A kitchen can be a purely functional space that offers all the appointments of modern invention to aid the speedy and convenient preparation of meals. But a kitchen can also be a very personal place that is a joy to be in, inspires its occupants to cook from the heart and congregate in noisily. The difference comes from capturing the personality of the owners in the design and making them very much a part of the process and the end result. Here’s a perfect example.

Suzannah and Shannon have two boys, aged nine and six, and live close to SpaceCraft Joinery in an old bungalow. As Shannon works from home, everyone needs a space to join together, as well as be themselves, and earn a living. So, when it came time to renovate, it’s not surprising that a generous extension was on the cards, providing a new kitchen, living and dining zone on the back of the house.

Unusually, however, a lot of thought went into this addition with old and new melding sympathetically. For example, revealing the stone and redbrick wall from the original part of the house as a proud feature of the new living space.

Happily, their brief for the kitchen came out of their own experiences. Suzannah and Shannon had spent a number of years in England living in old country houses, where Suzannah developed her passion for renovation and decoration. This gave her the inspiration to seek and restore period features, while adding embellishment and detail to complement their recently acquired family home in Australia. Not to mention create a place for their sizeable Wallace & Gromit collection.

As Suzannah loves to cook, the kitchen had to be big enough to entertain in and with space for all the family to muck in and cook together.

The charming provincial design Nathan came up with not only plays to all Suzannah’s nostalgia but it fits beautifully with the way she’s decorated the rest of the home. The detail is exquisite and was a true labour of love for all our team resulting in hand-carved corbels, a feature mantle with curved columns, a plate rack, and a Tuscan bench-top mould with dental detail on a plinth base with open shelving on the island ends, and finishing with a walk-in pantry.

The outer section of the cabinetry is finished in white two-pack paint while the island features a rub-through to sage green. (A sage choice, indeed.) The addition of an enormously practical second sink was in sync with their wishes to give the budding sous-chefs of the family their own space to contribute without getting under Mum’s feet.

Through the big north-facing windows, Suzannah can now keep a watchful eye on the boys playing in the pool and signal to Shannon in his backyard studio that a cuppa awaits. Here, at last, Suzannah has the kitchen-with-all-the-trimmings she always wanted, even if it doesn’t quite have all the wacky inventions of her animated heroes lining the walls.