People Choice Award - Kitchen of the Year

Over the weekend at this years KBDi Design Awards we have had some great success with this stunning kitchen design at our Northbridge project. Taking out People's Choice for Kitchen of the Year and NSW Medium kitchen of the Year 2017. 

Description of the House, its locale & occupants

Set in exclusive tree line suburb of Northbridge overlooking Sailors Bay this suburban Sydney home was built as part of a large development in the late 80’s. The home was truly dated and in need of some real attention.  The house was home to a family of five. Very busy professional parents, two teenage boys, and a newborn.

The Brief

The existing kitchen was placed in a narrow transition space between formal and informal living areas.  The clients questioned it’s location and asked the designer if they could assess the living room layouts and determine the best use of the spaces to create a more functional and aesthetically pleasing layout / kitchen for their family.

CLIENT REQUIREMENTS:

·      Create a functional open plan space,

·      Area for stools,

·      Hidden sink and dishwasher area,

·      Make sense of the floor plans,

·      Simplistic detail,

·      Natural warm palette with a use of Marble as a feature,

·      Integrated appliances Inc. wine fridge,

CONSTRAINTS: -

·      New space considerations (re-location)

·      Lots of appliances required

·      Small footprint with 3 entry points

Design Statement - How the requirements of the client brief were achieved & problems solved

Working through the existing spatial plans for the kitchen, dining and living rooms it was evident the kitchen was not in the right location for this family.  The designer chose to relocate the kitchen to an existing elevated space once occupied by a formal sitting room. Being elevated this room captured beautiful bay views and the entire rear yard and pool.  It also gave a clear sight to the interior spaces adjacent.

It was an obvious choice, one that would benefit the family immensely.

The new location allowed for a simple galley style kitchen.  As the room had three entry/exit points, this design allowed for a flowing accessible space with easy access onto the rear patio to BBQ, as well as onto the juliette balcony opposite for morning coffee, and also into the rooms adjacent the space.

The client had an unusual request for two sink areas; one in particular had to be completely concealed behind doors to hide washing up untidiness. Posing as a real challenge, the placement of one tall element on the left end of the kitchen served this purpose, coupled with a pocket bifold door system the operation becomes effortless and the doors unobtrusive when not in use.

To balance this tall element, an additional tall element was used to the right side to integrate fridges. These two elements together created symmetry to the design. 

With the two tall elements in place it made perfect sense to centralise the cooktop and underbench oven amid the space remaining. The benchtop depth was increased to house Blum 650mm runners to the drawers underneath. This maximised storage, as it was limited given all the appliances required.  Sleek overhead cabinets completed the elevation, all with push to open mechanisms making their opening effortless.

The remaining single bowl sink was centred on the island unit.  This enabled plenty of preparation space on either side. The island unit also houses the dishwasher and wine fridge.  The island can also cater to stools on the outer side, perfect for when the children congregate.

Finishes for this kitchen were kept minimal and natural.  Corian® in white was used for the benchtop due to its durability, ease of wear and light reflective nature. 

Honed Carrara marble slabs were used as a back panel to the island and splashback to add the natural sophisticated element.  It also complemented the schemes that ran in each of the bathrooms.  The timber veneer also added warmth to compliment the scheme and surrounding furnishings.  Black polyurethane overhead doors, backpanel and fittings were the accent.  Overall the look was just what the client requested – simple and natural.

Lighting completed the design. Gorgeous Ladies & Gentleman pendant lights were selected in brass to add sophistication to the kitchen, set in playful positions they added a touch of playfulness to the space.  Recessed LED lights are added to a new bulkhead & recessed pelmet to provide room uplighting and LEDs are used for task lighting under the overhead cabinets.

The kitchen has tied together the family’s living spaces.  The client is ecstatic with the results, and now is able to accommodate comfortably the many needs that their growing family require.

WOW Powder Room

We have mentioned it before that the Powder Room in Australia is really becoming the room where client ask and demand for it to be a little bit extra special. Let's face it bathrooms by nature a selfish and private so why not make the experience of using it especially for our loved one and friends a little more special. 

This powder room had exactly that brief, it had to WOW, our client wanted to knock the socks of the user as they entered. The use of texture and materials make the space exotic, the Marble is not real it is a man made replica that we challenge any body to pick the difference...the mirror is bronzed to match the incredible Cono tapware by Gessi. This tapware is a real highlight for Minosa at present. It appears to be a folded piece of brass! Amazing. 

