Interview: Andrew Davies and Simeon Gabriel (in association with Hettich)

Adam Thomas is the perfect example of how someone’s own personal circumstances can have a profound effect on their professional drive and experience.

An underachiever at school but with a skill for art, in 1979 Thomas went for an interview at a kitchen showroom purely to satisfy the job-seeking requirements of signing on.

“The person in the showroom gave me a plan and asked me to draw what I thought it would look like in 3D ­— this was years before CAD of course ­— so I did what he asked and he offered me a job,” he says. “On and off I stayed with him for the next 39 years.”

That man was Richard Smithies of Design Matters, a mentor both in design but also so much more. After just 18 months working for Smithies, the back tyre of Thomas’ motorbike burst while he was going round a bend and the crash broke his back, paralysing him from the chest down.

Skills

Leaving Stoke Mandeville hospital six-months later as a wheelchair user, Smithies had turned the business upside down to accommodate him and keep his skills.

“He’s an incredible person,” Thomas says. “He knew nothing about adaptation in the way we understand it now. He started with my old-fashioned drawing board and changed it so I could work at it.

“Then he spent a lot of money on making the showroom accessible because the toilets were up five steps, I couldn’t get from the car park into the building and I couldn’t operate the front door. He had all the displays taken out and lowered to one level. More than anything he showed confidence in me and I was very loyal to him as a result.”

Thomas’ disability coupled with his innate love of design ignited an activism and passion for tackling poor and impractical thinking ­— the status quo simply didn’t work for him.

“The lack of accessibility started to annoy me more and more because, with my design brain, I could see easily that it didn’t need to be that way. My impairment does not stop me from watching a film in the cinema, what stops me are the five steps up to the cinema. So if society designs out those steps, I’m not disabled. We can put that thinking into any area of life, including the kitchen. If we understand how disabled people work, cook, and live in their home, we can design for that.

“And designing that way does not cost a penny more on the price of the kitchen. It’s just knowing what to do and what not to do and, when you understand that, you realise you can design kitchens that everyone can use.”

Lucrative

As a working kitchen designer, Thomas’ argument is that while the need to understand multi-generational and accessible design is clearly just the right thing to do in a modern society, the real frustration comes from not understanding what a hugely lucrative market it is.

In short, this industry is missing out on a massive opportunity.

“I can’t understand why much of the kitchen sector isn’t taking it seriously,” he says. “The accessible market, which is often called the Purple Pound, is huge. The spending power is nearly £300bn a year; why as a business would you not be going after that market?”

There are some that have realised the potential of this market however, Thomas has been working closely with Symphony, helping to develop its Freedom range of furniture specifically for this sector.

“They approached me to do a report on what I thought was wrong with their existing product and ways to improve it,” he says. “I went off and did this thinking ‘they’re never going to implement it’ but they have done absolutely everything. 

“And that’s not the product, it’s about marketing and training too, and to Symphony’s credit they’ve done it and now they’re really reaping the rewards.”

Thomas is the leading figure in this area for kitchens and it is this that makes him a changemaker. He is a talented and empathetic designer and communicator that understands this considerable niche better than anyone.

“It is the best feeling in the world to give people independence and self-esteem,” he says. ‘To have a client tell you they haven’t even been able to make a cup of tea or beans on toast for the last 15 years purely because of the design of their house and you change that, it’s incredible. 

“And if you can make money as well, so much the better.”