Country Kitchens - Drab to fab

Photography by Tony Potter
Styling by Carolyn Fienberg

The Swain's old kitchen may not have been the most glamorous on the block, but it had 'good bones', and these were optimised in the new design.

Story by Zoe Liddy

In its former state, the room was a vision of brownness, from the rust-coloured wallpaper and linoleum floors to the chocolate-coloured cabinetry and swathe of beige splashback tiles. On top of its unappealing colour scheme, it lacked adequate storage which meant the family had to use the benchtops and open shelving for kitchen paraphernalia, creating an overall cluttered appearance. And there was a door to the adjacent laundry in it too, making it a corridor of sorts. It wasn't without its pros though - lofty ceilings and timber-frame sash-windows gave it a lot of potential for A-Plan Kitchen's kitchen designer Sue Terley, whose expertise brought the whole thing out of the darkness and into the light.

The brief was for extra bench space, cupboards with glass doors to showcase personal treasures, and larger, deeper drawers for more storage - and something had to be done about that laundry. In the end it was decided the doorways to the laundry and to the walk-in pantry, which runs along the same wall, be bricked up and a separate entrance to the pantry be created behind the kitchen, through which there would be access to the laundry. This allowed Sue to extend the benchtop to form the last edge of a 'u' shape, which in turn made space for an extra two sets of drawers beneath it and the requested cupboards above it. A-Plan also designed the open tiered shelves that border them on one side, and together they make a stunning feature that creates added interest in the room.

Once the layout was configured, it was just a matter of refining the kitchen to suit the French-provincial flavour the homeowners were after – with some modern stainless-steel conveniences, of course – and the family employed interior designer Georgia Williams to give it some flair. "They love old houses and like to make them new, but with the feel of old-style luxury," Sue relates, going on to say that the room now matches the style of the rest of their home. They also love the layout and functionality of their new kitchen, believing it to be much easier to maintain because everything is so well organised. "The owners told me that once things are put away, the whole thing can be wiped down easily because there's no clutter," she adds. "It always looks clean and organised without them really trying."

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