Melbourne Kitchen Design - A famous view, house and client

What a mix, a incredibly commanding view, a home where one of our most iconic films was made in Mad Max and a famous Australian - Janine Allis from Boast Juice and the Shark Tank. Janine went into a major renovation of this iconic home and new that planning was key to success. Throw into the mix that the home & client was situated in Victoria and Minosa based in Sydney...the challenge was set for us to come up with a kitchen design that did not command the space rather this modern kitchen design had to sit in the space a kitchen that disappeared and could appear when needed. 

Description of the House, its local & occupants

This 70’s weatherboard home featured in one of Australia’s most unforgettable films – Mad Max.  Held by the present-day owners for the last 14 years this was to be the homes 2^nd renovation in that time. 

The family consisted of two professional well-known business professionals’ The Allis family and their five children ranging from 5 to 22 years of age.  Their relax time at this property was taken very seriously. 

The Brief

The kitchen was to be centre of the family home, as the client understood materials and wear ability well was in the hospitality industry the space needed to be well

CLIENT REQUIREMENTS:

·      Hub of home

·      Relaxed feel to overall design of space

·      Ocean views had to be the focus

·      Entertained on occasion, one big do at least once a year

·      Kitchen had to reveal itself when required

·      White palette and natural stone accents

·      Good quality large commercial style work surfaces

·      Cater to large shopping buys especially during holiday season,

·      Used for work gatherings on occasion

·      Lockable areas just in case it was holiday let

·      Good quality appliances

·      Breakfast bar sitting face to face

·      Understated pendant lights

·      No downlights

CONSTRAINTS: -

·      Initial architectural plans indicated location of kitchen and lounge away from the view

·      Harsh weather – fittings and fixtures need to hold up,

·      Clients interior colour palette,

·      One wall of full height glass,

·      Low head height in proposed area,

·      Our imagination – apparently…

Design Statement - How the requirements of the client brief were achieved & problems solved

The challenges of this space where few, a commanding view of the Southern Ocean, two walls of glass and a client that wanted something different but did not want anything “showy” it had to be understated and not take from the real hero of the space….that view!

The designers had to reconfigure the entire layout as the original design from the architect had the lounge where the kitchen is now home and vice versa. By relocating the kitchen to the western wall it solved many problems, it allowed the view to play a larger part of day-to-day life in the spaces. When sitting on the lounge you now addressed the Ocean, when in the kitchen you also stood front on, Mirror was placed behind the cooktop for obvious reasons.

The client had a real desire for everything to have a home and not be “on display” so the designer’s chose to conceal most of the day to day elements thru pocket door systems, this allows the kitchen to open depending on function. The three sections to the left of the Fridges house a small appliance cabinet which is home to the much loved Thermo mix, next to this is the bar area that serves drinks when entertaining and to the end is the breakfast cabinet. By bringing these elements out of the standard working triangle we have created an active and passive zoning to the kitchen space. The passive areas can work with out the interruption of the active area. 

A hurdle in the design process was the decreased height on the cooktop run, the plans had been approved by council and we could not raise the height of the windows so we chose to install a pop up rangehood that comes out of the raised section of the splashback. The raised step in the splashback has many functions, it houses the pop up rangehood, it acts as a shelf when cooking and it also gets the mirror further away from the cooking zone.

The Barazza cooktop was chosen, as we did not want to see the cooktop so it is sunk into the benchtop. This allowed the designer to increase the height of the benchtop as the trivets are not pushing up the elbows when cooking.

To make this cooking section look like it was always meant to be there, the designers chose to wrap this section with the Calcutta marble the client adored. This ties together the island and tall wall section.

The island unit was the last element to be designed as the function of the cooking took precedence, with this function solved it came to cleaning, a long island now could reside with the change of location, it allowed for the a informal sitting area at the end of the island unit with face to face contact. The long benchtop is also great for those larger gatherings.

The Calcutta marble was book matched and wraps around the island unit, concealing it and creating a striking feature to the space. A recessed LED section has been routered out of the stone and angled to push light across the benchtop, as one of the largest considerations when working with a view & glass is the lighting.

The rule of thumb with lighting, glass, views and night is what ever you do to the front you have to do to the back in order to see thru the glass at night, if you do not the glass will become a mirror and you will only see your reflection. With this in mind, task lighting is recessed into sections for energy efficacy but also to prevent the light directly hitting the glass.

What is created is an integrated space that allows the Southern Ocean and its ever-changing appearance to be the hero with a space, a space that opens and closes to suit the function required. Understated elegance

See the Parents Retreat design here