Rachel & Blake’s Story
Rachel and Blake recently moved into the 30 year old house in the Adelaide Hills with their two daughters and dachshund, Reggie. Their house was built to make the most of the beautiful view, with large windows facing the valley. But, the kitchen design was a bit odd.
Deliverables
Kitchen and Butlers Pantry
The challenges
Like other houses from that era, the kitchen was a separate, enclosed room. The ceilings in the home were high and followed the beams and trusses of the roof. This raked ceiling angle didn’t fit well with the overhead cabinetry, giving it a square peg in a round hole feel.
They wanted a kitchen that was a space for the family and worked well with the architecture.
The solution
Create a cosy space
The first thing Rachel and Blake did, was knock down the wall adjoining the kitchen and living area. But, the high ceilings, large window and absence of a wall created one large space. Usually, people want to create more space in a kitchen. But they found they wanted to reduce it.
“It was an unusual problem to have. It was a really large space, so we wanted to bring it in a bit more,” Rachel
Fisher kitchens suggested a butlers pantry to enclose the space while still keeping it open for entertaining.
Highlight the raked ceiling
A raked ceiling follows the angles of the beams and trusses of the roof, which doesn’t sit well with the right angles of kitchen cabinetry. As they had a butlers pantry and a lot of space, they made the unusual decision to have no overhead cabinetry.
“We made sure we had plenty of storage in the pantry, cabinets and a big island bench. So there’s definitely adequate storage,” Rachel.
With the ceilings now a design feature of the kitchen, they added an oak floating shelf to accentuate it and tie it in with other oak features used in the kitchen.
Maximise cabinetry space
Even though the kitchen had a lot of cabinetry, Fisher kitchens made the most out of every possible space. The odd corner cupboard housed the hot water system, and a bin system filled a slim space to the left of the sink. Next to the oven was another narrow space, so Fisher kitchens installed a pull out spice rack.
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Turn-around
“It’s beautiful to wake up and sit at the bench overlooking the Hills of Mt Lofty out the window.
We’re really grateful to have such a beautiful space to live and cook in.”
Rachel
The luxury of using a darker colour, which most interior designers advise against in small kitchens but in a large space, dark colours can give a feeling of enclosure, bringing the space in. The navy blue also contrasted well with the white walls and light from the window.
Rachel’s vision was combining the unique architecture of the house with the Hamptons shaker style cabinetry to keep inline with the traditional theme of the home.
The Kitchen had high, sloping, raked ceilings, which became a feature design highlighted with shelves rather than cabinetry.
