Timeless Timber

This kitchen was part of an extensive renovation. Over the past 100 years, ill thought additions to the cottage closed all areas in. The clients wanted to open the house up and make it feel light and airy with open plan living. The client had no vision of what the kitchen should look like. All she knew was that she loved a minimalistic style. The house is an original fisherman’s cottage with lots of timber features that the kitchen had to blend into.

Integrating a minimalist style into a historic building was a challenge. To achieve this, a seamless white “wall” was created with the tall units, framing it with American White Oak veneer to echo the timber french doors leading to the garden. The framing concept was extended to the hob area, and a timber backdrop was introduced to the hob area, wrapping around the island to achieve a symbiosis between this area and the floor.

Using Corian on the island allowed us to have a seamless transition from the benchtop to the Corian sinks with a slight angled drainer creating a minimal sink area. A black tap was chosen to make it disappear against the black ovens when you look at the kitchen from the lounge side.

The client opted for a smaller multi-oven to be placed next to the standard oven. Her budget did not stretch to a warming drawer. To maintain a sleek appearance, I used a black back painted glass fronted drawer below the multi oven to line the ovens up. The integrated fridge was connected to a Blum Servo Drive system, eliminating the need for visible handles on the kitchen wall.

An unexpected challenge arose when the architect initially assumed that the kitchen’s ceiling could be raised to 2.7 meters. However, during the construction process, it became evident that the ceiling needed to slope gradually from the existing height to reach a maximum of 2.7 meters to enhance the open feel of the space. As a result, the design had to be adjusted at the last minute to accommodate this change.