The Whitehaven Estate
The Whitehaven Estate
Fabrication
Simply Joinery
Photography
Grant Stirling
Category
Residential
The Whitehaven Estate kitchen renovation used expansive and lavish elements underpinned by functional practicality.
The dark timber hues and contrasting Calacatta Gold Porcelain result in a classic and timeless design. The porcelain provides an element of luxe and warmth, wrapping around the adjoining scullery and pairing beautifully with the metallic steel finishes.
This kitchen is a balanced compromise between exceptional functionality, social space, entertainment hub and every day living. Featuring a spacious oven, double fridge and the Franke Box centre, it’s an entertainer’s dream.
From state-of-the-art food preparation centres to creative and minimally designed cabinetry and the elegant surface use for kitchen benchtops and splashbacks, the detailed design in this kitchen is amazing.
And being a renovation, the project did face some restrictions and challenges but through well-thought out product selection and design creation, this space will be valued for its practical beauty and trend-setting style.
Managed and fabricated by Simply Joinery
Managed and fabricated by Simply Joinery in the Marlborough region, we sat down with Glenn to discuss his career in kitchen joinery, the process of this project and ultimately how he sees New Zealand kitchens and their designs playing out in future.
Glen says he enjoys “kitchen joinery in particular because each project is different. Where you are working with more bespoke design there are no two things that are the same”.
As a younger generation joiner, Glen was quick to embrace the use of somewhat unconventional and more top-end products in this project to ensure the client was completely satisfied both aesthetically but also as a space to enjoy cooking and living in.
Practical and Beautiful Kitchen Benchtops
Perhaps the largest of impacts, both from an aesthetic and functional perspective in this kitchen is the surfaces. The benchtop and surfaces within a kitchen undoubtedly influence the overall mood and theme within any kitchen. From a design perspective, choosing your benchtop material first is a good option to give your design palette a base to work from.
In the Whitehaven Estate, the large porcelain benchtop and splash backs with their graceful colour tones not only moderate the dark black veneer cabinetry but characterize the kitchen with a certain opulence. The golden veined accents running through the cream white base creates the well-known monochromic palette (with the black cabinetry and a white surface base) marked with the royal gold accents.
Raw Marble Lookalike
And with a simple 20mm mitred edge, the countertop begins to truly look like a carefully finished piece of raw Calacatta stone. But its not!
The client stipulated that the benchtop had to be something durable, and functional; something that suited family living.
Although the beauty of raw marble is incontestable, its high porosity rating makes it a poor choice for a family kitchen benchtop in projects like these. With premium marbled porcelains, the surface boasts the beauty of marble but with exceptional impact and thermal stress resistance qualities as well as their completely non-porous nature. With these benefits, the client chose this gold-marbled porcelain colour to adorn the large benchtops as well as the splash back.
Seamless Benchtop and Splashback
Of particular mention, is the way the fabricators have matched the veining to continue from the benchtop and up through the splashback. This further highlights the beauty of the marble and endows the space with continuity making it easy for the eye to naturally travel throughout the space. As premium European surfaces become more available through New Zealand, the options will be endless as porcelain is not only is beautiful colours but possesses uncompromising standards when it comes to functionality.
Pair a beautiful surface with a beautiful sink
The Whitehaven Estate features a state-of-the-art Swiss food preparation centre in the island benchtop.
Curated by Archant
Throughout the project, Glenn from Simply Joinery took a hands-on and proactive approach to ensuring this bespoke kitchen was fabricated to premium standards. This meant co-ordinating with the design team, the benchtop fabricators, collaborating with the client and with the supplier.
Being a renovation project meant Glenn had to work with existing frames and cut-outs; a challenge that was cleverly overcome with exceptional design skills and by taking advantage of the premium kitchen products available in the New Zealand. It’s a real testament to Kiwi talent, both design wise and fabrication wise. And by recommending and selecting only the premium products not only ensures a satisfied client but also future-proofs himself due to the quality standards and warranties from European kitchenware.
Featured Products
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Franke Box Centre BWX 220-54/27 SBR SKU: 20.7468.SARRP Excl GST $4,071.72 -
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In stock
Marble Calacatta Gold A, Matte, 6mm SKU: 50.2445.WH -
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In stock
Marble Calacatta Gold A, Matte, 12mm SKU: 50.2446.WH -