Rustic Kitchen Bath

Leigh's family had lived in this Henderson Valley house for 15 years. Inside there are tall ceilings and exposed beams, and native bush crowds every window. The kitchen and both bathrooms still dated from the 90s, and green vinyl cabinet doors clashed with everything around them. Leigh had looked at running the trades herself and decided against it. She wanted one company to design, coordinate every trade and quote the whole job. Our designer Dorothy Li started from the house itself. A very modern kitchen would have felt out of place under those beams, so matte black Laminex acrylic fronts were softened with oak-grain panels on the island and breakfast nook, picking up the timber overhead. Jin Park, our project manager, met Leigh at Tile Depot to pull together the benchtop, paint and tile samples. He steered her away from subway tiles toward a grey chevron splashback with a 3D finish that matches the flecks in the stone. The main bathroom uses three greys, one for each job: light on the walls, mid-tone on the floor and darkest in the shower. That gives the room depth without a feature wall. The second bathroom is narrow, so we kept its layout and matched it to the main bathroom with the same tiles and gun-metal tapware. Black matte acrylic and oak-grain kitchen cabinetry on BLUM soft-close, handle-free 30mm engineered stone benchtop and Art Stone chevron splashback Pull-out pantry, pull-out bins and matte black Blanco Silgranit sink Layered kitchen lighting and a re-wire by a licensed electrician Main bathroom with freestanding bath, tiled shower and 1200mm floating vanity Second bathroom matched in tile and gun-metal fittings Lakey Grey anti-slip floor tiles linking kitchen and bathrooms Dorothy Li designed the job and Jin Park managed it through the Covid supply delays, finishing just before Christmas 2021. Full case study: Contemporary Kitchen and Bathroom Renovation, Henderson Valley