Jannah Crossan from Mastercraft Kitchens Wairarapa (Carroll’s Joinery) designed this kitchen, in a new home in a new subdivision, for a young family requesting exactly this.
“During our first conversations, where they showed us lots of images of kitchens they liked, they said they wanted something that had classic looks, but with a modern twist – and be timeless, not just a fad,” she says.
The space Jannah was given to design the kitchen was in a large, open-plan living area, with no restrictions, which gave her carte blanche to design her clients’ dream kitchen.
“To keep the illusion of being a wide open space, I put all the tall elements – the fridge, the ovens, and the pantry – into one wall and built them into a bulkhead,” says the designer. “They didn’t want a full-height pantry, but instead asked for an on-bench pantry that could also store all of their small appliances, yet be can be closed-off when guests arrive – a very practical option for an open-plan area, such as this.”
The centrepiece of the kitchen is a large three-metre-wide island. Here, the designer wanted something grand and solid, yet it needed to be practical, too, so storage was built into the two panelled end pillars, accessible by concealed doors. A strongly veined granite benchtop, with tones of black and brown, adds visual interest and also ties together the hues of the timber flooring and the black highlights of the detailing and accessories.
“White is classic. It won’t date,” says Jannah. “I imagine, as time goes on and trends change, it will be fairly simple to swap out the industrial-looking pendant lights or re-tile the back wall – and that will give the kitchen a completely different look.”
Directly behind the tiled back wall, running the full width of the kitchen, is a corridor-shaped scullery that also contains the laundry. It also has direct access to the garden.
“There’s a lot of storage in this area, which is great for a growing family,” she says. “To save money, we specified for more cost-effective materials in the scullery – such as plain-fronted doors and a high-pressure laminate benchtop in a contrasting darker colour.”
The designer maintained continuity between the main kitchen and the scullery by matching the colour of the cabinetry in both areas and using the same traditional style cupboard and drawer pulls.
Jannah’s clients are very happy with their new kitchen, and have now asked her to design a contrasting, black-coloured buffet unit in the dining area in the same style. “It will be really exciting if they do go ahead, because it will finish off the space nicely,” she says.
This kitchen was proudly designed, manufactured and installed locally by Mastercraft Kitchens Wairarapa.
