The fun and fond memories of a favourite holiday live on with personal graphics made from the client’s own photo snaps of the Japanese Cherry Blossom tree. 

The clients purchased a small funky 1960's house that still had the original somewhat tired and cramped kitchen which lacked flow to other living areas. The kitchen’s location had great views and lots of sun, so they wanted to open the area up to the outside and rest of the house, improve the storage and function while creating a sense of fun to allow for easy living and lots of socialising!

The shared vision that resulted was to use bright colours (without being overwhelming), use simple modern styling and create a space for the family to use as a multi-purpose area. It was also important to keep within the young family’s budget, so the entire kitchen/dining area renovation cost coming in under NZD$40,000.00 was successfully achieved.

I encouraged the clients to consider using a strong personal graphic element in the kitchen design, so we settled upon using the client's own holiday image of a cherry blossom tree and blue sky background. The image was embedded and printed using hardwearing inks and scratch resistant products onto a sheet of steel. We believe this may be a first, which we found to be highly cost effective. The steel was then laminated to an MDF substrate to make the full height sliding pantry doors and splashback.

The images used create dominant focal points and extends the feeling of light and spaciousness. Light oak combined with white laminate was used for the cabinetry. The use of the blue and cherry red colour theme was further used in subtle ways at the rear of the shelving areas. The light oak finish softened the overall look of the cabinetry.

The kitchen island contains hidden storage behind soft blue coloured doors and a bench top pantry was installed behind a satin finished aluminium slatted tambour door for the everyday appliances. The bench top is a composite stone with highly reflective quartz chips and small blue toned chunks of stone - the island bench top and side slabs are purposely designed to be chunkier than the slim line bench on the rear wall.  

Chairman Mao stands atop one side of a large suspended storage unit that houses open shelving and handle-less cupboards, Tintin's bust stands atop the other matching unit which is both linked by a narrow bridge consisting of red-backed shallow open shelves and a countertop for the family computer.

The layout of the kitchen provides for good practical storage and much-improved flow to the adjacent internal living spaces and out onto the large curved deck. A new doorway was added to provide access to a small adjacent play room for the children.

With a greatly improved functional modern kitchen and fun atmosphere, the clients and designer are delighted with the result. The family will enjoy it for years to come.