hope so too! A big thank you to Rikke Frost for sitting down with us to talk about setting a new standard in Danish kitchen design. 

You’ll be able to get a sneak peek at the magic of our new Align kitchen, designed by Rikke Frost, during 3DaysofDesign 2025 in Copenhagen and it will be coming to a Kvik store near you in September 2025. If you’re in Copenhagen June 18-20, be sure to stop by the Theatre Boat at Nyhavn to see Align!

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Sociable Kitchen® podcast.