The heroine of this story may be Alison rather than Alice. And the renovation adventure she set out on may not have been as bizarre as the one written by Lewis Carroll. But when Alison beckoned us to her home in McLaren Vale to help update her kitchen and dining area, we became curiouser and curiouser. Like many older homes, the layout just didn’t work for a modern lifestyle. In fact, it felt more like a rabbit warren. How could we make this work? At first, it seemed impossible. But, then again, as the Mad Hatter said, it is only impossible if you believe it is.

The challenge. Alison is an educator with a very important administrative role in one of Adelaide’s hospitals. To relax, she enjoys the theatre and movies and, when she’s home, she loves to bake and entertain. But baking had become more of a chore than a joy in her old kitchen, which desperately needed renovation. The challenge for us was that the space was long and narrow, making it very tricky indeed, with an adjoining room that didn’t seem to lend itself to any particular purpose. What’s more, the entrance to the kitchen impeded the dining area.

Alison’s brief was lengthy and quite specific. (We love a lady who knows what she wants.) Her first request was to open up the kitchen and make it flow into the dining area. Ideally, we could also provide a separate pantry, which could also house her appliances and de-clutter the kitchen space. Her wish-list included a central island bench to facilitate entertaining and give her a breakfast bar. But one of her main concerns was to give her dining table adequate space so no-one felt cramped. Easier said than done…

On top of that, she wanted lots of drawers for storage, more bench space, a point of difference, something a little quirky, pops of her favourite colour (red) and some timber to give it all some warmth. She even had a specific bench top surface in mind, with a slightly matt finish.

It’s just as well she bakes supreme chocolate muffins, which our Nathan became addicted to while he puzzled over the issues.

As the Cheshire Cat remarked, every adventure requires a first step. Our first step was to ignore everything that was physically in front of us and re-imagine the space contained within the outer   walls. The design that Nathan drew up as a result of that thinking would have done Lewis Carroll proud. You’d have thought he’d swallowed the pill that made you smaller. By blocking up the old kitchen doorway, he could create a direct and welcoming entry to the kitchen via a study nook that led straight through to the dining and living space. The flow was perfect, if a little unorthodox. And that unused adjoining room? The perfect walk-in pantry.

The pure white kitchen is a study in subtlety with clean, minimal lines and delightfully unobtrusive chrome handles. The white tiles have a textural quality that’s only apparent with the change of light. And Alison’s choice of the super-matt-finish Phoenix bench tops work perfectly to make fingerprints disappear.

Alison’s passion for red was reflected in the bench fronts and feature rangehood, but we tempered the power of all that surface colour by applying timber struts that bring warmth and order. These were matched by the vertical struts we used to define the study nook and screen it from the front door.

So, how did we do?

You’d better ask Alison: “The drawers and the shelves look fantastic! I am so pleased with the kitchen, which functions really well-a perfect space for entertaining. It was a true pleasure dealing with your company.  Your enthusiasm and passion for design, Ellen’s excellent communication and follow-up, and the superb workmanship of Kelvin and Andrew (and no doubt others behind the scenes) made the whole experience painless.”

So, all that’s left is for Alison to enjoy baking tarts and other delights in a white wonderland, where, as the Mad Hatter would agree, it’s always tea time.